options for ridding my tank of snails?

**genocidex** · 08-21-2012, 01:22 AM

the planted tank i have has exploded with algae, still not sure why, but its giving the few snails that survived a short bleach/water dip loads of food. i personally HATE snails.... i dont want to introduce an assassin snail to the party cause of course i hate snails... i was thinking of a gourami, but when im ready to stock the tank the way i want, it will have to be rehomed... i would like a dojo loach school but same problem as the gourami only worst. ive been trying to trap them but since there is so much algae i get like 3 in the trap at most and they are almost covering the sides of my tank. i do plan on combating the food source with a healthy school (6 to start) of otos. and i dont want to treat the water with copper as some shrimp will be heading in there at some point. i pluck as many as i can with tweesers but its a loosing battle

is there anything i missed?

to sum it up,
no assassin snail,
gourami or dojo's would have to be rehomed later
trapping and plucking is barely helping
i plan on combating the algae with otos.
copper treatment ill be afraid of lingering copper

anything else i might be able to do? its a 55g planted tank with some drift wood and loads of plants. (plants are another reason dojos might not work)

**Grifter2099** · 09-03-2012, 01:54 PM

hi there
Clown ( the dogs of the aquarium ( loaches will clear up your snail problem
i love em .. but here in germany there are some cool looking snails .. i want some clowns and have decided not to get any snails..

**homemadepopcorn** · 09-03-2012, 02:28 PM

Clown loaches will not fit in a tank that small unless you rehome them like the other fish you mentioned.

I would get an assassin snail. It really is the best option even if you hate snails.

**Lady Hobbs** · 09-03-2012, 02:33 PM

No one can possibly hate snails as much as I do. But for some strange reason I just love my assassins. I thought my snails were about gone, too, after tearing my whole tank apart a few months ago. Been very little activity going on but darned if last night there wasn't trumpet snails all over the place again.

You could get yo-yo loaches.

**genocidex** · 09-03-2012, 03:32 PM

yoyos sound good. the tank might be falling to a community tank till it matures a lot. thanks for the input, i would have loved dojos but those get too big for my tank lol

**MuckyFish** · 09-05-2012, 05:51 AM

The effectiveness/appeal of the trap has to be increased.
I have found vegetables attract a lot of snails after the vegetable starts to get sludge, i.e. about three days. Trade off is it will reduce your water quality I suspect. I manage to get about 30 snails on left over veggies after the fish have finished with them on a few occaisions.

If those few snails are acuta physa they'll lay 75 eggs a piece and it only needs one snail to get the population exploding. So every one you remove now is going to save you more aggravation in the future.

I'd suggest you reconsider assassin snails, they can always be removed more easily later. I think I saw in Bhrino's post they can not reproduce asexually. They lay single eggs and for much of the time they are in the substrate. In short more easily controlled once the job is done. My assassins have been leaving empty shells all over the shop but I have just seen batches of acuta physa eggs all over my tank again. They will be destroyed if I can get to them.

Nature seems to be good at this balancing act thing.

**metal-otaku** · 09-05-2012, 01:08 PM

my yoyo loach love snails. i'm breeding them for my little guy. when i was buying them they never got a chance to even hit the bottom of the tank to breed. he'd swim to the top and attack them before they fell.