I didn't want any snails but now have tons of them!
Should I try to get rid of them? Are they good for anything?
I have a heated tropical fish tank... like 34 snails in the 5 gal tank...more snails on the way
Answers:
Unfortunately this is not an easy thing to combat. The good thing is that snails will ensure the tank is free of any rotting food.
I would never recommend getting livestock to eat them. Fish should be purchased out of interest of the fish keeper, not as an aquarium tool. besides, anything that can eat them will outgrow your tank.
I would never recommend killing them with poisons becaus then you have a tankload of rotting snail corpses.
The 'trap' is the best method to keep numbers under control - leave lettuce or cucumber in the tank and shut the lights. Come back in a few hours and you should see a snail party going on on the veggie - then remove the veggie and throw out the snails. Then repeat.
The only way to completely get rid of them is to take down the whole tank and give it a thorough cleaning and boiling everything, but then you'll also lose your bacteria.
If you didn't want ANY snails, why did you put 2 snails in there to begin with?
The only way I know of is to get rid of them. I have a fish tank and the snails do help keep the tank clean. Once in a while I have to toss some of them out of the tank, Unfortunately their fairly prolific breeders.
some people eat them, this BEES not recomended by me
You should invest in a loache they are great at eating snails in a tank. But with that small of a tank 5 gal best thing I would do is keep a little of the water in there now and take out the fish and wash and rinse out the gravel in salt water and that will kill all the eggs. Then put the gravel, water, and fish bak in the tank.
What I have done is used dwarf frogs, they love to eat snails, and they get on well with any peacful comunity fish. You could also buy a loach, but they get much too big for a 5 gallon tank. there are also chemical snail pesticides availible at your fish shop, but they can also harm your fish. I guess if you really want to make sure they are truely gone you can tear down your whole setup and wash everything in a 99:1 bleach solution. be sure to wash the canopy as well as snail eggs can be everywhere. remember to rinse well after.
But then again, If you don't have any live plants in your aquarium for them to harm, snails can be fun to watch as well.
Although a few snails can be beneficial, too many will over run an aquarium and compete for dissolved oxygen and add to the bio load.
There are several methods for removing (or more simply put, controlling snails)
*Addition of Botia Fish such as Skunk Botias or the larger Redtail Botia. Clown Loaches will eat snails as well, but not at the rate of Botias.
* A snail trap using a cucumber slice inside a glass sunk to the bottom of the tank. You need to check this first thing in the morning to be effective though.
*Picking out the adullts one by one will control them (however cumbersome)
*Aquarisol or similar copper treatment will kill snails. This however is my method of last resort and I prefer to control them with the above methods.
For more freshwater aquarium basics, please read this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/...
take the fish out, put them in a plastic bag with water, close the bag clean the tank out throw the snails out of the house and ull never see snails again.
In a 5 gallon tank your choices are somewhat limites as most fish known for eating snails won't do well in such a small tank. First of course you can pick out or net out as many as possible to lower the numbers and then use a snail trap. I use a small plastic food container and poke holes in it just large enough for the snails to get in. Add a piece of lettuce or cucumber and a little gravel from the tank to how it down. Place that in the tank over night and you will be shocked how many snails will be in it in the morning.
There are varisou chemical treatments also available but many are hard on plants and will prevent you from keeping things like shrimp in your tank. You can use them to kill the snails, but I would suggest only after removing as many as possible with other methods or all of the dead snails will pollute your tank.
MM
These snails are Asexual therefore you only need ONE to cause a problem and many of them start laying eggs before they are even large enough to see. IF you do not have any invertebrates in your tank such as shrimp there is an over the counter product at most fish stores that will kill them.
A quick way is to get 'had-a-snail'. Its cheap and will not harm your fish. Be carful when using it not to overdose. Or you can pull them out by hand ot set a snail trap. Good Luck!
Try to see if any pet stores will buy them. If not, then take out the fish, feed them, but don't feed the snails.
I know this sounds kinda of silly but they make a product called "had-a-snail". I had the same problem with snails taking over my tank so I tried this and it worked great. You just add a few drops to your tank and the snails disapear. It also does not harm the fish.+
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