Question about pest snails.....

amber2218

ARGH the snails lol!!! me and fiance have just had to adopt 7 fish from his brother so we had to get a bigger tank... and we ended up buying a gorgeous jewel rio yesterday (2nd hand) and the people who we got it off had a tropical set up and a big problem with the snails. Now weve got it all set up (no fish obv) but the snails are back

Question is : will they still breed in the cold water or just die off?

Thnx alot xx

fish_4_all

It would have to be really cold before the snails will suffer, sorry. They may breed a little slower but they will still breed.

Trishfish

It's really hard to get rid of them once you have them. Don't overfeed or they will really thrive.

Mr.Todd

You could always give them the old copper treatment... Of course this would eliminate any hope of inverts for the future...

:)

tophat665

While it won't solve the problem entirely, if you have the room for them a trio or quintet of Botia striata (zebra loaches) will drive your snail population (assuming that these are pond snails or ramshorns, and not Malaysian Trumpet Snails) down to the point you'll rarely see even one. Of course, if the loaches are removed, the snail population will rebound. On the plus side the loaches are some of the most engaging fish out there.

I've also heard that Banjo Catfish are snail eaters, but I have yet to prove that out.

Lupin

Problem is this method will also cause ammonia spikes and can foul the water.

Mr.Todd

Good call Lupin, I had no idea it could cause an ammonia spike... Is this just from all the dead snails?

soco1125

this is how i have almost completely eliminated pond snails with a "triple attack" of sorts:
1) i remove all of them i can when i clean the tank every week
2) i reduced the amount of food that the fish are fed (they aren't going to starve to death)
3) i introduced malaysian trumpet snails which compete with the ponds snails for food. yes, i end up with a lot of mts's, but they still produce less waste than pond snails and are more productive overall by stirring up the substrate and eating algae and dead plant matter

Lupin

No, there is a lot of sources of ammonia.
1. Dead bodies of all forms of underwater creatures.
2. Dead plants(which is why we should remove dead plant matters)
3. Wastes(they must be siphoned out of the tank)
4. Food leftovers(siphon leftovers after fish are done with their meals)

fish_4_all

The copper could kill a lot more than the snails. It can damage some plants, might harm the bacteria and other things.

You can eventually put snails back in a tank you have used copper safe in but it takes a long time. I used it one of mine about 8 months ago and I can keep some snails in there now although they do not breed at all in the tank.