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Snail Over populating my tank

5K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Aqua Jon 
#1 ·
Hi all I seriously need advice on whatelse i could do i was so excited at first to have baby's from snails but now i can't stand them anymore they are all over the place and i can't get rid of them (grrrrr). I have 1 assassin snail but nothing else. I have a 54 liter tank with 9 female endler guppies and 1 betta and 6 albino cory's I am sure this is over populated but io just want something to get rid of my snail issue. What would be a good fish that won't eat my baby endlers and betta..?
 
#4 ·
So, it's a ramshorn.

I say this every day it seems... If you have too many snails, you absolutely, positively, 100%, are overfeeding.

Snails only reproduce when there is enough food. If you feed your fish every day, you're overfeeding in my opinion. Fish don't eat every day in the wild. Give them 1 day without food.

Is every speck of food gone in 2 minutes? (not counting bottomfeeders)
If not, you're overfeeding.


There's only one animal that will eat snails that I reccomend, and that's the assassin snail. The best thing to do is bait them.

Drop some food in on a saucer or bowl right before lights out. In the morning, get the bowl'o'snails out and throw it away.
 
#7 ·
Ah the dreaded Ramshorn snails. I have had that problem myself. How I took care of the problem was a process.

First I scooped out as many as I could visually see
Second, I took out ALL the plants and decor
Third scooped out all the snails I could see again because there were hundreds hiding under the wood
fourth I started cleaning the water and gravel daily, changed my filter etc...
fifth cut down on the amount I was feeding still....

Each morning I would find a few more snails on the glass and I would scoop them out, daily
At this point I added an Assassin snail and it has been busy keeping the population down. That seemed effective because though I am sure there are still a few sneaky snails in there, nothing like what I had before.

Good luck to you. It will be a process and it isn't easy but, I think it is neccessary to get rid of them.
 
#13 ·
HM- one snail would be tough, but I have 4 tanks, all have ramshorns, and in three of them I have to look hard to even see 3 or 4 snails.
They're big adults, and I never see babies.


The 4th tank I see snails, but it's my cory tank and they haven't figured out to come get the food as soon as it drops.
 
#14 ·
If you want snails in your tank and want them to work for you too. Look for Nerite Snails. They come in many beautiful varieties. They do not reproduce in freshwater or harm plants! They are the go to snail for any aquarium IMO. And yes ramshorn are a pain and you should get rid of them as soon as you can, as everyone has explained. They reproduce asexually (cuz thats the way snails like it) and for that reason one will mean many.

Another snail to look into is the Malaysian Trumpet Snails (MTS) they will reproduce a lot, but are not destructive to a tank or plants (as far as I have heard. I have cyrpts and are doing well). I started with one or two and probably have at least a hundred. The tank is only about 8 months old, so they will explode in population.
 
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