[dahcmed]

How do you control the snails population in a planted aquarium? they are becoming unsightly, though I have not seen any major damage to the plants. Right now, I just pick them whenever I do a water change.

Btw, I have a 15g with a lot of plants in them, 3 mollies w/ tons of babies, :lol: 4 male guppies, a dozen shrimp.

 

[Lupin]

Loaches and puffers won't be the answer to a 15 gallons tank.

I'd just stick to manual pick-up although sticking a lettuce will also help. Once you see lots of snails hovering on the lettuce, just pick the lettuce and throw it away along with the snails.

Pls do not use chemicals containing copper sulfate which kills invertebrates. They can kill the whole snail population but this also causes problems like ammonia fluctuations due to the number of dead snails in a small tank.

(Edited due to typographical error)

 

[crazie.eddie]

Yeah, just pick them up. You can leave a piece of lettuce overnight and remove the snails accumulated on them.

Avoid using snail killing meds. They do more harm to the fish than the snails.

You can prevent future infestations by dipping the plant in a weak bleach/water solution, but this may pose just as harmful to the plants if too much bleach is used. I like to use Potassium Permanganate, which is normally used to remove rust in well water tanks. PP does not harm the plants and can easily be nuetralized by dechlorinator.

 

[dahcmed]

Thanks. I thought before that the lettuce won't work on planted tanks. I'll use it tonight.

 

[caferacermike]

Loaches rock. Only real problem is they might do to good a job. FYI I have a 20g planted that had a problem with rams horn pond snails. 2 zebra loaches did the trick. Within 2 weeks not a visible snail left. They quickly switched over to commercial foods. I had to crush a few snails by hand to get their attention. Immediately after crushing one they attacked it. After about 10 snails they took off on their own. the only kind they don't mess with are those malaysian trumpet snails. Most fish can't smash the shells. They are good snails anyways. They are great substrate shifters,