How do I get rid of the tiny snails came with the plant?

Question

I bought 2 potted plants for my 30 gallon aquarium. Within a week, the tank was filled with tiny snails. I don't want them but I can't get rid of them. I removed everthing from the tank (except the fish - 10 danios and 1 male beta fish) to prevent the snails from breeding. That didn't work, their eggs stick to the sides of the glass. I plucked the snails out 1 by 1. For several days, we were snail-free. I put the plants back in, and guess what?! More snails. This time I tossed the plants and the snails died within a couple of days. But they had already laid more eggs, so here we go again. How can I get rid of them for good? I have resigned myself to the fact that I will only have plastic plants from now on.

Answer 1

You have snails, and snails are tough to get rid of. It's nearly impossible to get rid of all of them, so it's best to just try to live with them and control their numbers.

1- Squishing them / manual removal. Every time I walk by my tank, if I see a snail, I squish it. The fish move to eat it. At first I was squising 10+ snails a day but now it's more like 1-2 per week. I don't see too many anymore.

2- Trapping. Take a small plastic case like a camera film case, poke some holes in it big enough for the snails, put some lettuce and a rock in there, and let it sink to the bottom of the tank. Or, more simply, take a piece of zucchini, stick a stainless steel spoon through, and let it sink. The next morning you can simply remove the item which will be full of / covered with snails.

3- Food chain. There are some community fish out there that will happily eat snails, such as loaches and goldfish. In your size tank, a group of 3-4 Yoyo loaches would be perfect.

4- Starvation. Snails mostly eat the excess fishfood and fish waste that falls to the floor. If you are very careful not to overfeed (only feed what the fish can eat in 30 seconds, twice a day), you will cut back on the numbers of snails that your tank can support.

5- Complete teardown. I don't recommend this because it's time consuming, stressful for the fish, and not guaranteed to work. But if you desperately want to get rid of them: Empty some tank water into a casserole or fish bucket, and put your fish in there. Remove tank decor and soak them in hot water to rinse of snails and snail eggs.
Remove most of the water in the tank. Save whatever you can in buckets / pots. Dump a whole lot of aquarium salt into the remaining inch or two of water. With an aquarium sponge, wipe down all the tank sides to remove any eggs or snails on the side, and let it sit for about an hour or two to kill the snails. Then suck up as much of the salted water as you can and dump it. Fill the tank back up with the water you saved and some new water, put the fish back in, and hope you killed them all.

In the future, when you get live plants, rinse them first and wipe down the leaves with your fingers.

Answer 2

There is a product which is called "Had-A-Snail" which is a dilute solution of copper sulfate. Copper is very toxic to invertebrates but not fish. So, snails but also any worms or shrimp or anything else like that will die quickly. It is cheap and most aquarium stores should have it.
In terms of preventing them from coming in in the future - when you bring home plants from the store, soak them for 5 min in very salty water. Any snails that may be on board or eggs will die. Rinse the plants well with fresh water and then put them in your tank!

Answer 3

You will have a very difficult time getting rid of them; I've yet to meet anyone who has been successful in that endeavor without throwing away everything in the tank. You can control their population, though.

Do you know what type of snails these are? If they have cornucopia-shaped shells, they are probably trumpet snails, and they are very good for your tank and are a sign that your aquarium is healthy.

If they aren't trumpet snails, you may be able to introduce snail-eating fish to your tank (such as loaches). You can also bait the snails with cucumber; once several have congregated on a cucumber slice, you can throw it away. These methods won't get rid of them altogether, but they'll help.

In the future, thoroughly clean potted plants by soaking them in a Potassium permanganate bath or a commercial snail killer solution before adding the plants to your tank.

Answer 4

I have had the exact problem..except mine went beserk, and got to the stage I was looking after hundreds of snails instead of a few fish. Finally I ripped my tank apart and started again with plastic plants. But, now I want to add reall plants. I have been told that first you should wash the tplants before putting them in the tank. I also read a way to kill snails is to bath the plants in potassium permanganate for 15 mins, before putting them in the tank. Oh, and you can also get snail killing solutions, but if they are already infested in your tank, the dead bodies could acidfy the water, but earlier on, the solution is good.

Answer 5

It's not necessary to add harsh chemicals to your tank.

Snails only breed like crazy when the conditions are good for it. That many snails in your tank means you are overfeeding. Stop feeding for a couple of days entirely -- your fish will be fine -- and then feed only as much as the fish will eat in one minute. There shouldn't be food still floating around after one minute. This will take care of the overpopulation of snails. Having just a few in there won't hurt anything, and again, they won't breed like crazy if there isn't enough waste food to feed so many.

If you want to control the population further, there are fish species that eat snails, like loaches. Ask at your LFS, but be careful of the maximum adult size of the fish you're interested in. Lots of loach varieties will grow way too big for a 30G tank. Avoid clown loaches; they get HUGE. Try asking maybe about zebra or yoyo loaches.

Answer 6

I have gotten rid of them but it takes time, lots of time, first smush them with your fingers. and put them back in the tank. see if any of the fish eat the smushing. My fish loved them like candy. eventfully the tank got calcium deficient and the snail shells got thin enough so the fish could harvest the sails on their own. Look at them as free fish food. adding aquarium salt to your tank also seems to slow down the reproduction. Keep your eyes open for the eggs. scrap them off as soon as you see them and then watch to see if your fish eat them, if they do keep training them in this way and soon they will be cleaning the sail eggs off them selves.

Whenever you buy fish or plants take a look at the tank they are coming from more then you look at the item you are buying. Ask yourself if the tank is healthy, is the color of the water good, are snails present? Are there fish that are swimming upside down or sideways in the tank? Never buy or take anything from a sick tank or soon your tank will be sick.

Answer 7

The easiest way to get rid of them is to get some fish that eat them such as clown and kuhli loaches.

Alternatively you can use treatments such as chelated copper, but beware this can be damaging to both your fish and plants.

Answer 8

I thought snails were good for your fish tank

Answer 9

Try this stuff it worked for me--http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=6649&Ntt=hadasnail&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1

Answer 10

Take the fish out of the aquarium and use bleach to clean it. Rinse it out really well and let it dry thoroughly. That should take care of them. But I do mean to rinse and rinse and rinse so you don't cause the fish to get sick!