how do i eradicate snails from my angelfish tank?

Question

destroying adult snails does no good.it,s an uphill battle and i,m loosing do they hide in the rocks and gravel

Answer 1

The easiest way is to get fish that eat snails. I find that the best fish are clown loaches, followed closely by kuhli loaches.

Both will be fine with your angel fish. Clowns will get larger than kuhli's, but grow very slowly.

Answer 2

I just went through this ordeal myself. I haven't a clue how I got them in the first place other than one hitched a ride home with a fish I bought. Anyway..... I couldn't get rid of them. You could first try floating a piece of lettuce on the water to remove them, and snail rid. I found out there is also a fish I believe it's called the clown loach that likes to eat snails. I ended up cleaning out my entire tank and treating it with salt to get rid of the little buggers. And I mean the entire tank. Everything was treated with salt, and some stuff was completely replaced. It was alot of work, but I am very happy now. Tank looks great, changed it up a little and I'm rid of the snails!! whoo hoo.....

Good luck

Answer 3

First I would suggest removing all that you can by hand. Then leave some type of food (such as a lettuce leaf) on the bottom of the tank after lights out for the night. The next morning many of the snails will have found the food and can easily be removed. Do this several nights in a row to remove most of the snails. Then on to the next step...

Assuming you have no scaleless catfish or plants, treat the tank with copper. You can get copper treatments for snail removal or for parasite removal at most pet shops. If you can't find any in your area, order some. Copper is a very effective snailacide and will clear up the problem in very short order. The copper shoudl kill all of the snails and at least most if not all of the eggs. If you see any snails return, treat again right away before they lay any more eggs.

If you have scaleless fish, remove them to another tank while you treat and be sure to do a very heavy water change to remove the copper before you put them back in the tank. Plants should also be removed and treated with alum to kill any snail eggs 1-2 tbls per gallon of water will kill any eggs within an hour. Then rinse the plants and put them in clean declorinated water. Manually remove any snails on the plants. The water change applies for plants as well.

You do need to remove as many as possible first though as the dead snails will rot very quickly and many of them rotting at once would cause a big ammonia spike in the tank.

Answer 4

If these snails are really hiding in your gravel, it sounds as if you might have Malaysian trumpet snails (see photo/article: http://centralpets.com/phpscripts/PrintFriendly.php?AnimalNumber=4996). These are small (usually ~ 1/2 inch, but can get to 1"), nocturnal snails and eat detritus from the bottom of the tank (rather than your plants). These are a desirable species (for some at least!). I know that since I introduced them to my nocturnal catfish tank (Plecostomus & Mystis cats) the gravel surface has stayed cleaner than it ever appeared before I got them. So you might want to reconsider getting rid of them.

If you still want them gone, use any product with copper sulfate (you need to remove all plants & scaleless fish), or take all fish and plants out and use hot water (may have to do this several times) or some bleach in the tank to kill them. Either of these last two will also destroy any beneficial bacteria in your tank as well, so you'll have to cycle it again. You could try removing some gravel from your tank as a bacterial "starter" but you'd have to pick it over carefully to make sure there weren't any snails in it.

ADDITION: I see some folks are recommending clown loaches - be advised, these fish will get large! If you only get one, they may harass your angels. I've had people buy one, then bring them back to the store because they're killing other fish in the tank. Also, they're prone to ich: http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/freshwater/loaches/clownloach.html

Also see: http://www.geocities.com/ptimlin/snail_faq.html

Answer 5

hi you are not going to like this answer but here goes..you have to take eeything out of the tank. all the plants ornaments rocks etc.the plants need washing..roots and all. the gravel and filter systems need washing out..the inside upper rim of the tank needs scrubbing.These things are a total nuisance but they reproduce by the thousands.Usually they come with plants that you might by or you may have got 1 or two or some eggs in the water when you last brought home a fish from somewhere.

Answer 6

Stop overfeeding. Snails need a lot of food to survive. Clip a piece of lettuce in the tank and they might flock to it overnight, it will be easier to pick them out.

Answer 7

there is stuff at the petstore called snail rid or something like that -- or borrow a clown loach.

Answer 8

try getting a clown loach(or 2 or 3---they don't do well alone).