How to get rid of a snail plague in a fish tank?

Question

I have a 100gals tank. I had sand before when the snails appeared. Almost killed my fish.I tored the tank apart. Used
new pea gravel instead of sand, cleaned the tank with a solution of clorox and boiled the plants and decorations.
Well the snails are back, salt did not help. It is a nightmare. I have three giant gouramis. Please help.

Answer 1

Use the Had-a-Snail to treat the water but also make sure that you're giving all air exposed parts of the tank a good daily scrubbing since that's where the eggs are. Also take out all the live plants and decorations, give them a good bleach soaking (not the live plants) and leave them out until all the snails have been gone for at least two weeks! You'll be amazed at how many dead snails will come out of your decor.

What else? Don't change the carbon in your filter whilst nuking the snails as it removes the copper from the water. Treat your live plants to a half hour bath of 1 tablespoon alum per quart of water and then keep them in another location until you *know* there are no snails on them. This means at *least* a month away from your tank! I keep mine in a bucket of water during the quarantine and the 'clock' (and alum bath) restart every time snails appear there. The plants won't be 'happy' with this treatment but they survive it.

I *really* hate the common suggestion to buy fish to eat snails!! They don't remove the source (the eggs that aren't in the water) and when snail populations disappear they almost always begin eating on their tank-mates! Copper treatments may seem to be not ecologically friendly but it's the *best* long term solution to the problem!

Don't crush the snails with your fingers. The common snails infest tanks keep a bacterium in their horns that can infect you! It sounds weird but it's true.

Now let's see how many folks thumb-down me.

Answer 2

I am going to totally go against the grain here.

1. If you choose to crush them do NOT use your hands, as someone else stated you can get a nasty bacterial infection.

2. I am a snail keeper. I have probably 1000 snails in my tank, but I do that intentionally, my kids love them.
If you want to remove them without chemicals you can. It won't be 100% but it will be managable. Add a leaf of lettuce in during the evening, then in the middle of the night go flick on the light to see it covered with snails. Removed the whole peice of food and dispose of properly... don't toss it in a lake or anything! You can put it in a ziplock in the freezer, after frozen a few days throw it away. Do this every night for a few days to get rid of most of the problem, whats remaining should not be a problem. Repeat once a week or so to keep the population down.

More importantly though, if you are having that big of a snail explosion you may be overfeeding your tank.

Also, check in your community, there may be someone with loaches who would love to take the excess snails from you when you remove them, thats what I do on occasion.

Answer 3

There are several species of fish which eat snails. Depending on how big your gouramis are, you'll need to speak with someone at a good aquarium shop to help you select a compatible type. Any of the catfish will normally eat snails, while the sucker-mouthed fish will keep the snails down by eating all the microslime that the snails feed on. This is the only way I've found of killing snails effectively, even cooking all the gravel in the oven didn't work for me.

Answer 4

There is a retail product called "Had a Snail" that will solve your problem. Go to your local fish store and ask for it by name. It costs less than $3.

If you would rather do it with fish, I have had good luck with yoyo loaches (four of them in a 29 g). They seem to be more agressive toward snails than the clown loaches. I hand pick snails out of my other tanks and drop them into the yoyo loach tank. Sometimes I toss in as many as 50-60 and a couple days later there are none. Lots of empty shells to remove, though. I siphon them out with a 3/4 inch plastic hose when I do my water changes.

A friend of mine has one giant gourami in a 500 gallon tank (in her living room!) along with many cichlids. It is about two and a half feet long. She hand feeds it bananas, peeled of course. It is a very cool fish.

Good luck!

Answer 5

i have an 80 gal tank & all i did was use a length of plastic rod and crushed the snails when they were still little. Yes, this takes a while but it dosn't upset the chemical balance of the tank or disturb yor fish.
Good luck

Answer 6

well your 3 gouramis are going to need a lake sized aquarium anyway, so maybe upgrade to that now? hehe

i'm not sure on tankmates for giant gouramis, but most loaches will eat snails, as will bosemani rainbows.

what kind of snails are you being plagued with? getting some algae eating machine catfish, like someone else said, maybe a good idea, wiping out their food source! the most voracious algae eater i've found is the otocinclus, tiny but a machine! 15 of them would clear up all the soft algae, but they don't touch the tougher green spot algae or long hair algae, snails are best for those!

also, pull out every snail you see at every given opportunity, and squish any tiny babies. scrape off any eggs you find, your gouramis will find that a tasty snack! stir up your gravel to dig out babies, and do the cucumber trick, stick a bit of blanched cucumber in, it'll lure out the snails, pull out the snail-covered cucumber, and dispose of!

Answer 7

Try feeding your gouramis less and they should eat the snail eggs and the algae on the glass which the snails feed off.If there is no algae, the snails starve, if there are no eggs, no more reproducing and handpick any snails you see so no more breeding.This is the most natural way without using chemicals.

Answer 8

I think the best thing woulb be to remove the fish to a tank they can saty in for a few days.....and without removing any water shock the current tank with hospital grade clorox....found at home depot or lowes.let the tank sit for 24 hours and then drain flush and refill. hope it helps.

Answer 9

Use copper sulfate. It will take a while to get rid of the snails regardless of the method you use. Be patient.

Answer 10

I've had good luck with adult tiger loaches & clown loaches eating baby snails, but in more community settings. The toughest fish i've had them in with were convict cichlids.

Dunno if that would be best for your situation though. The grouamis are pretty big.