I once bought 2 cleanerfish and accidentally got a snail inwith them. Now I have WAY too many snails in my 10-gallon tank. How in the world do I get rid of them all?
2007-01-31 08:18:34 · 6 answers · asked by LadyMarava 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
with such a small tank, a snail eating fish would not work for you, perhaps you can bait them by turning off the aquarium lights and weigh down a piece of lettuce to the bottom of the tank. Wait untill the snails come to feed on the lettuce and remove it. You can do this for several nights in order to reduce the population. IME Snails are great tank buddies, they clean up excess food, and algea off of the substrate & decorations, but if they are attacking your live plants then it is a good idea to reduce the population by baiting (in such a small tank). If the tank was larger (30 gal) you could get a clown loach or an upsidedown catfish to help control the snail population. If you want to completely eradicate them from your tank, there are chemicals that can be added to the tank that will kill them all, but the decaying snails in the tank will severely effect the water quality in the tank. It will also stress & perhaps even kill your fish population, so this should be a last resort. Another thing you can do is remove all of the gravel & tank decor and bake or boil them to kill all the snails, but then you run the risk of having to start the nitrogen cycle in your tank from scratch, and if you have delicate fish that require aged & well cycled tank, you will likely loose alot of your live stock doing this also...
2007-01-31 08:35:58 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I recently had that same problem, only in a 5 gallon tank. What I would do is see if the petstore will take them, though most wont unless they are a dime size, so even though I am against I would get a small snail eating loach, let it eat them all, then give him back to a petstore or put him in a larger tank. Good Luck!!!!!!!!
Also, they have chemical snail killers, though they seem too mean and cruel for my likings I have read the worked but all other fish have to be out of the tank first I believe.
What someone did while I was gone was take all of the decorations and plants, get all the snails off them and through them away in trash :(, boiled the decorations it hot water, through away all the gravel, scrubbed everything real well, and then put everything back in the tank.
2007-01-31 19:51:08 · answer #2 · answered by Dani K 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would say give back to a petstore or put in another tank it is best just not to get snails they breed like crazy
2007-01-31 16:32:55 · answer #3 · answered by Fallin4FallOutBoy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a product called had a snail you can buy it will kill them all and not hurt your fish in any way i've used it before.
2007-02-04 01:43:47 · answer #4 · answered by avid-hunter6 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
try a specie of loach, they are great looking and they devour snails
2007-01-31 20:53:04 · answer #5 · answered by Eric J 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
*squish*
Or sell them back to a pet store!
2007-01-31 16:24:25 · answer #6 · answered by A Random Ugly 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋