my tank is infested with snails?

Question

i recently bought a bunch of live plants for my 55 gallon tank, it is full of around 100 fancy guppy and platty fry. i noticed some snails at first when i set up the plants. didnt think much about it, we have a puffer fish i figured i could feed them to it. but now the snails are out of control is there any kind of fish that i can get to put in with fry and snails that will only eat snails? or any other remedy that will get rid of snails?

Answer 1

As for fish to eat them my choice would be a clown loach. You can also try putting a piece of lettuce in a small plastic food container and poke hole in the container just large enough for the snails. Add a little gravel from the tank to weight it down and leave it in the tank over night. In the morning revoe it, check it for fry and simply dump out aoll the snails that will be inside. Do this for several days and it will remove most of the snails. Then once a week or so will keep them under control.

I wouldn't recommend chemical treatments as those usually contain copper and would be rough on the plants.

MM

Answer 2

You may have already gotten the plants out if there, but that was what I was going to suggest first. There are probably more snails about to hatch, no telling how many. I would put all of those plants in with the puffer fish.
As far as the rest of them, that's tough! At least the ones on the plants would be out of there. If it's too much plant and snails for the puffer, put some of the plants in a bucket of water for a while.
Also, I am the person who had the baby puffer fish. They are green spotted puffers. You were wanting to know where I was when you answered my question to inquire about the fry. I am in Alabama. The babies are great! Except they need snails!! If we could work out some snails for my puffers and you could get another puffer for your snails! Good luck!
Thanks!
P.S.
I had taken some of the plants from the puffer tank and put the in another tank before I knew about the eggs. It was 2 days later and I couldn't believe it when I found more tiny little eyeballs swimming around in a completely different tank!
I got them out and put them and the plant in the baby puffer tank. You can tell they are a little smaller, but they are doing great!

Answer 3

MM has a good method using the box as a trap - if you just put lettuce into the tank by itself, the fish might try and eat it as well. I don't know how large your fry are, but livebearers are omnivores that will eat vegetation when given the opportunity. The fry might also look at a piece of loose lettuce as a hiding place, and you may unknowingly lose a few "hiders". With the box, you'll have some water to rinse the leaf and find any fry so you can return them to your tank.

Baiting lets the snails do all the work, and doesn't require you to add chemicals to your tank. Chemical treatment may kill the snails, but often involves the use of copper compounds that are stressful to fish. Also, consider that when the snails die, the bacterial decomposition will require oxygen from the tank and produce ammonia.

Answer 4

While aquarium shops sell snail control solutions, this should not be the first step you take to get rid of them. Unless you can pick them out as they fall dead from the chemical treatment, you will end up with rotting snails at the bottom of the tank, which will quickly foul the water.

Three Steps to Eradicate Snails:

Add a snail-eating fish or two, like clown loach.

Remove snails by hand or with a long pair of tweezers. Try to do this before the infestation gets out of control. Also try to remove the tiny snail eggs from the plants. If you have only a couple of plants, you can remove them and wash the snails off and replace the plants.

Baiting the snails may also work. Place a leaf of lettuce on the bottom of the tank and the snails will climb on. Remove the leaf and replace it until you've removed a good number of the snails.

The best thing to do is to combine all of the above approaches in order to gain control of the problem. If the snails remain a problem then try a chemical agent. Snails are yet another reason to quarantine plants and fish before placing them into the aquarium.

Good Luck..

Answer 5

take care if you intend to use chemicals to kill off the snails, this will leave a lot of rotting flesh at the bottom of ur tank and could raise your nitrates. i have a good number of trumpet snails in my tank and they keep it nice and clean. they also help move they gravel around and eat all the missed food and dont eat my plants. the snails always find the dead tetra that i would c in my plant garden. trumpet snails are very small and when they get big on numbers i hoover them up or just net them out.

Answer 6

Set your self up a snail breeding 'tank' could be a huge plastic bin via the window. placed slightly filter out in it and cope with it like a tank. placed some snails in and feed them some chunks of vege. Do universal water variations and so on. wait for them to reproduce, then throw the surplus ones interior the puffer tank. on no account ending grant of effective tasty snails on your puffer. you're able to have the capacity to get a handfull of breeding inventory quite much everywhere. Ian

Answer 7

The loach ideas are the best solution,chemicals will foul your water with dead snails,rotting corpses,there is a way to avoid this problem,it's an alum dip for your new plants should the occasion arise again.Sorry, but I'm not sure about the solution strength. ------------Also,to JON,get a map of Brazil,look for Manaus,then trace up the Rio ***** to the Rio Branco,brackish water???,I don't think so, but I saw a guy from Kokomo,IN net a puffer there.

Answer 8

Any of the loach will eat snails. Normally I'd say clown loach, but your fry are pretty small. I'd say try 2-4 khuli loaches. They will stick to snails, and fallen fry food.

PS- Jon there are a number of freshwater, and freshwater/brackish puffers.

Answer 9

You could add some yoyo loaches, they are snail eating machines and will get 6 inches at the very most. I would say clown loaches but they will get to big for your tank

Answer 10

first of all, you have alot of fish for that tank. 1 inch of fish per gallon. second puffers are brackish fish, they need a mix of saltwater and fresh water but you can get by with alot of aquariam salt. anyways. sails are easy, you can either get dojo loaches which eat snails, or you can get chemical solutions that will kill them as long as you have no other invertabrates in the tank. the chemicals work best and the quickest.