I have snails in my fish tank and they seem to reproduce like crazy.?

Question

How do you stop them? I take them out but it seems I never get them all and always a few days later there are dozens more.

Answer 1

One of the easiest ways to get them out is with bait. Put a lettuce leaf into the tank in the evening and weight it down with some gravel. The snails will come out overnight and climb onto the leaf to eat. First thing in the morning, take out the leaf with the attached snails. Repeat as necessary.

If you've got that many snails, you may want to look at how much you feed your fish or how you're cleaning the tank. Without a food source, snails can't survive and multiply. Your fish should only be getting what they can eat in 2-3 minutes twice a day, and anything left after that time should be removed with your net. When you clean, use a gravel vacuum to remove fish wastes, dead plant leaves,etc. from the bottom.

Depending o the type of snail, size of the tank, and number and size of the fish you already have, there are snail-eating fish. Loaches will do a good job, but these can get large (other than the kuhli, which gets around 4") and should be kept in groups of 3+. Puffer fish also eat snails, but should be kept separately as most are aggressive and nip the fins of tankmates.

There are chemicals that can be used, but these can affect sensitive fish and plants as well, so only use these as a last resort.

See this for more info: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/invertebrates/snailrid.shtml

Answer 2

The snails may become an eye sore over time. Also, it will raise your Nitrates so you will have to do larger water changes or more frequent ones. Other than that, there is really no harm in snails, but it's best we know which one it is. Possibly Malaysian trumpet snails since they breed like rabbits. What type of fish do you have? I don't think that there will be any issue with the snails and your fish, neither have I heard anything like that. Can you take a photograph of some of them? Possibly the largest ones? Possibly you can find a pet store that can take them for free. Most pet stores probably won't take them because they usually have over population themselves, but if it's a popular snail, they may even be worth something. EDIT: No need to get another fish. You can actually get some Assassin Snails that will keep the population down. It seems as though they only go for larger snails. I can't suggest any fish because we don't know what fish you already have and there could be many tank incompatibilities.

Answer 3

A clown loach will eat snails like crazy. They usually grow up to 6 inches in captivity. But if you don't want to spend any money, anchor a piece of lettuce to the bottom of the tank. After a couple hours, lots of snails will be on it. Take it out and discard it. If there are more snails, repeat this until they're all gone.

~ZTM

Answer 4

If you have a smaller tank and cannot house a Clown Loach, which can be up to a foot long and needs a group, try 2 or more Yo-yo Loaches! They have the personality of Clown Loaches in a much smaller package. A pair of them cleaned out my 10 gallon tank in 3 days.

Nosoop4u

Answer 5

I know this sounds terrible but smash them on the side of the tank and your fish will love to eat them. This used to be an age old problem for me too. it seems any fate all your snails will have to get rid of them won,t be good anyway, so why not give your fish a delicacy? It won,t keep them from reprducing but it will controll to much of a good thing.

Answer 6

buy a clown loach, have it for like 2 days then return it, most of the snails should be eaten. The way they reproduce is that they lay their eggs just above the water line or next to the light, what you can do is try to find the eggs and kill them before they even hatch.

Answer 7

The snails will lay their eggs on the glass plants and any ornaments you have in the tank. Very hard to see,so you have to look hard and clean them off. They will look like a little smudge. The only other thing is remove all, clean the tank refill and leave the snails out,

Answer 8

Take you fish out and don't feed the snails. Try to turn of the lights and just leave it alone for about 7-10 days.

Answer 9

Buy some clown loach, they love snails

Answer 10

Put copper in the water. copper is toxic to inverts but not fish. so if you have crabs or shrimp it will kill them, but it wont hurt the fish at all. it might hurt some plants but it most-likely wont kill them.

If your looking for some more natural, clown loaches love snails.