Why won't they just die!

[volvodriver]

I recently bought a tank from ebay, was going to set it up as a planted tank. i've wiped it out with vinagar, half filled it with boiled water and sat it in the sun for a couple of weeks. I filled it up with water last week to test out the new heater and see how much temp fluctuation there is. That was all good, but 2 days ago, there was a snail in there, now there's 6 or so!! The only things in there are the heater (brand new), the filter (brand new) and a small bit of drift wood that was pre-soaked and i boiled several times and it also sat in the sun for a couple of weeks.

So my question is, HOW DO I GET RID OF THEM!?!?! I've got some in my current tank and i've learned to deal with it and keep the population under control, but i really want to try and prevent it becoming a problem in this tank. What have people had success with in the past at all?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Sarah]

Woah.. they are tough! Wonder how they survived.

Try this link Here. Just some useful ways on killing the pests.

Editing the link..

Edited October 29, 2010 by Sarah

[TasV]

A little copper sulphate dropped in will do the trick

A clown loach will also clean them up pretty quickly.

[delyall]

Clown loach or pakistani loaches love em

I find theyre near impossible to get rid of.. only 'control' the population.

[Yanagi]

Having owned 4 Pakistani loaches (lost during/after the velvet battle) I can safely say they will mow down any snails like me blindly marching my way to the kitchen for my first-thing-in-the-morning tea.

They've been gone about a week / week and a half now and I've still yet to see a snail. I never thought it was actually possible but I think they really did manage to get every last one! Now if only they didn't eat my ghost shrimp...

I can vouch for the usefulness of copper though, too. Next best thing if you don't like loaches or they're too big for the tank.

[volvodriver]

I've considered loaches, but i've got a larger gravel substrate and i've heard that they don't do that well with that? Also the community tank is only about 140L so apparently the loaches like a larger tank?

Maybe i'll just treat with the copper sulfate in the tank that i plan to plant out and then rinse it repeatedly to make sure it'll be ok when i put shrimp in there eventually. I just can't believe that with the only 2 used bits of the tank boiled and left to dry in the sun for several days no water coming from the infected tank and no substrate, somehow i still end up with snails! Do the snails survive the dry or something?

[zhong89]

why do you hate snails so much?

I found they're actually pretty good in the aquariums. They keep the tank bottom clean (I have bare bottoms), get the algae off the glass, eat any left over food even when it's being there for a couple of days and the fish won't touch it and most importantly they give good indicators if I'm doing something wrong.

They tend to try to get out of water if the water quality is start to drop (good indicator to do a good change of water or else I'll start to see disease in the tank). They're better than the $20 ammonia tag that I got and also they're good indicators if I'm feeding too much, they'll breed like... well snails... Right now with my current feeding I have about 10 pond snails in a two feet tank. The breeding is under control coz I don't feed much anymore.

I found they're an excellent addition to an fry tank for the above reasons.

So my advice is instead to try to kill them off, try to like them and use them for your own benefits.

[fishbites]

Takes a lot of rinsing to get rid of copper from a tank.... it can be absorbed by algae and mosses as well as plants and then released..... will soak into driftwoods and require a very complete washing of gravel to get most of it out.... and shrimps may still get sensitive to the residuals....

try a softdrink bottle with an algae wafer in it or a piece of zuchinni.... wait for it to fill up with snails and remove... reload and put it back again.... or use a steam cleaner to flush out the snails....

[volvodriver]

I have learnt to like them (mostly) in the communal tank now that the population is under control (at one stage I was putting 5-6 zucchini pieces in every couple of nights and pulling out 15 or more snails per a piece!). I just don't really want them in the planted tank because I'm already getting shrimp and algae eaters, I don't need snails to clean up as well.

[Bettarazzi]

I don't like snails either, unless they're a decorative variety. Generally I find them a nuisance. And they add to the bioload. I had one line of bettas that seemed to like taking nips at them. Some of the snails would die and then the rotting snails would foul the tank. And before I knew what was happening the whole tank crashed. Manual removal seems to be the most effective way to get rid of them. You must have Malaysian trumpet snails or something like that. They have a hard shell and can safely seal themselves up in it. Must have been in the gravel. They burrow into the gravel during that day and come out at night. I've seen traps that allow the snails to crawl in but not crawl out again. If you can get one of those you might be able to catch more of them. Or if you can be bothered stripping the tank you could consider baking the gravel in the oven to kill the snails.

[Fletch]

Clown loaches worked the best for me. Pakistani loaches did not work for me. A pair of clowns and all gone in a few weeks. Used fish trap made from coke bottle to catch them and remove. I have 3 ft, heavily planted (can't see back of tank) community tank and this worked for me. Best of luck. I hate them as well.

[jo oakley]

I have tried snail traps,

not to good,

I got a corry, an endler and a very small pep.

I spent $30 on the thing too.

The old bit of greens popped in at night and fishd out before morniing works for me.

Or when I realy what to make sure they are gone I use No-Planaria,

It is made from Betal nut.

Some people have had mixed results with it.