Why would you want to get rid of them? They stir the sand bed and keep it from going anaerobic... plus consuming waste/leftover food that the fish leave behind. Never understood the aversion to snails... okay... pond snails, I can understand... but ramshorns and MTS? they are nice looking and benificial... what else do you need? ;P
oh... and if you end up scooping them instead of going the assassin/loach route, would be happy to take a handful off your hands.
Because they are an eyesore
I usually just toss them or crush them on site. I have noticed that some of my gobies mistake them for food and I don't want one swallowing a snail and possible damaging the fish.
Hey Phil -
I agree, they are unsightly. I tried most of those methods to get rid of them from one of my tanks. Clown loaches will not wipe them out. They'll eat a bunch of them, but won't get all of them and you'll just wind up with a bunch of empty snail shells in the tank and more live snails in the media and under the sand bed. MTS are livebearers. The young ones are tiny. You'll find them in your filter media when you rinse it out. I don't know if assassin snails will be effective, but you could ask around and see. I do know a substrate swap will not get rid of them either. The tiny ones are in your filter media, plants, rocks, etc. I got rid of them by dumping a cup of clorox in the tank and then starting over with new media. I'm afraid you'll either need to learn to live with them or remove the fish and nuke the tank. Sorry.
Thanks, Charlie. I rather
not add any extra fish, but if loaches will get rid of them, might as well. I am just afraid of what the others will do to the loaches and vice versa. The tank is somewhat peaceful, aside from the dominate male trophs and gobies.
I did clean some filters yesterday and noticed some in the media, but not many.
When you have a nice showtank the last thing you want are a bunch of ugly snails speckled throughout the tank.
Exactly.
I also dont see the problem with certain snails unless its a planted tank and they are consuming your plants or they are just in plague proportions. If you really want to rid them and its a fish only tank why not a dose of copper? It wont upset the bio too much and you can throw in carbon to remove it afterwards relatively quickly. You could even regularly use low doses to just keep them in check. Just make sure to keep an eye on ammonia and nitrates as they die and break down if there's a ton of em.
Sure bleach would work, but you said you haven't added anything in over a year. So what if you bleach the tank and go thru that whole ordeal of starting over and you unknowingly re-introduce them again? Not worth the risk of loosing fish or the hassle involved imo.
I see them as a plague! Granted, you can spot the larger ones in the sand, but most stay underneath, except before and after the lights go on and off and when some food get left behind. I see how this would be beneficial, but I simply don't want them in my tank.
Phil has some uber-expensive Tangs in there...Petro's, Tropheus and Gobies.
Meds of any sort, including bleaching the tank, should not even be a choice.
Yep. Def don't want to risk that. But I might add that when I fully clean the HOBs once every month/two months, I remove all content and media and I add a drop of disinfectant iodine in the filter and wash them with hot water and rinse in cold water. Been doing this for years and so far, never had a problem with any of my tanks.
Botia striata. It may take a while, but they will get rid of them.
Zebra loaches you say... hmmm.
Instead of bleaching everything, would hot water and perhaps vinegar be a better solution?
The tank inhabitants are pretty tough and solid, but I am not sure how they would react to a complete media flush and change.
The mystery still remains as how these snails got in my tank to begin with.........
