how can i get rid of snails

mooncat wrote:

My male used to knock my apple snails right through the water if they got to close to his cave - it was like snail tennis if he accidentally knocked them too close to one of my other bristles and they batted it back again!

I would have loved to see that

The Assassins would probably be less likely to eat eggs while there is a good supply of Trumpets if that food source became low there may be more risk, but they will feed on flake food and algae wafers so far as I know.

Was funny, wish I had filmed it, they got quite a few rounds in before the snail finally got away!

If you decide to us chemicals, I would use Aquarisol. I made the mistake of adding new fish to a populated tank that had snails, which I was trying to get rid of too. My fish developed ich, so I treated them with aquarisol. After several days of treatment the ich was gone and then I noticed later that the snails were gone too! If you do decide to use aquarisol or some other similar chemical, make sure that your tank has extra oxygen during treatment time. Add a large air-stone or two.

Hi, I know this post is pretty old now and it's a long time since I posted anything, but just updating on my snail issue incase it's of any help to anyone/any interest.

By this summer I had HUGE numbers of malaysian trumpet snails in my tank, breeding seemingly exponentially. Also fast behind them were red ramshorns and tadpole snails.

In August I put 4 assassin snails in the tank (100 litre), and though I rarely see them - maybe one once a week, if not less, the first thing to diasppear were all the ramshorns. I was a little miffed as it was the MTSs that were my real problem.

3 months later and my MTS levels are low enough not to be a problem (far far better than the "argh, the whole floor of the tank is made up of snails!" scenario!), I saw one tadpole snail today, and that is a rarity, I find the odd ramshorn living in the bottom of the filter, but that's about it.

So assassins have done an amazing job so far, and no chemicals used. To date they haven't touched my apple or nerite snails, and hopefully they'll continue to ignore them. The bloke I bought them from says he keeps them in his breeding tanks of apple and nerites as clean ups and they never touch them.

Congratulations on solving your snail problems.

I have a few Assassins and they do go quitely about their business and all you notice is the empty trumpet shells. Also started to notice a second generation, only two upto now but it's a start.

Latest member of the Assassin crew (front left)

only thing i can say is would a snail trap work no chemicals

snap jim.and, I just found my first 2 assassin babies!

sorry, mnicholls, can't answer your question, just celebrating my new arrivals.

Can you not get assassins, or do you not want them? (sorry, I should have scrolled back in the thread before replying to get up to date.)

BTW, not sure if anyone noted this before, but clown loaches also work as well - they're excellent snail killers. Just... they *might* argue with Bristlenose catfish. Might. But usually they do well enough in a community tank.

Congratulations for the small Anentome helenas!
I love them to bits! As soon as I drop a few snails for them, they speed-up and often 5-6 clings on one poor Aplexa hypnorum.