how to get rid or control the snail population in your tank?

[CT]

How you guys remove snails from your tank?

[shortman]

You could use puffer fish to control snail. Saw the 1inch one at P*mart today.

[PohSan]

You could use puffer fish to control snail. Saw the 1inch one at P*mart today.

Hi shortman, do we use the 1" puffer fish or those 1/2" one? Last week, I introduced one small one into the tank. The puffer dead on the second day, suspected was choked to dead ......

Sorry that I don't really see the puffer goes into action so I don't know how they eat the snail. Normally I simply crashed the shell of the snail with finger.

Regards,
Ong Poh San

[leroyfong]

i just add one dwarf puffer for my 5 ft tank and snails cleared within 3-4 days. Now no signs of any snails for last one month plus alrdy. Don't underestimate what it can do with its small size.

[CT]

does puffer fish attack other fishes?

[cbong]

Dwarf puffers would do the job well. Tested several times with my 1.5', 2' and 4' tanks. They are actually very pretty critters with blue/greenish eyes. However, once the snails were gone, they started to nib the tails of my White Cloud Mountains and Pencils. Was told that the next source of food is blood worms.

[Roadrage]

[quote:b0010c402f="CT"]does puffer fish attack other fishes?[/quote:b0010c402f]

Puffer is the most efficient against snail and they actually crush the snail shell and suck out the flesh so please don't underestimate the small guy. If you are not keen on the Dwarf puffer then you can also try sparkling gourami, I am not very sure of it snail eating ability but was told by a senior that they will do the job. Its experimental

[Kingfisher]

My puffer fish don't crush the snail's shell but instead aim for the head and bite it off.

[CT]

oic! anyone of you heard of the cumumber method? what is it? heard that by putting in the cumumber can removed snails?

[blurrblurr]

is actually place an cucumber to attract the snail in your tank.
leave it overnight and by next morning U can see snail all over the cucumber

[CT]

oh is it? do I need to do anything to the cumumber? last time I tried, the whole piece of cumumber is being eaten up by my yamato shrimp!! never attract snail but attach a lot of shrimp to the cumumber

[blurrblurr]

use a small dish to cover and leave a small hole for the snail to crawl in

[cheeboonyong]

my friend tried to keep puffers with corys. The puffers went after the eyes of the corys and basically made them blind. quite a gross sight (pardon the pun)

[plantmania]

I use clown loaches. They love snails.... even managed to keep trumpet snails to a low level of about a hundred or so. Oh I still need my trumpet snails as gravel/soil turner aka "live" gravel.

[Fei Miao]

I use this sneaky method nowadays

....after lights off in the evening, wait for about 1 to 2 hours for the budders to come out, get a pail and tube(small one:abt 15mm diameter) ready, on the lights and siphon them off into the pail while they are out in the open. You can crush them and use for fish food if you don't want to flush them down the toilet

[kc]

[quote:f05dfb612d="Fei Miao"]I use this sneaky method nowadays

....after lights off in the evening, wait for about 1 to 2 hours .... the open. You can crush them and use for fish food if you don't want to flush them down the toilet [/quote:f05dfb612d]

I've been doing that for sometime. I meant using blackout to get them out in the open. Your suggestion of using the snails as fish food reminds me of the days when a type of sea shell with chilli added was popular.

Chilli Trumpet snails, anyone?

[t3r]

Can try pencil fish..it worked for me the last time i encountered snails in my tank.

[hwchoy]

clown loach works, but it might not go with the decor. another loach to use is the horse-face loach. works well and likes to hide so it will not intrude on the decor

Horseface Loach Acantopsis choirorhynchos

[cheeboonyong]

[quote:943095f154="t3r"]Can try pencil fish..it worked for me the last time i encountered snails in my tank.[/quote:943095f154]

which type of pencils?

my beckfordis (pardon wrong spelling) doesn't eat snails

[juggler]

I still use common ghost shrimps for snail control. They can catch some snails to eat when hungry. And they also scavenge the substrate level to remove excess fish food, thereby reducing food for the snails, and keeping the population under control.

Be warned that some bigger ghost shrimps can ambush un-suspecting small fish. So better to start off with smaller ghost shrimps. Usually this don't seem to be a problem as the fish swim away faster mostly.

Actually snails are good algae eaters. They can munch on algae in tight places where algae eating fish can't reach. They eat the dead and dying dead leaves and contribute to the mulm needed by the plants. So it's a good thing the ghost shrimps don't wipe them all out.