jonamato Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Hi all i have been over run by these snails how do I get rid of them. Thanks cheers jon amato Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chorrylan Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 aaah the dreaded malaysian trumpet snail. I tried all sorts of things for a year during which time they built up form just a few to a writhing mass in and on the substrate. I finally decided that I had to get a bit more serious when I started finding them in the mouths of my Paraycprichromis nigripinnis feasting on the eggs. The environmentally friendly options had all failed so I tried some chemical snail killer from the LFS..... and it had no effect whatsoever. Some of the old timers around here recommended hanging a piece of copper pipe or plate in the tank for several days (remove it before the fish start dropping dead). I couldn't get hold of any suitable pieces of copper so I used a minute quantity of copper sulphate (sold in the fertilizer department of any gardening store). Two treatments a week apart appears to have totally exterminated the varmints but I would recommend some pretty serious water changing before putting fish back in (did I mention don't do this with fish in the tank). I don't know what effect copper has on the filter bacteria.... can't imagine it's good. In my case I moved a canister to the tank after this excercise so don't know if it it the filters badly or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbuna Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 g'day laurie, wouldnt it be easier (and less dangerous) to replace the substrate instead of using chemicals and risking losing fish. just a thought cheers Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Hi Guys - Laurie - What concentration of CuSO4 did you use? Jon - I controlled the population of trumpet snails very easily. Don't overfeed. Without spare food the numbers of snails will slowly fall away. While it doesnt get rid of them it keeps them at a managable number. I had this snail in most of my planted tanks without a problem (in fact I quite like a few of them). However, they are not a good animule to get in with mouthbrooders and neither are they good with canister filters (they get stuck in the impeller). Most loachs (or Chilotilapia rhoadesii) will also rid you of the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
23Skidoo Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Hi yew, are Chilotilapia rhoadesii commonly sold as rhoadesii? Or do they have a more common trade name? I have been after some snail eating cichlids for a while but not many seem to be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canerod Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 i have been told that the electric yellows are pretty keen on a feed of snails (escargot au naturale ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 I have found that G. acei, electric yellows and clown loaches eat these snails. I have them in most of my tanks and only get concerned when they start to over run the aquarium. If you put some zucchini in there at night and lift it out after 15 minutes (repeating this action) you will reduce numbers to a managable number. Replacing the substrate etc. isn't always the answer. I have also heard stories of snails re-emerging from gravel which has sat in bags for years in a shed! merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anita_ozfish Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Skidoo, they are usually just called rhoadesii but we now have the Buccochromis here too so they are also starting to get called Chilos to avoid confusion. That's about as simple as it gets. Mine polished off all the snails in their tank and now I end up having to pull snails out of other tanks to feed them with lolol. I have read that they usually crush the shells but maybe because my fish were too small and the snails too big, they just suck them out of the shell lol. Hopefully as they get to full size, I will see them do their crushing act Jon, if you do anything in your tank, be extremely careful about transferring the snails to other tanks. I have even had the tiniest things get caught in the mesh of the net and I think that's how mine got transferred around. I was also told that they can sit on a fish's body but haven't seen this for myself. I don't like the chemicals and stuff - why not build or buy yourself a snail trap? They work very well at getting rid of most of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 Clown loaches have a good go at these. They seem to be able to rip the snail clean out of the shell. Once they do that they drop it next to the shell and swim around it (strafe?) with their mouth next to it. Then they knock it back with one gulp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottyvgs Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 i wannna go out and buy a snail now to see that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonamato Posted April 4, 2004 Author Share Posted April 4, 2004 Thanks i have lots of yellows might try that , I have 38 tanks and i,m finding that they are migrating from tank to tank. I have Copper Sulfate but that will be the last resort.. cheers jon amato Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 If you drop in a batch of zucchini attached to a rock, the snails will flock to it and you can pull them out. It won't get anywhere near all of them tho. You can drop the pH so their shells lose integrity. You can introduce some CLs, chain loaches, zipper loaches or yoyo loaches and they should take care of it. Cut back on your feedings. As someone said, they only overpopulate when there is enough available feed. Any ich med should put a serious dent in their population, find something that says "do not use with invertebrates" That being said, i have then in one of my tanks and i ADORE them. I post them over australia to help other people populate their tanks. Put up offers in PLANTED forums, someone is bound to take some off your hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fixem Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 I had the same problem. Put in 1 small clown loach and either he cleaned them up in a week, OR they are bloody good at hiding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E4G13M4N Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 I found the snails just dig in when clown loaches and other snail eaters are in the tank.. Once they are sold the snails are back in full view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 I think the only way to get rid of those pesty little buggers is to throw out the tank and start again I introduced a plant into my display tank and with in weeks they where everywhere . I ended up stripping the tank and cleaned / scrubbed everything with hot water but they still returned , Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chorrylan Posted April 5, 2004 Share Posted April 5, 2004 hi, I found the clown loaches struggled to make a dent in the trumpet snail population yet they can easily control things like ramshorn snails. They're also very good at hitch hiking to other tanks *mutter* The copper sulphate was a last resort for me.. I'd been working on safer and more environmentally friendly techniques for over a year during which time the population had gradually increased and spread to a second tank though several times in the early days I thought I'd beaten 'em. I don't know of anyone that has successfully got rid of them using manual/biological/safe methods. You can definately reduce the numbers but it only takes a few survivers (one?... do they even need a partner?) to start over again. I'm reasonably sure mine arrived in a bag of black substrate that spent over 6 months in the garage so that wasn't enough to stop 'em and as they hide in the substrate and come out at night they can build up without beng detected. The cuSO4 dose I used was pretty rough.... about one of those old fashioned salt spoons (a bit less than 1/4 of a teaspoon) in about 140 litres. I was planning on increasing the dose a few days later but they'd all died (actually a few survivers appeared a week later which were wiped out with a repeat treatment). I haven't seen any signs since but that could simply mean they're hiding and waiting for their day to come around again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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