# dont you just hate snail booms



## jah maan (Jan 20, 2004)

snails are always a problem...(when they tend to over populate your tank that is). they are introduced into a new tank when you buy and add new aquatic plants their jelly like eggs are found attached to leaves. once spotted it is pretty difficult to remove them with out damaging the plants.

so if you got some really bad snail problems you could remove your piranhas and place them into another thank and add in a squad of either the Microgeophagus ramirezi- ramirez's dwarf cichlids, Tetraodon nigrovirdis - the South American puffer, or the dwarf frog (shime-gaeru). these guys will only feed on snalis when they have no other food source so starve them for awhile before puting them in

but if your too lazy to remove all the piranhas, make sure that they are nice and well fed before you add them in.

there is another way of fighting snail booms is by vacuuming them when you do your weekly water change this does not get rid of them fully and they will pop up once again.

happy snail fighting..


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

might just be me, but buying fish to remove snails is a little OTT

I have seen snail infestitations before, I did not see them as a serious problem, the snails are not too hard to remove, you can use snail killer if you really want to.

I personally quite like snails, and I dont ever seem to get them, in fact once when I was tank cleaning for one of my customers they had a lot of snails in there platty tank, so I took as many as I could and I added them to my tank, I think they were all gone within 24 hours thanks to my severum, I was hoping I would have a few snails.

as for how to remove them should you not like them, well the easiest method would be to add some fish that eat them (although in my eyes kinda extrime), you couldadd some snail killer (like snail away in the UK) or you could remove them by hand.

I certainly do not suggest buying rams to add to a piranha tank








if you had to add some kind of fish you a piranha tank I think silver dollers would be one of the most likely ones to work, and they will eat snails, but again I would not reccomend,


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## BanditBrother (Nov 8, 2003)

Clown loaches do gthe job awesome!!!! But u may have to divide while doing this!!!!


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

xtreme_pingu said:


> Clown loaches do gthe job awesome!!!! But u may have to divide while doing this!!!!


 and what do you do with the loaches once the snails are gone?


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## jah maan (Jan 20, 2004)

Innes said:


> xtreme_pingu said:
> 
> 
> > Clown loaches do gthe job awesome!!!! But u may have to divide while doing this!!!!
> ...


 sell them off?

maybe if you have a buddy you could burrow theirs ? and give it back when the job is done ....









hows that


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## alexm (Aug 18, 2003)

I treat the plants BEFORE putting them in the tank. I think snail killer contains copper which isn't too good for fish so I put the plants in a bucket containing double the recommended tank strength of snail killer and leave them there over night. This should kill off the unwanted snails. I then give the plants a rinse in fresh water before planting in the tank. Not had an outbreak of snails since I started doing this and it keeps the chemicals well away from the fish!

p.s. if you want to add some fish to control the snails then clown loaches are mean snail killers!


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## jah maan (Jan 20, 2004)

oh wow i didnt know that there were such thingss as snail killer chemicals .... i im not a big fan of adding chemicals and think that the natural way is the best for solving any problems ...anyways im going to look it up sounds interesting


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## Alexraptor (Jan 30, 2003)

if u do add fish to eat snails in a P tank do NOT add Puffers.

cause if a P bits a puffer it will die


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## BoomerSub (Jun 23, 2003)

Most doradid catfish will eat snails, I had a 7" _Psuedodoras niger_ that cleaned out a heavily infested 75 in a couple weeks.

-PK


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## BanditBrother (Nov 8, 2003)

Innes said:


> xtreme_pingu said:
> 
> 
> > Clown loaches do gthe job awesome!!!! But u may have to divide while doing this!!!!
> ...


 Well i get credit at my lfs!!


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

I have Clown loaches all the time living with my P's.I never had a serious snail problem.They take care of them :nod:

Jim


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

I'd rather use community fish to get rid of snails than chemicals (especially with piranha's and other fish that are notoriously vulnerable to certain chems/metals), even if it would cost the lives of some cheap community fish.

In many cases, people use chemicals way too quick and easy, imo. - usually there's a biological alternative for a problem out there, which means less risk of overdosing, poisoning, pushing the cycle out of whack, etc...

Personally, I prefer Raphael Catfish to keep snails in check - they are very secretive themselves (so as long as they have a few good hiding places, they'll be fine), and seem to be very fond of a snail dinner. 
The ones I have kept both my piranha tanks as good as snail free for more than a year.


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## sweet lu (Oct 3, 2003)

Judazzz said:


> I'd rather use community fish to get rid of snails than chemicals (especially with piranha's and other fish that are notoriously vulnerable to certain chems/metals), even if it would cost the lives of some cheap community fish.
> 
> In many cases, people use chemicals way too quick and easy, imo. - usually there's a biological alternative for a problem out there, which means less risk of overdosing, poisoning, pushing the cycle out of whack, etc...
> 
> ...


 raple cats are the best

they take care of everything

but dont add meds to a tank that comtains scalless fish like raple cats as the meds will most likly kill them

i also like clown loaches cause they are active but i have never kept one


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