Snails help!

[Sharlotte Adams]

Ok so I really don’t mind snails, but the population has exploded. Best way to deal with it? Also how to treat new plants so this does not happen again? Very new to planted tanks. Thanks in advance!

[Atitagain]

Best advice =slow down on feeding, snails will only populate according to how much food is available 

funest advice =buy new tank set up for a group of pea puffers (or a lot of different puffers will work)

sorry no advice on treating plants I have pea puffers so I take every snail I can get !

[Mongo_like_fish]

I agree with @Atitagain. Also, snails imop are very beneficial to an aquarium and I look it them in much the same way as algae, in that if you've got a bunch, you need a bunch because somethings out of balance and they're helping to keep it in check. In this case it could be algae, excess fish food, dead plant matter, etc. You know...all the stuff snails love to eat.

[Sharlotte Adams]

On 11/5/2021 at 2:44 PM, Mongo_like_fish said:

I agree with @Atitagain. Also, snails imop are very beneficial to an aquarium and I look it them in much the same way as algae, in that if you've got a bunch, you need a bunch because somethings out of balance and they're helping to keep it in check. In this case it could be algae, excess fish food, dead plant matter, etc. You know...all the stuff snails love to eat.

I don’t mind them. But they are really just overwhelming the system. My poor shrimp don’t stand a chance getting to their food. I know they will naturally die off, but in the mean time so are my shrimp because they just aren’t getting enough food I don’t think. I don’t want to add more food because that will just increase their population. 

[Mongo_like_fish]

As far as immediate problem with them out competing your shrimp, you'll just have to manually remove as many as you can. They'll last through trying to starve them out way longer than your shrimp will, and anything you could put in the tank  to get rid of them would almost certainly kill the shrimp as well. If you put a piece of cucumber or veg of some sort on a fork and set it at the bottom of the tank, the snails should flock to it. Then you can just pull it out and remove them and then reset the "trap"

Also don't forget to rinse whatever veg you put in there before hand. If it gas any pesticide residue on it, that would be bad.

[Atitagain]

On 11/5/2021 at 4:05 PM, Mongo_like_fish said:

Then you can just pull it out and remove them and then reset the "trap"

This works very well.

[Schwack]

Considering the speed and agility difference between the two, I have a hard time believing snails are beating shrimp to anything. You might want to investigate other causes for your shrimp deaths. I have tanks packed with snails and shrimp, both caridina and neos. The shrimp have no trouble shoving ramshorns out of the way or just running off with their prize and leaving the snails to eat their dust.

[mynameisnobody]

For immediate results, manually remove them. You can also run to your LFS and purchase some assassin snails. I believe they should leave your shrimp alone, however the snails will be assassinated. 

[Sharlotte Adams]

On 11/5/2021 at 4:03 PM, Schwack said:

Considering the speed and agility difference between the two, I have a hard time believing snails are beating shrimp to anything. You might want to investigate other causes for your shrimp deaths. I have tanks packed with snails and shrimp, both caridina and neos. The shrimp have no trouble shoving ramshorns out of the way or just running off with their prize and leaving the snails to eat their dust.

The larger shrimp are fine, the babies are the ones having a hard. This tank has been up over a year with no issues. There are no fish in this tank, it has been a Shrimp only tank for a year, until my husband placed a few new plants from the LFS, I never get my plants from them because the plant tanks always have a ton of snails in them. I should mention that I have 30 aquariums and do extensive research before setting up a tank.m, and have been breeding Shrimp left and right for the last year with no issues. The only thing new to the tank is the snails.

[Schwack]

Even with all that in mind, I'd have a tough time blaming the snails. I've never noticed any issues between baby shrimp and snails, especially since the babies need such a small amount of food they can typically pick a few grains of detritus off as snails go to work on a wafer/stick/skewer and do OK. Do you add extra minerals to the water? Are the snails shells pocked at all? Could they be pulling too much calcium out of the water leaving the baby shrimp unable to molt properly?

[Sharlotte Adams]

On 11/5/2021 at 4:22 PM, Schwack said:

Even with all that in mind, I'd have a tough time blaming the snails. I've never noticed any issues between baby shrimp and snails, especially since the babies need such a small amount of food they can typically pick a few grains of detritus off as snails go to work on a wafer/stick/skewer and do OK. Do you add extra minerals to the water? Are the snails shells pocked at all? Could they be pulling too much calcium out of the water leaving the baby shrimp unable to molt properly?

We use a Water Conditioner made for Shrimp to ensure the correct Minerals are there to help with all of that and test water often. We have to do the same with a few of our others tanks. As far as the Calcium I can’t be sure. I pull the snails as soon as I see them and they all have hardened shells and seem to be healthy. Like I said I don’t mind snails, but this tank has been fine until this became an issue. Tested the water today and all was good, but still woke to several dead juveniles. 

[Endless3]

Moving my post to a new thread, sorry about that. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Endless3
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