Snail shells

[CJs Aquatics]

Anyone who keeps puffers or other snail eaters have a clever way to remove unsightly leftover shells from your tank without disturbing substrate? 

[Scapexghost]

Not sure but i will say that they are slightly beneficial to the tank, unless you have rediculously hard water.

[CJs Aquatics]

Pretty hard water here in Ohio lol.  Considered repurposing them when I figure out how to remove them for other applications but currently they are super unsightly in the tank I’m most proud of

[asondhi]

You could set up a small feeding area? It wouldn't fix the problem but may help reduce it... 

They sell little glass dishes for shrimp tanks- plop it in full of snails and pull the dish and shells out when done. To reduce the number of snails that get away from the dish, you could put a slice of cucumber in it to keep them on it. 

This works great when I feed messier foods that are not consumed in entirety... I've got no experience with puffers, however, so if the fish themselves are dragging the snails away this probably won't work. 

[CJs Aquatics]

On 8/28/2022 at 11:35 PM, asondhi said:

You could set up a small feeding area? It wouldn't fix the problem but may help reduce it... 

They sell little glass dishes for shrimp tanks- plop it in full of snails and pull the dish and shells out when done. To reduce the number of snails that get away from the dish, you could put a slice of cucumber in it to keep them on it. 

This works great when I feed messier foods that are not consumed in entirety... I've got no experience with puffers, however, so if the fish themselves are dragging the snails away this probably won't work. 

This is good advice. I’ve done something similar in other tanks and it admittedly might have to be adjusted slightly because of the way this guy eats but I appreciate that bc honestly I didn’t think to try something like that with him, might make things a bit cleaner.

[Cinnebuns]

On 8/28/2022 at 4:07 PM, Scapexghost said:

Not sure but i will say that they are slightly beneficial to the tank, unless you have rediculously hard water.

I have nails and bolts coming out with my tap water. Is that considered hard?

On 8/28/2022 at 4:10 PM, CJs Aquatics said:

Pretty hard water here in Ohio lol.  Considered repurposing them when I figure out how to remove them for other applications but currently they are super unsightly in the tank I’m most proud of

This isn't the same as a pea puffer tank but in my ramshorn tanks I have a habit of cleaning out dead ones and throwing them in the garbage tbh. I do it when I'm culling. 

[CJs Aquatics]

the issue is: I have had tanks for a while and tried many different things, the one I set up for this dragon puffer was supposed to be special because he was my bucket list fish. I pretty much did everything from scratch, built a filter, a stand etc. I’m no aquascaper by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve been real pleased with the way I set it up and the puffer has been super happy. That being said, sometimes he doesn’t finish whole snails he just takes pleasure out of destroying them so my masterpiece of a tank just has uneaten piles of shells in places lol I’m trying not to disturb the substrate too much but something’s gotta give lol i carefully raked them into a pile with a fork and am now contemplating the best way to extract them. I suppose I should add, he has quite the appetite so hands in the tank, or tongs, or turkey baster, or gravel vac or literally anything he isn’t too fond of and has no problem expressing it lol 

[Cinnebuns]

On 8/29/2022 at 1:04 AM, CJs Aquatics said:

the issue is: I have had tanks for a while and tried many different things, the one I set up for this dragon puffer was supposed to be special because he was my bucket list fish. I pretty much did everything from scratch, built a filter, a stand etc. I’m no aquascaper by any stretch of the imagination but I’ve been real pleased with the way I set it up and the puffer has been super happy. That being said, sometimes he doesn’t finish whole snails he just takes pleasure out of destroying them so my masterpiece of a tank just has uneaten piles of shells in places lol I’m trying not to disturb the substrate too much but something’s gotta give lol i carefully raked them into a pile with a fork and am now contemplating the best way to extract them. I suppose I should add, he has quite the appetite so hands in the tank, or tongs, or turkey baster, or gravel vac or literally anything he isn’t too fond of and has no problem expressing it lol 

Oh that makes more sense idk why I didn't think of that. My snail tank the shells aren't destroyed so they come out in 1 piece. 

[Cinnebuns]

Ok I've literally never had a puffer or anything that eats snails so I could be completely off but I had an idea. It won't help the mess you currently have but might for the future. Would it work to have a feeding tray you feed above?  Or maybe even place the snail on?  Then the damaged shell would be easier to remove because it fell onto the tray?  I might be off but it literally just jumped into my brain. 

[CJs Aquatics]

Definitely is worth playing around with, or some sort of alternative plating ideas or feeding trays at this point, that’s what I’m leaning towards I think you guys may be on to something 

[Flumpweesel]

Fish them out with a shrimp net just trawl it gently along the surface of the substrate the sand(or whatever) should easily sake though retaining the shells inside. Shouldn't disrupt the substrate any more than vaccing does.

[Lots Of Loaches]

I agree with @Flumpweesel. I have a tank full of loaches that I feed a lot of snails to and that’s how I remove the shells. My loaches drag the snails all over the tank so trying to keep the shells on a dish doesn’t work for me. Luckily for me, my power heads and canister filter outflow cause a current that in the tank that consolidates all the empty shells in one area, making it easy for me to net them out. Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you without messing up your tank.

[CJs Aquatics]

Thank you all for the input, going to try some of the suggestions and hope one of them work, I appreciate it 

[rockfisher]

I don’t have puffers but large clown loaches. I feed them tons of snails because they love them. The difference is they don’t crush the shells. I leave the shells whole and on about half the aquarium is shells on the substrate. I leave them one they match the substrate pretty well. I also have hard water but it is very high in Mg and lower in Ca and the shells help with the Ca in the tank. I still have hard water but at least the Ca that is ther stays in the tank and any addind is not removed. They make a rake like tool that you can take the shells to the side and pick them up or push them in a container on the bottom and remove. I use it to remove trumpet snails when feel there are to many..

[Patrick_G]

I've been pondering this same issue in my Green spotted puffer tank. I'm going to try and make a siphon with some narrow tubing. In nano tanks I use airline tubing taped to a chopstick. I'm thinking something along those lines except a little bigger. 

[CJs Aquatics]

I’m so happy to hear it’s not just me lol the chopsticks idea is one I would have never thought of, I have them raked into a pile right now, next maintenance I’m gonna take some of the advice from here and try raking them into a container of some sort and see how that works for extraction