draining aquarium - hoping to kill off all snails

[George2]

Hi,

   I have an infestation of ramshorn snails in my aquarium and will be draining it and re-doing the aquascape. How long should I leave it dry to guarantee 100% of the snails and their eggs are dead? If there is a bit of moisture/water in the substrate, will the snails and/or their eggs still survive?


Thanks!
George

[sanny]

Hey George, I know clown loaches love eating snails. I would say in a month or so, you wont have any snails left in your aquarium. Clown loaches are also a great addition to any tank set up. Hope that helps.

[George2]

Hey George, I know clown loaches love eating snails. I would say in a month or so, you wont have any snails left in your aquarium. Clown loaches are also a great addition to any tank set up. Hope that helps.

Hi Sanny, thanks for the advice. I was thinking of doing that but my tank is only 11G and I don't want to add anymore fish to it. I figure that since I will be redoing the aquascape, it would be the perfect time to eradicate the snails.

[exv152]

How long should I leave it dry to guarantee 100% of the snails and their eggs are dead? If there is a bit of moisture/water in the substrate, will the snails and/or their eggs still survive?

I've left wet substrate in empty tanks in the past, only to find the snails survived weeks/months later. If you're looking to eradicate them, you want to fully dry out the substrate. It doesn't need too long because they can't survive long without water.

[George2]

I've left wet substrate in empty tanks in the past, only to find the snails survived weeks/months later. If you're looking to eradicate them, you want to fully dry out the substrate. It doesn't need too long because they can't survive long without water.

Thanks. That is what I was afraid of. I guess I will have to make sure my substrate is fully dry.  I learned the hard way how important a quarantine tank is.  :) It seems like any time I add new plants, I always end up with snails or limpets.  :(

[charlie]

I have used this stuff with great results, I suggest you try it before draining your tank, you may need 2 treatments, but it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex__VJbnhFY

[charlie]

I have used this stuff with great results, I suggest you try it before draining your tank, you may need 2 treatments, but it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex__VJbnhFY

I should clarify, it`s intended use is for Planaria, it also does a great job at eradicating snails.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=171293

[robt18]

Your substrate can sit for months and they can still tough it out.... Try assassin snails or buy a small loach and return it after a month or so. They're quite effective! You could also resell it on ovas, they're pretty easy to rehome.

[George2]

I should clarify, it`s intended use is for Planaria, it also does a great job at eradicating snails.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=171293

I used that on my other tank and it did an amazing job of wiping out my limpet infestation. When I first tried it, it did not work with the recommended dosage. However, once I doubled the dosage, all of my limpets were gone after a week. It completely eradicated them. Unfortunately, it also killed off my nerite snails. After months of doing water changes, the nerite snails still would die within a week.  :(    Because of this, I am afraid to use it again because I want to keep my nerite snails healthy.

[George2]

Your substrate can sit for months and they can still tough it out.... Try assassin snails or buy a small loach and return it after a month or so. They're quite effective! You could also resell it on ovas, they're pretty easy to rehome.

That's what I was afraid of.

Do stores allow you to return a fish after a month? I never thought of that. I'm not interested in keeping a loach in my aquarium permanently, but I could keep it around for a month and return it.

I wonder what would happen if I put my substrate in my freezer and froze it solid. Perhaps that would kill off the snails and their eggs...

[Shawn84]

Your best bet is go with the assassin snail or loach route. Snail egg are tuff substrate can be left outside for the winter. You will still manage not to kill off all egg. Happen to me before now I just learn to accept them and have the assassin snail kill them off here and there n squish what ever I see and find.



Shawn

[charlie]

George as a RAOK , if you are in Ottawa, I can give you 2 doses of the No Planaria to try @ no cost, Just let me know & we can arrange by PM for you to come & get it.
Errol

[sanny]

Big Al's will be happy to take in the loach when you decide to rehome it or you could post it in the classified section.

[George2]

George as a RAOK , if you are in Ottawa, I can give you 2 doses of the No Planaria to try @ no cost, Just let me know & we can arrange by PM for you to come & get it.
Errol

Thank you very much for the offer. :)  I used No Planaria a while ago to get rid of limpets in my other tank but it killed off my nerite snails as well. Even after multiple months and water changes, I was still not able to keep nerite snails for more than a week before they died. It seemed like I could not completely remove all of the No Planaria from my tank.

I really want to have healthy nerite snails in the tank with the ramshorn infestation so I would like to avoid using No Planaria.

[Pyrrolin]

Both I and a friend both ended up decimating the snail populations in a tank when we used hydrogen peroxide for fighting algae.  I think he has some hair algae.  The tank I killed snails in I was removing BGA and unfortunately the snails I had in the tank I actually wanted, they were MTS which I got from the friend who killed almost all of his MTS in one of his tanks.

Hydrogen peroxide from my experience is very nasty for shrimp.  In my earlier days I killed all of my ghost shrimp while fighting BGA

Use with caution.  It can kill snails but it can also kill other things if you aren't careful.  I have no idea what dosing levels would work but be safe

[George2]

Both I and a friend both ended up decimating the snail populations in a tank when we used hydrogen peroxide for fighting algae.  I think he has some hair algae.  The tank I killed snails in I was removing BGA and unfortunately the snails I had in the tank I actually wanted, they were MTS which I got from the friend who killed almost all of his MTS in one of his tanks.

Hydrogen peroxide from my experience is very nasty for shrimp.  In my earlier days I killed all of my ghost shrimp while fighting BGA

Use with caution.  It can kill snails but it can also kill other things if you aren't careful.  I have no idea what dosing levels would work but be safe

Thanks for the information about hydrogen peroxide.  By the way, I had BGA last year and I had a really hard time getting rid of it.  I hope I never get that one again. 

[nemo14]

Hello George 2!

I had a major outbreak of trumpet snails that reproduce like crazy and i mean a bad case of them and i tried everything to get rid of them. The only thing that worked for me was introducing the famous assassin snail man they eat every trumpet snail in the tank. You could try that if you want to eradicate them all together. And if you're thinking  why get rid of one snail just to have another snail. just to let you know that the assassin snail reproduces very slowly and they look nice too black and yellow. just a thought.

[k1ng]

I had a ridiculous explosion of snails in my 30 gallon and when the lights went off the trumpet snails would cover all sides of the tank to the point where I could barely see through. During the day they would burry themselves in the substrate. It was getting out of hand so I went to Big Al's and bought 4 skunk loaches and there are maybe 4 snails in the tank now. The only problem is that all the snail shells are empty sitting at the bottom of the tank.

Id go with loaches!

[nemo14]

I would of rather go with  loaches my self but i have African Chiclids and they are aggressive and i think the loaches would of got killed by the African Chiclids ! that's why i went with the assassin snails instead.

[JayT]

If my snail population gets out of hand (i.e.: if I start overfeeding for whatever reason) I usually put some lettuce in a large net or a small container and leave it overnight.  In the morning (or 4-6 hours later) I remove the net/container with the scores of snails.  It's an easy way to take large dents out of the population.