Snails taking over!

[gal gecko]

Any puffer would be great... but some are littel boogers and terrorise other fish. figure 8's are cute little things.. full of personallity. Banjo Catfish eat Snails.... failing that send the snails on down to me my puffers love them so much- i cant even breed the little critters cos the puffers eat them all!!!

[Rachael Grace]

Originally Posted by gal gecko

Any puffer would be great... but some are littel boogers and terrorise other fish. figure 8's are cute little things.. full of personallity. Banjo Catfish eat Snails.... failing that send the snails on down to me my puffers love them so much- i cant even breed the little critters cos the puffers eat them all!!!

Ive got loads lol If you fancy a trip up here could probably let you have some Ive got three tanks and they are visable in all of them, they get to a point but then level out I am sure the clown loach and plecs are enjoying them lol I also noticed that our siamese fighter likes eating the eggs in his tank.

[Gutted2BLeaving]

What they look like, these?





Or These?


One kind I wouldn't have to many worries over, the other is a right pain in the behind. Most boitia's will eat snails, the trouble comes when you have a balanced set up and the introduction of more fish pushes it over the edge. Assassin Snails would be my preffered choice in these circumstances.

[AnythingWithAShell]

By pointed shells, i think you mean malaysian trumpet snails. They look like this

They're not too bad to have, as they rarely eat live plants, but they do aerate your substrate, which is great if you have a planted tank, cos they spend most of their time burrowing in it. They also eat leftover food, debris, poo, everything really. They are quite useful for cleaning, but do breed prolifically, and they give birth to live young, so you don't get a chance to remove any eggs!

Do you have any frozen daphnia or bloodworm? I find that within 5 minutes of me putting any of these in, they all surface to have a munch. So you could try that and simply pick out as many as you can. Or assassin snails would be the best bet I reckon, rather than fish.

I've read so many threads about people getting snail infestations, and although there are fish that eat them, since they are such prolific breeders there may still always be some in your tank. But if you're not bothered by the way they look in your tank, I'd be inclined to recommend you leave them be, for cleaning Particularly in a tank as big as yours, it'd take days to pick them out!

[Rachael Grace]

Thats a very nice looking snail havnt seen those for sale would work wonders in my planted tank.
I dont consider my snails to be a problem I quite like them tbh gives you something else to look at. Kids are fasinated by how quickly they grow.

Starting to see them in a whole different light.

[AnythingWithAShell]

You can get those snails on ebay, dirt cheap Just search for snail or trumpet snail. You get some like mine above, and some that have a sort of striped appearance. I have both, i think they're lovely but I have a thing for snails, be they land or water..

[HalcyonInverts]

hey, ive tried assasin snails on a large scale in tanks up to 1500l and no matter how many you seem to put in, they cant kill the trumpet snails faster than they can breed. also the assasins tend to just switch diet to eating left over food. better to go for one of the fish based options already suggested.

[Ron Magpie]

I have malayan burrowing snails in my clawed frog tank- they bare very useful scavengers (the frogs are MESSY eaters!). The problem with them is they have very hard shells so not much will eat them. The way I look at it is if I have a population explosion, this is an indication that I am overfeeding/not gravel cleaning enough (that removes excess babies). So even there, they have a use.

[Ron Magpie]

I have malayan burrowing snails in my clawed frog tank- they are very useful scavengers (the frogs are MESSY eaters!). The problem with them is they have very hard shells so not much will eat them. The way I look at it is if I have a population explosion, this is an indication that I am overfeeding/not gravel cleaning enough (that removes excess babies). So even there, they have a use.

[cjd99]

Don't get clown loach first off they live in colonies so you should get 4/5 upwards, and secondly they grow pretty big given the right conditions (although they are restricted by tank size, it's not really fair)