best way to get rid of pest snails?

[Dominic]

Thank you for all the tips guys! So are you saying once my cherries have multiplied, they will outcompete the snails for food, resulting in a decimation of snails? thats good cos I have just purchased 9 cherry shrimp earlier, all of which are in my holding tank for my otos. I noticed one of them being berried too 😉 Gonna do a 10% waterchange on my new tank tomorrow to hopefully get rid of nitrates, and then i'll chuck the otos and cherries in. Daaamn they're gonna have a feast 😉

If worst comes to worst i'll get some esha gastropex alistair 🙂

Also, i will probably just try making one of those snail traps just for kicks, that looks like an awesome idea! lol 😛

if you keep the water on the acidic side of neutral pH they can't form their carbonate shells...this definitely keeps the population in check

Is a low pH bad for all snails?

Does it depend more on the kH and gH?

 

[EnderUK]

poor snails 🙁 I found what I think is a brown ramshorn in my nano last night. it's staying along with all the other random inverts I have in that tank.

 

[sciencefiction]

Thank you for all the tips guys! So are you saying once my cherries have multiplied, they will outcompete the snails for food,

Yes, in a shrimp and snail only tank my shrimp outcompete the snails eventually and I barely have snails in them though I feed the shrimp daily. It will take months until you have a large enough cherry population though.
If you've got predatory fish in with the shrimp, the shrimp will be unlikely to multiply enough to compete with snails but then in that case you just shouldn't overfeed the tank and clean it of dead leaves, etc..

 

[Dominic]

poor snails 🙁 I found what I think is a brown ramshorn in my nano last night. it's staying along with all the other random inverts I have in that tank.

Haha i dont mind them until they start eating my plants! 😛 Yeah i like ramshorns, they dont seem to multiply as much as the ordinary pond snails. you seen the red ones? lovely colours.

Yes, in a shrimp and snail only tank my shrimp outcompete the snails eventually and I barely have snails in them though I feed the shrimp daily. It will take months until you have a large enough cherry population though.
If you've got predatory fish in with the shrimp, the shrimp will be unlikely to multiply enough to compete with snails but then in that case you just shouldn't overfeed the tank and clean it of dead leaves, etc..

Do the snails purely feed off the excess debris in the tank then? As long as i keep it clean they should be gone?

 

[sciencefiction]

Haha i dont mind them until they start eating my plants! 😛 Yeah i like ramshorns, they dont seem to multiply as much as the ordinary pond snails. you seen the red ones? lovely colours.


Do the snails purely feed off the excess debris in the tank then? As long as i keep it clean they should be gone?

Yes, that's what they feed on. If there's excess debris you got a snail explosion. If you clean the tank well and don't feed excessively, then eventually their population will diminish significantly. It's that simple. Also, although no critters eat poop, when fish are overfed parts of their poop is unprocessed and other critters like snails can feed on that too.
I personally like snails. I've never seen or experienced any of the ramshorns, pond snails or Malaysian trumpets eat healthy plants. Not the small versions of them. Big pond snails that are different species and big ramshorns different from the smaller red ones do eat plants, but the small versions we keep are predominantly detritus and algae eaters. They'll eat dead plants too.