Snail infestation - HELP!

[Andrew Butler]

I can't seem to find any consistent advice for my problem.
I have a planted tank and a couple of months ago added a new plants, since then I have been gradually infested with what look like mini ramshorn snails. I think they are starting to eat at my plants which is my big worry, does anyone have any advice for me? I started picking them out but there are hundreds of them all in amongst my MC which makes this an impossible task.

I have some 'white stuff' which I don't have a decent pic of but it is appearing on the unplanted soil and glass, below is a thread I put out a few weeks ago which might help with some kind of related photos.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/strange-white-stuff-what-is-it.50666/

 

[Konsa]

Hi
The snails are probaby Planobris snail (or at least I know them under that name)
They tend to grow to max of 2-3mm.Have them loads in my tanks with no damage caused up to now along with many other snail species(some of the bigger varieties have a go on my plants when they overpopulated ).They usually feed on dead plant matter.If your plants are not in good shape is normal to see them munching on them.
First there is a lot of food for them to beed out of control like that.Algae ,bad plant health your feeding regime.
There are fish that will be happy to eat them (puffers ,loaches ...)
There are chemicals that will kill them (No planaria is good) but U may get amonia spike from the dead ones.
Regards Konsa

 

[Coys]

You need more snails . Assassins to be precise .

 

[splatteredbrainz]

Try sidimunki loaches they're supposed to stay small

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[SinkorSwim]

In this case I'd try a snail trap but as advice above, an assassin snail or 2 Will clear them up in a few weeks.

 

[zozo]

Easy carbo etc. (glut) can help, takes some time but it kills the food source (algae) encreases plant health.. Takes a few months but you definitively see the snail population decrease. That is if you do not feed to much fish / shrimp food of course. In case, it also reduces the shrimp population.. Glut kills them softly via reducing food source, and thus goes a little easier on the environment, any chemical killing instandly increases bioload with dead snails rotting away, which could again encrease algae bloom which again could make you grab a bottle of glut to kill that.

So imho, why not start with glut from the get go and kill them softly over a few months period..

 

[dan4x4]

do you have shrimp in the tank?

If not then you apparently use hydrogen peroxide, however I have not done this myself and i only read this online. hydrogen peroxide could be dangerous to shrimp aswell.

Zozo is right you can definitely use gluteraldehyde to kill them off I have done this in the past.

Could use a loach but I would avoid it if you have shrimp as online it says that loaches eat shrimp. Also reports online of assassin snails eating shrimp.

 

[Tim Harrison]

I recently had a massive snail infestation in the nano
I have a pathological dislike of the slimy critters
So, I always try to eradicate them with extreme prejudice
I use eSHa Gastropex...two treatments in as many weeks usually works
However, this time it didn't completely eradicate them
But the good news is...the population has crashed to the level where assassins will be able to mop the rest up

 

[zozo]

I find them fascinating.. Did you know that you can condition a Lymnaea? (pond snail). You can train them to recognize you as food source and come towards you and surface if you are in front of the tank.

 

[Bumblefish]

Snail polulation will initially explode and then adjust to the available food supply in the tank. Make sure there is no uneaten food or decomposing plant matter left lying around and they will slowly reduce in number.

If you dont want to wait, you can buy plastic snail traps which you will need to bait or you can place a piece of lettuce in the tank at night and remove it in the morning with hopefully many snails feeding on it.

I now always add ramshorn and Malaysian trumpet snails to my tanks. Sometimes I wait a while with adding mts if i have establishing carpet plants etc as the mts dig and can uproot small plantlets.

I think snails are a useful addition to the clean up crew and they never damage healthy/undamaged plants in my experience. They will eat algae, detritus and the mts will plough the top of the substrate. If you decide to keep them, make sure they have enough minerals in the water to build their shells with! Good luck!