# How to kill snails in Java Moss?



## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

Unless the snails are damaging the plants , which is rare, I would just leave them to help you out. They are actually beneficial to have... they are a food source for fish, they are scavengers cleaning out the debris and they can be easily controlled weekly with the fingers... roud: 
Trying to "disinfect" the snails out of the tank is more harmful to the tanks balance then the snails are. I do not put anything in my tank's unless its a last resort. Disease needs disinfecting and snails are not a disease. 
I look at it this way... each week I have to do a water change so each week I pull a couple snails while I am there, I walk past my tank all the time, if while I am walking past it I see a bigger snail... I grab it. 

So in answer to your question..._would you fert before or after disinfecting?_
I would start up your fert dosing and enjoy plucking the snails roud:


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## Thanks (Oct 9, 2004)

its especially fun if you have a mag float :tongue: 
just line 'em up, attract the magnet and... splat.

snails really arent a problem, unless you dont like them. Get a few loaches and dont feed them for a few days; that should take care of your snail population. Also, they sometimes get into the filter, so check there too.


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## Nolan W. (Feb 9, 2005)

Thanks said:


> its especially fun if you have a mag float :tongue:
> just line 'em up, attract the magnet and... splat.


LOL!

Sarve, what kind of snails do you have? I have small ramshorn snails, and they don't seem to do damage to my plants. I've seen them eat fish waste and dead fish. Imo, they're beneficial to have in a planted tank.


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## sarve (Feb 28, 2005)

:fish: I think my tank might just be a little too small for to support tanks and loaches--it's only a 20 gal and I already have 9 fish in there (3 adult platys, 5 platy fry and an Oto.) I was going to keep the snails in there since they do such a bang-up job on algae & scavenging, but I've hand picked 75 snails so far and the bioload is much too much for such a small tank. I end up vacuuming out 6-8 gal of *black* water every week and my plants are getting very chewed up. I told myself that I wouldn't do anything with the snails unless they started having a negative effect on my fish and that time has finally come, the fish end up scratching just before a water change and clear up right after one. It's been a tough decision--snails are *so* interesting with how they can modulate the air in their shells to literally hover in water or how they can "walk" on the surface tension of water, but I think I probably have more waste coming from the snails right now than I do the fish. Plus, feeding my little Oto, Nila, has become harder because now she has to compete with both the platys *and* the snails for algae tabs.

But maybe I'm misguided (it wouldn't be the first time :tongue: )-- is it possible that the plants are causing all the black, mulmy water?

I'm thinking that, bare minimum, I'm going to break down my tank, rinse the gravel in a very weak bleach solution (rinse well), dip most of the plants (SE. bolivianus, Ambulia, Hygrophilia polysperms, Rotatalla indica, Aponogentons, Dwarf Lilys) in alum and maybe, if I can find some, rinse the Java in Lime-it (I tried dipping Java in alum before and it never recovered, that's why I'm looking for an alternative solution.)

That's why I was hoping to find someone who'd successfully dipped Java before. :help: 

BTW--I love this smiley :iamwithst --if my fish could use it, I think they lovingly would!


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## jhoetzl (Feb 7, 2005)

"Yummy snails", said the dwarf puffer (but not in my community tank...if I see them in the community tank, the loaches usually get to them first, but if not, I baster them out and they go in my little dp tank...much more fun watching them stalk one that watching them eat worms...


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