# Ramshorn snail infestation



## Calebh21 (Mar 12, 2012)

Hey guys, I have a 55 gallon heavily planted high tech tank that I set up about 6 months ago. It's planted with HC, dwarf hairgrass, and microsword. As far as fauna I have about 10 Amano shrimp and 1 rcs. I monitor the water parameters constantly and everything is growing great. The only problem I've encountered is a snail population boom. Within the last month or two hundreds of very small ramshorn snails have taken over. Their max size is only about a quarter of an inch. I recently purchased 3 assassin snails to try to combat the problem but they don't seem to like the ramshorns. I think they might be too small. I know overfeeding is supposed to be the reason snails take over but I don't really feed anything so I'm kinda confused. Any suggestions to fix this problem would be appreciated. Thanks.


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## Manegy (Feb 13, 2012)

Ive found the best way of taking care of them is just to manually remove them. I don't like using chemicals and don't want to buy loaches. Plus I'm pretty sure anything that is going to take out snails will kill your shrimp too. I use a pair of aquarium forceps then crush them all up and feed them to the fish. My tetras love it, im not sure where you can get rid of yours. Pet stores that sell puffers might take them to use as food. I noticed that ramshorns really like hairgrass as well I don't know why but that might be why they are taking over.


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## merritt1985 (Jan 16, 2013)

Try getting a small tupperware dish and putting a piece of baby spinach in there right before you go to bed. When you get up there should be quite sa few snails in there just pull the tupperware out gently. Repeat for a few days and you should get most of them. They really aren't that bad though i keep them in all my tanks for algae and some of there colors are quite nice. Good luck with the snail problem.


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## chou (Feb 23, 2012)

The assassin snails will eat them all up. It just takes time. It got rid of all my snails in my 20g tall and I had only 2.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

merritt1985 said:


> Try getting a small tupperware dish and putting a piece of baby spinach in there right before you go to bed. When you get up there should be quite sa few snails in there just pull the tupperware out gently. Repeat for a few days and you should get most of them. They really aren't that bad though i keep them in all my tanks for algae and some of there colors are quite nice. Good luck with the snail problem.


+ 1

This works perfect IME.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Contolling Ramshorn Snails*

Hello Cal...

You've likely got a high level of phosphate in the water. If you feed flaked fish foods, those are high phosphate. A lot of snails means too much food. I feed my fish a little frozen twice weekly and that's plenty, but I still have a few snails. A few are good for the tank. 

Clown Loaches, Bettas, Crayfish, Gouramis and Apple snails will eat Ramshorn snails. If the snails are very small, you can vacuum them up or use a plastic scoop designed for cat box duty and remove them that way.

You can float a lettuce leaf in the tank and leave it overnight. The snails will attach to the lettuce and you can remove the snails by removing the leaf.

Another way, is to turn off your filter or any airstone at night. Snails need a lot of oxygen and will move to the surface to breathe. You can remove them with a credit card or crush the shells. The fish will clean up all the edible parts.

Just some thoughts.

B


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## BDChzHd (Mar 28, 2007)

Some good information on snail control here. I especially like the spinach/lettuce ideas and have used them effectively before.

Hadn't thought about turning off filters and air stones to bring them to the top of the tank before. I will have to give that one a try ~ maybe together with the spinach/lettuce!

Than you all for your ideas and experiences . . .

Take care,


_Brain Dead . . ._


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

"Food" is not limited to Fish Flakes. Ramshorns eat algae and do that well. I won't have a tank without them. They get were Amano & Cherry shrimp don't.

When you feel you have too many, an algae wafer in a fish net over night is all you need. They will crawl in for you. Remove the net, cull, finished.


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## Calebh21 (Mar 12, 2012)

Thanks for the replies everyone! I have tried the lettuce idea before but it didn't attract any. I used romaine. Maybe baby spinach is a more effective option. I'll have to give it a try. I don't feed any flake food so thats not an issue. The only food I've ever used are algae wafers and they're used very sparingly and completely eaten within an hour usually. As far as phosphates go I always try to keep them between 1 and 2 ppm. Nitrates are between 10 and 30 ppm. I don't really have any algae. What I do have is usually eaten by the Amanos pretty quickly. There are also a lot of what I think are limpets in the tank. I don't mind any of these creatures as long as they aren't breeding in excess.


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