# Getting rid of the "Freshwater Limpet - Acroloxus lacustris"?



## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

I seem to have some of these on plants that I want to bring into my LFS for store credit, but I don't want to indroduce these things to his tank. I looked through this thread:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=40061&highlight=bug
And it seems they are what's listed as "Freshwater Limpet - Acroloxus lacustris"

How do I get rid of them, so that I can trade in my plants?


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## metallicanick78 (Apr 26, 2011)

Copper will kill em. most people on tpt dont like to dose their actual tanks with cu for various reasons. so I would say, try to keep your clippings in a seperate container for a few days and treat them with a theraputic lvl of cu. Then maby keep them in a seperate container for a few days after that to make sure that a- your plants survived and b- the limpets diden't.

you might try picking them off and/or spraying the plants down in the sink if its a plant that will take it, just to jumpstart the cleaning process.. 

Ill stick around to hear what others suggests because I have these in my tank too and I dont want to does my whole tank with cu because I will eventually have shrimp in there...


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## laqu (Oct 17, 2012)

i wouldn't dose with Cu, some people have shrimp and heaven forbid you kill them all...

get a betta throw it in there.. problem gone.

my betta thinks they are the tastest little snacks, well next to shrimpetts


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

That would just get rid of the big ones, not eggs or little tiny baby ones.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

No planaria. Works but has to be dosed over a 3 week span to be effective. Plants will get covered in slime,. 
Copper will likely kill ur plants in high enough concentrations to kill a snail


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

HD Blazingwolf said:


> No planaria. Works but has to be dosed over a 3 week span to be effective. Plants will get covered in slime,.
> Copper will likely kill ur plants in high enough concentrations to kill a snail


What do you mean by no planaria? & What has to be dosed over a 3 week span?


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## metallicanick78 (Apr 26, 2011)

HD Blazingwolf said:


> No planaria. Works but has to be dosed over a 3 week span to be effective. Plants will get covered in slime,.
> Copper will likely kill ur plants in high enough concentrations to kill a snail


From my experience, Mardel coopersafe (chelated copper) dosed at around .75-1ml per gallon worked well with no ill effects to my plants. It will remain at a theraputic lvl for over a month with no water changes. But I did a big waterchange 7 days in and another one 7 days after that... At the time that tank had HC, R. rotundifolia, fissidens, rotala vietnam narrow leaf java fern and 2 other stems I cant remember atm.

Everyone seems to dislike cu treatments for several reasons. But If you know the risks, it can work like a charm. After 3-4 months my limpets and other snails did come back, my hydra never re appeared, but I dident leave it in my tank as long as I should have, and I introduced other plants afterwords... I would still recomend cu treatment in a seperate container if they dont actually bother you in your tank. If your really worried, test it with one clipping.


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## metallicanick78 (Apr 26, 2011)

oh and no-planaria is the name of a product.


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Why? They are hardely noticable even when on the glass. They are very small and will probably due a lot of good for your tank. Algae eating fish will likely eat them along with loaches. They dont become a nuisance like pond snails, if you consider them as such anyway, becuase a) they are a fraction of the size and b) dont reproduce as quickly by a long shot. 

As far as getting rid of then goes, good luck lol. A total breakdown including bleaching or drying everything out might do the trick. Isnt a whole lot that kills snails and not everything else along with it, besides some hungry loaches.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

"no planaria" is a tree extract that apparently kills snails.
dosed every few days for three weeks, with regual water changes will remove them, and other snails as well
not sure if it works on trumpet snails.. bleach doesnt so i would assume this wont either


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## rodcuda (Jul 25, 2012)

Assassin snails will wipe them out. And they do not get out of control. But they will not get rid of them entirely. Chances are nothing will get everyone and they will come back. And I think your LFS guy understands the risk of snails coming in on plants.


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

What do they eat? Is it possible that I could just take away their food source?


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

nope, they happily much on biofilm, which is,
everywhere


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

Of course!

What about Assassin Snails/Loaches?


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

they will snack on them, but never completely remove them.. you'll notice less


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## Adri. (Sep 6, 2012)

Ugh. This is so irritating.


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## sharonemery1 (Mar 30, 2014)

Resurrecting this old thread because I have something new to add to it and it may help folks in the future with this issue.

I too, had this problem and googled everything I could find to try and get rid of them... It would have been fine if it was just a couple of them, but their population exploded and they covered everything. Squishing was to no avail. There were just too many. It looked like my tank had a bad case of acne. As it was only a 40G Breeder, loaches were out of the question.

I tried everything I could think of, *outside* of the tank. I set up another 10G and put a sample of all the plants I had in my main tank in it and nucked that tank with everything I could think of... First I simply tried Ace Hardware Ammonia at about 1.5ppm. Kept it at that lever for a week and a half. THEY LIVED THROUGH IT!!!!! 

Plan #2: Tetra Algaecide. For 3 weeks. They just laughed. I think I even saw one waving a tiny limpet middle finger at me...

Plan #3: Copper. Therapeutic levels for 2 weeks. Die you little [email protected]&%ds! Die! Die! Die!!!

Plan #4: No Planaria. Made the water totally gross. They just threw a party. And didn't invite me. I was so depressed.

Plan #5: Desperation. Ammonia at 1.5 ppm, copper at therapeutic levels and Tetra Algaecide all at the same time - for a full month. Finally!!!! Success!!! Death to Limpets!! Death to them all!!!! I threw a party... and I didn't invite any limpets.

But yeah, okay. So I probably couldn't do that to my main tank. So I decided to use the 'sterilized' plants from the 10G test tank, bleach everything else, new substrate and start again. Sigh.

But I was saving up for a rimless, and figured I'd have it in a month or two, so I put it off. While I was waiting, I added a 6 pack of cute little otos. A week later I happened to walk by the tank - and stopped dead in my tracks. OMG - I could see through the glass.... Where were all the limpets???

I love my little otos ♪♫♪♫ I love my little otos ♫♪♫♪ I love my little otos ♪♫♪♫!!!!! They're acting just like tiny little loaches, and the limpets seem to be perfectly oto-sized! I still see a limpet here and there, and when I do I squish. But I so rarely see them anymore that I'm fine with it.

Did I mention that I love my little otos?



Hope this helps someone else!


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I am glad to hear it. My ten-gallon betta tank is overrun with limpets. I had to move my oto out a while back because the betta was threatening him. However, right now the betta is in hospital tank- so... maybe I can move the oto back in temporarily and see if he'll eat up most of the limpets? 

I'm going to try.


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## etane (May 14, 2012)

No idea otos ate limpets. Aren't they the ONLY certified shrimp safe fish?

Limpets piggy backed on some plants into my tank a few yeras ago. I took everything out of the tank. Soaked all the plants and rocks in alum for a day or so then in potassium permanganate for about a minute (then dilute with hydrogen peroxide). Rinsed them clean and return to tank.

The substrate is replaced with new one.

No limpets ever since. I do alum soak every time before introducing new plants in my tank now.


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