# Controlling snail population in tank?



## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

New to the forum here and starting my quest to gain further insight on getting our tank back to where it was. 6 months ago our tank was greener than ever and doing fantastic. Decided to switch it over to a bigger tank and now we're having some problems. 

First thing is there seems to be a TON of what I think to be Malaysian Trumpet snails in the aquarium. I'll try to take a picture of them in a bit.. I mean, we started with a few of them and now they have exploded in population. The tank is already pretty stocked up with fish, so I think this is causing a problem with waste. I have been reading about things to do to help control the population, but I have read a lot and am looking for the best way to do it. I can't get in there and pick every snail out as some of them are so tiny. What can I do to take down the numbers? 


Bump: I tried to get a good picture but they are cell phone pictures so they aren't the most clear. Anyway, I circled the snails so you can see them easier.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I don't have experience with MTS, they may be harder to manage than other snails types.

I've found that it helps to only remove the small snails. If you are constantly picking out the largest snails they will just reproduce at an insane rate to replace themselves.

After a few weeks you will reach an equilibrium where a couple surviving big snails out-compete the rest and there isn't enough left over food for any babies to survive.


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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Are these guys eating the plants in the tank? I mean, I don't so much mind them in there if they are helping control algae, which is blooming like crazy lately. But there's way too many snails in there right now. I read a couple things.. Placing lettuce on the bottom of the tank? Or Clown Loaches, but would the Loaches actually eat these snails? 

I'm definitely at a loss here, I know nothing of snails lol.


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## SGdiscus (Jun 24, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Are these guys eating the plants in the tank? I mean, I don't so much mind them in there if they are helping control algae, which is blooming like crazy lately. But there's way too many snails in there right now. I read a couple things.. Placing lettuce on the bottom of the tank? Or Clown Loaches, but would the Loaches actually eat these snails?
> 
> I'm definitely at a loss here, I know nothing of snails lol.


Hi, in my quest to deal with snails.. i have used anti-snail medications. But they only kill the snails and not their eggs. Unfortunately overtime.. I have to deal with both snails and algae and this complicate the issue further. For example, I use a combination of otos and shrimps to deal with algae and anti-snail medication will kill shrimps.

After more research, I decided to settle on sparkling gouramis. These guys are about 1 to 1.5 inch in length and I got 3 for my 5 ft tank. These guys go after the snail eggs. 

After introducing them... in the first two weeks I still had to manually pick out all the snails that I can find. However after a month or so... the number of snails I picked out gradually reduced. After 6 months... I only have to pick out 1 snail during weekly water changes. Most times these days I don't have to. I know there are still snails (underneath drift woods etc) but they are no longer causing an aesthetic issue.

The bonus with sparkling gouramis is that when two males square off against each other... they make croaking sound!



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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Thank you, SGdiscus! I didn't even think about gouramis. That's a good idea to get a couple to eat the eggs, as I'm sure there are a ton of snail eggs in there. Right now in the tank I have tiger barbs, rummy nose, rainbow shark and a parrot fish. Are the gouramis compatible with the parrot or the barbs? I know parrots aren't generally put in planted aquariums, but he really hasn't been a nuisance to the plants, I've been watching him very carefully. Though he does pick leaves off of one of them..

There are definitely a few huge snails in the tank too, so those will be easy to pick out of there as I'm doing water changes and such. I will have to keep watch at our local fish store for the sparkling gouramis. I'm not sure if I've ever seen them there or not.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. We did buy some shrimp before but they ended up dying or just disappearing. I've never been able to keep them alive, is there some specific way to care for shrimp?


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## SGdiscus (Jun 24, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Thank you, SGdiscus! I didn't even think about gouramis. That's a good idea to get a couple to eat the eggs, as I'm sure there are a ton of snail eggs in there. Right now in the tank I have tiger barbs, rummy nose, rainbow shark and a parrot fish. Are the gouramis compatible with the parrot or the barbs? I know parrots aren't generally put in planted aquariums, but he really hasn't been a nuisance to the plants, I've been watching him very carefully. Though he does pick leaves off of one of them..
> 
> There are definitely a few huge snails in the tank too, so those will be easy to pick out of there as I'm doing water changes and such. I will have to keep watch at our local fish store for the sparkling gouramis. I'm not sure if I've ever seen them there or not.
> 
> EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. We did buy some shrimp before but they ended up dying or just disappearing. I've never been able to keep them alive, is there some specific way to care for shrimp?


I have never kept gouramis together with parrot or barbs before. I kept gouramis with tetras, cories, apisto, yamamoto shrimps (aka amano shrimps) and killies. 

Gouramis spend their whole time scanning the plants and driftwood for food. I think they would go after baby shrimps or fries. Mine do take pellets because they were weaned on pellets by my LFS. 

As for shrimps... if they can fit into the mouth of fishes... they would be fair game. My yamamoto shrimps are on average 1 to 2 inches in size. So they will hold their own. Can't really share much with you on my own experience with shrimps as I don't pay much attention to them. 

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## Akaliman (Jul 28, 2014)

Dwarf puffer fish will chase them away. if the snails are old enough, and the shells have become to hard, dwarf puffer fish won't kill it, but enough to scare them away, so that the snail won't creep up. you won't see them in the glass. the snails will stay under the radar at the substrate level.


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## maxhrbal (Mar 19, 2016)

Newer tanks will likely have a snail surge if immediately introduced. Don't over feed and control your algae and they will remain at healthy levels. They don't thrive in gravel so that's a plus for ya. My sand tank is infested but I don't mind. MTS aren't ugly compared to other snails in my opinion. They aerate the sand, and in your case, they consume a lot of waste build up especially from your plants, as gravel is notorious for harboring these things. Snails do play an important role, but if they are literally covering everything, you should take their bioload into account. A healthy population has a negligible bio load and shouldn't add much waste. They also consume a lot of other wastes so it equals out..kind of. I wouldn't waste your valuable tank space on a snail eating fish unless you really want that particular fish. I have a few assassin snails that consume other snails. MTS aren't their ideal choice of a meal, but they will indeed eat them if no other snails are present in adequate amounts. Assassin snails are very appealing and cool to watch, so I do suggest them. 

Assassin snails combined with feeding control and algae control will keep populations healthy and if you wanted to get rid of them completely then yeah, you need to nuke the tank. But I strongly suggest just getting the population under control as they have many benefits. 

From your picture, it doesn't appear to be way out of control but I'm sure I can't see all of them haha. Go with assassin snails! They are cheap and look great! They may not begin to eat the MTS right away but eventually will. I leave the shells in the tank, they return minerals to the water column at a slow steady rate as they dissolve.


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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

> As for shrimps... if they can fit into the mouth of fishes... they would be fair game. My yamamoto shrimps are on average 1 to 2 inches in size. So they will hold their own. Can't really share much with you on my own experience with shrimps as I don't pay much attention to them.


Hmm, I think the parrot would end up eating them then. He's not a huge parrot, but the shrimp I've seen at the fish store could easily fit into his mouth. I'm going to try looking for the gouramis, thank you for the suggestion.  



> Dwarf puffer fish will chase them away. if the snails are old enough, and the shells have become to hard, dwarf puffer fish won't kill it, but enough to scare them away, so that the snail won't creep up. you won't see them in the glass. the snails will stay under the radar at the substrate level.


We had a few dwarf puffers before, but they were major fin nippers. Would they be ok in the tank with the fish we have? I know tiger barbs could also be a bit aggressive, so maybe they could hold their own?



> From your picture, it doesn't appear to be way out of control but I'm sure I can't see all of them haha. Go with assassin snails! They are cheap and look great! They may not begin to eat the MTS right away but eventually will. I leave the shells in the tank, they return minerals to the water column at a slow steady rate as they dissolve.


Oh man, just before I took that picture there was about 20 of them in one corner on the sagitaria. I'm only really worried about the extra waste they are producing. I didn't start having the huge algae problem until they showed up, so their numbers definitely need to dwindle. I don't think I'd want to completely get rid of them, taking down the tank and starting over sounds like a lot of work, considering it's dirted. I'm glad to hear they don't do well in gravel tanks, there's a lot of gravel in ours. 

Oh yeah I also read about those assassin snails! Though if I get a couple of those guys will they produce like crazy too?


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

I like malaysian trumpet snails. They aerate the substrate and only eat decaying plant matter and algae (as far as I know). They don't lay eggs but give live birth, so getting something that eats snail eggs won't help. They do tend to have a population boom when first introduced to a new tank, or when conditions change, but then it will level out as their numbers naturally adjust to the available food supply. 

If seeing them really bothers you, lots of people seem to have success with assassin snails but I have never done that. I handpick when I see too many, crush the extras and feed them to my fishes.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

mrswis said:


> I'm only really worried about the extra waste they are producing. I didn't start having the huge algae problem until they showed up, so their numbers definitely need to dwindle.


You probably have it backwards, snails don't produce any additional waste. Anything they eat was in the tank to begin with, and would have rotted had the snails not been there to eat it.


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

691175002 said:


> You probably have it backwards, snails don't produce any additional waste. Anything they eat was in the tank to begin with, and would have rotted had the snails not been there to eat it.


Get a few Clown or other type of Loaches. Snails will be gone.


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## maxhrbal (Mar 19, 2016)

mrswis said:


> Oh man, just before I took that picture there was about 20 of them in one corner on the sagitaria. I'm only really worried about the extra waste they are producing. I didn't start having the huge algae problem until they showed up, so their numbers definitely need to dwindle. I don't think I'd want to completely get rid of them, taking down the tank and starting over sounds like a lot of work, considering it's dirted. I'm glad to hear they don't do well in gravel tanks, there's a lot of gravel in ours.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh yeah I also read about those assassin snails! Though if I get a couple of those guys will they produce like crazy too?



They don't THRIVE in gravel, but I'm sure they'll do alright. LOL. Assassin snails don't reproduce NEARLY AS MUCH as MTS or other nuisance snails. And they only have a few offspring each IME. Also, Like other snails will reproduce as much as they are fed...I'd imagine that since they don't prefer MTS, that you won't have a problem with them. And they are easy to spot and pick out also. Definitely worth it IMO. It is slow going at first, you may not notice results for a month or so.

I agree with you about large populations of snails producing waste. Everything poops! If the population is indeed out of control, then yeah, their waste may affect your bio load, to what extent I'm not sure. But when I had snail issues, I also had water issues. 



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## chappy6107 (Aug 2, 2016)

drop a big piece of lettuce in the tank before you go to bed. In the morning pull it out along with the many snails that are feeding on the piece of lettuce. Do this every couple days until your population is under control.


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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

I think I'll go with a clown loach and a couple assassin snails if I can find them. I mean, it's nice that they eat all the algae but if you look in the tank at certain times, you'd swear there's a hundred snails in there lol. It's a 72 gallon tank with lots of room for tiny snails. So I can garuntee at the moment there is much more snail poop than anything decaying. Also I think they're having a hard time getting into the soil because of the gravel. There's a ton of air bubbles I can see under the soil.

They give live birth? That's both strange and interesting!


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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

Thanks for the lettuce tip! Next time I'm at the grocery store I'll be sure to get some lettuce. It would take a while to get them all, but it's a start.


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## LittlePinkDot (Oct 10, 2014)

FYI, MTS snail is a live bearing snail. They do not lay eggs. So I don't know what eggs the gourami is eating. Clown loaches get HUGE. You could just get a small school of dwarf loaches I think.


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

the only thing I read on this topic was the first post lol so if im late don't get mad at me  
If you want the whole population to just die, then add algaecide, works like a charm after a few doses... but be warned also isn't relatively good for fish and can kill any invertebrates, such as shrimp. the kind I used was Aqueon Algae Remover, 
Ingredients: 
Polyethylene(polydimethyliminio)ethylene(dimethyliminio)ethelyne(dichloride)


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## Stacy1 (Dec 15, 2016)

Ive got a 75gal tank that has a good many mts in it. You dont see the masses until the aquarium light goes off at night. Thats when they come up out of the substrate and start crawling up the glass. They're really good for planted tanks as they'll eat decaying plant material and pick up any left over food from fish feedings. They also keep the substrate from getting compacted which is great for plant roots. I wouldn't put something in there to kill them. Hundreds of dead snails at once I would think would lead to a pretty good ammonia spike. Clown loaches will eat them, but cute little clown loaches will get HUGE in time and become aggressive towards smallerfish if you have any in the tank. PPutting the lettuce, cucumber, piece of carrot, any veggie really that snails like is a good way to remove alot from the tank at once. They will pile on top of a good veggie. After a few hours tou can just gently remove it from the tank and they'll hold on to it. I really don't think there will be an issue with your water parameters due to them being in the tank though. Its like someone already stated. Anything waste the snail produces came from eating waste that was already there. They aren't adding anything additional


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## MChambers (May 26, 2009)

I've been able to keep my MTS population under control with assassin snails and also manually removing as many as I can.

Good luck.


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## theDCpump (Jul 22, 2016)

MChambers said:


> I've been able to keep my MTS population under control with assassin snails and also manually removing as many as I can.
> 
> Good luck.


Did the assassin snails start breeding rapidly then?


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## Stacy1 (Dec 15, 2016)

Ive never had assassin snails populate like mts or ramshorns. I put ten or so in that 75gal and they have an endless supply of food. Hard to know how many are in the tank now as they stay hidden most of the time, but I know there's not enough to eradicate the mts colony I have in there


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## MChambers (May 26, 2009)

To theDCpump: Not necessarily. In some tanks, I've had the assassins breed pretty prolifically, but not in others, and I can't figure out why.


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## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

just my two cents, but I agree with the notion that killing them all off would be unhealthy, and if they are exploding in numbers its a sign of how much food they are finding, which may mean you've got a lot of decay, algae, or missed fish food. This can be treated like a pest, or like a sign of something deeper. In all my tanks, I've taken it as a healthy sign when I have snail populations that grow about as fast as they die. Balance in a tank is pretty key, and if you have an explosion, there is an imbalance. Corys will eat snails though.

TL;DR
I'd consider WHY you have so many snails as far more important than how to get rid of them. If you remove imbalance, killing some by hand should be more than enough for most tank sizes.


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## LittlePinkDot (Oct 10, 2014)

I have pond, MTS and ramshorn is my pea puffer tank and I rarely see them, but 1 of the puffers I have won't eat frozen foods, but he always looks fed so he's finding plenty of snails obviously. But I think you can keep snail numbers down if you keep gh 4 kh 4 and your PH at 6.4 with c02. Whenever I do see a snail particularly the MTS, their shells are partially eroded. Soft water acid tanks they don't like too much


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## GrampsGrunge (Jun 18, 2012)

SGdiscus said:


> Hi, in my quest to deal with snails.. i have used anti-snail medications. But they only kill the snails and not their eggs. Unfortunately overtime.. I have to deal with both snails and algae and this complicate the issue further. For example, I use a combination of otos and shrimps to deal with algae and anti-snail medication will kill shrimps.
> 
> After more research, I decided to settle on sparkling gouramis. These guys are about 1 to 1.5 inch in length and I got 3 for my 5 ft tank. These guys go after the snail eggs.
> 
> ...


I think in the OP's case the MTS are live-bearing, so they wouldn't normally go after the usually-under-the-gravel newborn MTS's. I'm not knocking Sparkling Gouramis They're one of my more favorite fish.

I just didn't realize that they controlled snails. I know that young Rafael Cats will eat snails and my snail population, ( Red Ramshorns ) in my 32 gallon was reduced when I added my four Hara Jerdoni, Mini-Moth catfish.


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## SGdiscus (Jun 24, 2016)

GrampsGrunge said:


> I think in the OP's case the MTS are live-bearing, so they wouldn't normally go after the usually-under-the-gravel newborn MTS's. I'm not knocking Sparkling Gouramis They're one of my more favorite fish.
> 
> I just didn't realize that they controlled snails. I know that young Rafael Cats will eat snails and my snail population, ( Red Ramshorns ) in my 32 gallon was reduced when I added my four Hara Jerdoni, Mini-Moth catfish.


No worries. I did not know that MTS are live-bearing as I never had been in my tanks before (touch wood! Lol). 



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## mrswis (Dec 22, 2016)

> just my two cents, but I agree with the notion that killing them all off would be unhealthy, and if they are exploding in numbers its a sign of how much food they are finding, which may mean you've got a lot of decay, algae, or missed fish food. This can be treated like a pest, or like a sign of something deeper. In all my tanks, I've taken it as a healthy sign when I have snail populations that grow about as fast as they die. Balance in a tank is pretty key, and if you have an explosion, there is an imbalance. Corys will eat snails though.


I had a huge algae bloom in the tank and since then it's when I saw them exploding in their numbers. However, I bought 2 clown loaches and the next day I saw a bunch of empty snail shells floating on top of the water. I couldn't find any assassin snails as mentioned to me, but the LFS guy recommended these guys instead. I'm not all that worried about the population now, since petco had their $1/gallon sale I ended up grabbing myself a brand new 75. So the 72 they are in will be torn down anyway. 
I actually don't mind having some snails, since they really did help with the algae in the tank. But the numbers in which I was seeing them was crazy!


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## KayakJimW (Aug 12, 2016)

Snail traps are pretty easy to make and can be pretty effective. Take an empty water bottle and stick a few rocks in it for weight. Drill a hole (a little wider than your largest snail) in the cap of the bottle. Break up a few algae wafers and stick them in the bottle, fill with tank water, put the cap on, and place horizontally on the substrate after the lights go out. Any snails that get collected can be RAOK'd or poured out in the yard. One night you may not get any, another night you may get 30+. Not sure why, perhaps they're more active on certain moon phases? I had to do this years ago, but now it seems my snail population is in check. What I liked about this method is that it removes the shell too, you can take out as many or as few as you want, it doesn't involve adding fauna that you weren't planning on adding, no chemicals, little effort, and costs nothing really.


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