Freshwater snails

thats ok..i hope you find the solution to your probs...

Aha! Hard water -- we have very hard water indeed. I have a HORRIBLE time keeping my pH from bottoming out! I've used crushed coral in the reusable mesh bags, but just getting a chunk from my LFS works even better.

Clown loaches are the ones I was thinking of-just have to FIND some locally. Shipping for live fish is outrageous! I'll try the lettuce thing (boiling water is a good idea, thx!) before adding more fish.

Sorry I can't help w/the question about blennies. My saltwater knowledge is VERY limited!

yikes..this is grossing me out..now its my turn to have a problem i cant seem to keep blennies alive in my tank..any ideas.all the fish etc are fine just him..he usually eats off the walls and rocks..is this not enuf food for him or what?? it mite be too late to help him i dont know what to do for him now.. :(

Balas do get pretty big...over a foot long. Clown loaches are supposed to eat snails also, & as you said your snails are the tough-shelled cone variety maybe a loach's "slurp it out of it's shell" approach would be more effective than a balas "crunch, yum, spit the shells out" approach.

Your lettuce idea would probably work. I've heard you should run hot water over the lettuce first to soften it & make it more appealing to snails. Also hard water can make your snail population large & healthy, because the minerals in the hard water make their shells harder, thereby increasing survival rate.

so they hide in the day? weird..mine are out in the day..so if thats the case u need some kind of a snail catcher..ha...i can go over to that forum i go to and ask them what to do

Yah, if I can catch them! They do eat the detritus, but as noted I have too much MUCK & thus these little guys just keep replicating! Whoof! TONS! Need to get a pic of them swarming the sides of the tank after dark - you'd be STUNNED!

ohhhh i get it now..u have too many snails...lol..maybe u can trade them at the local fish store for something

I don't know that the snails are bad, but they are so out of control! Bala sharks! Do they get really big?? I've read about a sort of catfish that eats these sorts of snails, too, but I can't remember what sort they are.

I have 9 fish of various sizes & a giant common pleco. I do frequent water changes but can't vacuum all of the gravel because of heavy freshwater plants altho I may have to do it to get the gunk that the snails are thriving on!

Thanks for the info about how much you feel Caril. I have TRIED to get my mom to listen to me about how much & often to feed.

Oh! I read today that another way to get a lot of snails at once is to put a bit of lettuce on a veggie clip & then pull it out when it's covered with snails. I've considered putting them in our bird bath for the birds to eat, but always worry about upsetting the ecosystem, ya know?

Thanks for the suggestions - keep `em coming!

im still trying to figure out if there are too many snails in train of 4 tank or theres too much detritus and the snails are eating that instead of the algae ????

snails are bad in a freshwater tank??
This is interesting... I didn't know! I'll keep this in mind when I convert my little tank to fresh.

Bala sharks eat snails. I have a lot of freshwater snails in my smaller tanks. I toss an algae wafer into the tank, let the snails collect in a heap all over it, then scoop it out with the net & feed the sharks. Or if you don't have balas, you could just dispose of them.

Edited by: FIREPHOENIX at: 4/1/2010 (08:23)

lol..so from what i understand you DONT want the snails to feed on the detritus? u want them to feed on the algae? well if so just take the food away from momma...hide it or something..my kids are the same way..theyre starving ma feed em..if mom doesnt understand i guess u will have to lay down the law somehow..get this...i now have 7 fish..i feed them a block of frozen food twice a week thats it...they doing fine..how many fish u have?

I'm having a terrible time with freshwater snails. They aren't the kind that often show up on live plants though. They're cone-shaped & have very tough shells. My mom constantly overfeeds the fish & in spite of everything I keep telling her (ie-a fish's stomach is the size of it's eyeball) she continues to do it. So these snails are surely feeding on all the detritus in the tank.

I gravel vac & even have tried hand removal. But there are SOOO many of them! Does anyone have any ideas!?