Snail control or eater?

[Larry Grenier]

Probably an old over-asked question but I need something to control my exploding snail population. I hear that clown loaches mess with uprooting plants & stuff as they grow. The tank is about 96gals, full of mostly rosette plants but also a few weak rooted stems as-well. Fauna is a few cories, 1 large red-tailed shark, and 5 large angels. I'm not married to the fish but would prefer to not have to rehome them. Yes, I can put snail traps in there to remove several at a time but I probably have a few hundred well-fed snails in-there that I need to thin. I believe that puffers are fin-nippers. And advice would be appreciated.

[halak]

You try some assassin snails (Clea helena) that consume live snails and don't look bad either.

[Larry Grenier]

You try some assassin snails (Clea helena) that consume live snails and don't look bad either.

I forgot to mention that I have a few nerites and I'd like to add a few more so assassins would be a last resort.

[Jim Miller]

I have some hovering loaches I got from Msjinxd. I didn't realize they ate snails when I got them but I have zero snails now.

I'm planning to get rid of the three remaining. You can have them at the next meeting for free if I can catch them.

jim

[Larry Grenier]

I have some hovering loaches I got from Msjinxd. I didn't realize they ate snails when I got them but I have zero snails now.
I'm planning to get rid of the three remaining. You can have them at the next meeting for free if I can catch them.
jim

Thanks alot Jim but I'm afaraid of the little guys with my big angels.

[tug]

What type of exploding snail are you talking about Larry? If they're Malaysian Trumpet Snails (Melanoides tubercular), I never found anything that could reduce their numbers - not even the Clea helena seemed to care for them. Well, mine didn't and because MTS have an operculum loaches won't provide much if any help.

Puffers will eat them. Trapping them for someone that keeps puffers could be an option. Feeding less food to the other fish and vacuuming the substrate more often were you can will help but I ended up changing out my tank completely to be rid of them. Until that day it was trap and crush. The upside to having them in my tank was that I had a very clean substrate. Of course it could be another type of snail but Ryan Wood loves M. tubercular, http://www.planetinverts.com/malaysian_ ... snail.html

[Chriscoli]

My assassin snails do eat MTS, but if you have an exploding snail population (as I sometimes do) they won't make a huge difference since a large MTS population can easily outpace their predation. They don't eat many a day. I resorted to a crew of yoyo and clown loaches that I move from tank to tank every few weeks or months. Like with the assassin snails, though, they prefer easy food, so if there are alternative choices available, they'll eat that first. I haven't noticed them digging any of my plants (yet).

Whatever treatment you choose, I'd try to remove the nerites for a while since it's hard to exclude them from anti-snail treatments.

[fjf888]

You could try to go in between the small loaches and clowns loaches with something like a yoyo loach or zebra loach. They don't get too big, but they are certainly big enough for the angels not to pick on or eat. A group should put a good dent into the snail population. What i'm not sure about is whether they would get aggressive with a large nerite snails. Clown loaches certainly could and most likely would take out the nerites.

[Larry Grenier]

What type of exploding snail are you talking about Larry? If they're Malaysian Trumpet Snails (Melanoides tubercular), I never found anything that could reduce their numbers - not even the Clea helena seemed to care for them. Well, mine didn't and because MTS have an operculum loaches won't provide much if any help.
Ramshorn

Puffers will eat them. I've considered that, but don't want the tankmate limitations Trapping them for someone that keeps puffers could be an option. Doing some trapping now Feeding less food to the other fish I already feed lightly, just went-thru the various stages of algae buildup and finally getting past it and vacuuming the substrate more often were you can will help but I ended up changing out my tank completely to be rid of them. Until that day it was trap and crush. The upside to having them in my tank was that I had a very clean substrate. Of course it could be another type of snail but Ryan Wood loves M. tubercular, http://www.planetinverts.com/malaysian_ ... snail.html

[tug]

Hard to not over feed a Ramshorn living in a planted tank.