pain in the azz snails

[murdock6701]

OK, here's a poser! back in September I set up my SA tank, brand new tank, filter, heater, air stone and tubing - brand new, right out of the box! bought new gravel, boiled the daylights out of it, found my own granite and likewise, boiled the daylights out of it - plastic plants....not new, but boiled for an hour in salt water, rinsed, and boiled again in fresh water - brand new mopani wood from Africa - boiled it as well and let it soak for several hours - well, here it is late November, and guess what? I am finding those little black snails in my tank! it was set up for rams - rams would have eaten the snails...where did they come from? I have a separate net just for that tank - I do water changes w/ a different jug for each tank - sound anal? do you all remember the infestation where I ended up boiling all my tanks out and starting back over from scratch? I have no snails in them!
where did they come from? it's like there's a dozen or more in there the size of a bb! GRRRR!!!! I don't want loaches - love them and all but I don't want loaches! need a SMALL community fish that won't eat my silver hatchets, my rasboras or harm my silver dollar - am ready to scream! or just turn my SA into an African tank and get some more yellow labs....HELP!

[goldenpuon]

I'm not very familar with snail infestation as I've never had one but I say to get out as many as you can. And though you don't like them, since you get a lot of snail problems, adding loaches probably wouldn't such a bad idea. of course, I am pretty inexperienced in this area. I'm sure Carl, Bill, or Jon V can suggest better.

[bikeguy33]

there are small loaches called pakistani loaches or yoyo loaches that stay small and they will look after the problem in record time. what i have done for clients is buy a loach....let it eat all the snails then take it back and say i didnt like him. btw....did you use any old filter media? that could be where the snails came from.

[bikeguy33]

btw.....maybe the wood had some snail eggs on it that layed dormant till the conditions were correct....

[murdock6701]

ah, Billy, think you hit the nail on the head by mentioning filter media but I'm kind of discounting that because I tore all my tanks down and re-established them well before setting up the African or the SA.....mopani was boiled as well - these are the same friggin' little buggers I had before! found their eggs on the glass just a few minutes ago! the only loaches available here are 2" long for $10 a pop! is that too small a size for them to be effective? I crushed 2 of them and put them in the African tank figuring the labs would eat them but the zebra danios and von rio flame tetras ate them bfore they ever got down mid tank!

[bikeguy33]

you would be surprised the carnage a lil 2" loach can do....

[demfish]

You know Murdock, think your snails traveled all the way to Oregon, just to get in my tank too ;D Nope I know, they hitched in on my last plants.
Even bleached the plants and they lived. They must be the cockroaches of fish tanks huh?

[kagome]

Nov 26, 2008 19:52:44 GMT -5 demfish said:

They must be the cockroaches of fish tanks huh?

That is soooo true!

My blue gourami ate a big apple snail once. He even cracked part of the shell open. Maybe you should pick one up. Oh, and a loach of any size is an eating MACHINE! I would suggest the YoYo, though, a clown will get too big for your tank eventually.

[murdock6701]

didn't really want to add anymore fish to the bioload in the SA - was saving that for something "special" but if that's what it takes.....thanks all - could have come from eggs in the water that the rasboras came in, although I don't dump the water from bagged fish into my tanks ever!

[Carl]

I think you did the best anyone could ask to prevent these snails.

I think the loaches and botias are a good ideal. A Botia I used a lot for eating snails is the Skunk Botia as they do not get real big either.

Oh and be careful of flying pigs pooping out snails, I have a sneeking suspicion that this is the cause of the snail infestations across the country.



Carl

[murdock6701]

you're a character Carl! did you get the video of the airplane I sent you?

[Carl]

Nov 26, 2008 21:05:37 GMT -5 murdock6701 said:

you're a character Carl! did you get the video of the airplane I sent you?

Thanks, and no I did not get airplane video yet.

Carl

[kagome]

I can understand that you wanted to save the space for something special. But YoYo's aren't only good for snail eating they have nifty personalities and are pretty to boot. They are spunky little fish, you might really like them. I had one in the angel tank that was killed off by someone pouring a drink in it and he was a real character and was a great little scavenger that really kept the bottom and decorations very clean.