# Snails taking over my cichlid tank



## ThalesthePearsei (Jan 27, 2009)

I have snails taking over my 125 cichlid tank. I dont know what kind of snails they are. They have cone shaped shells. I have some snail killer called "Had-a-Snail". It is copper based. I am reluctant to use it because I dont want to accidently hurt or kill one of my beautiful, and expensive cichlids. I may be overreacting but, but has anyone used a copper based snail killer with no harm to their fish?


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## FordMan (Jan 18, 2009)

well you can (A) leave the snails alone as they are benificial to the tank and tend to regulate their own population based on food supply. Another easy method is putting some food in a small jar too small for the fish to get into but big enough for the snails wait for the snails to enter then remove the jar and dump them i like to put them in chipped wine glasses i have and letting them live out their 60 day life lol adding alittle food here and there ps a salt shaker with no top makes a nice snail trap


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## SinCrisis (Aug 7, 2008)

Wont cichlids just eat them after they get big enough?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS) are well protected from predation. Their shells are far too hard and they have trapdoors to evade cannibalism from several predators. The trapdoor also allows them to survive harsh chemicals and copper meds will only cause more disastrous consequences than you can expect. Here's a guideline to minimizing their number.
Snail Infestations and Solutions to Eliminating Them - MonsterFishKeepers.com


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## Tyyrlym (Jun 1, 2008)

If you're really over-run and slam a tank with something that will kill snails their decomp can give you a massive ammonia spike.


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## ThalesthePearsei (Jan 27, 2009)

cool, thanks for the info, I really didn't mind the snails as I have had them for awhile. I am getting annoyed with them now that the accumulating shells are starting overtake the sand like black gravel I have in the tank, and its taking away the nice effect the black gravel has on the appearance of the tank.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

LOL...You can always vacuum out the empty shells.


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## wendex (May 24, 2008)

Thanks for the link very helpful - I've also got a large population of trumpets now - but quite a small tank so it's not so hard to solve luckily, I've opted for the snail trap (for the rams mainly) and removing trumpets by hand just to keep the numbers in check and it seems to be working fine. Although i do feel bad for the little snails :O( 

Feeding just enough to be eaten in 5 minutes is hard cos my cories don't tend to come out st8 away to feed on the bottom food I put in for them, but maybe i should put their food in just b4 lights out?


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

MTS tend to appear at night. That's your opportunity to try the food baiting.


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## Shamrocks MC (Jun 20, 2015)

I'm new here, but chose this as my first post. I had a bad snail infestation as well, I moved all my chichlids to a 30 gallon quarantine tank and moved one of my air stones over as well. To rid my tank of the snails without killing and of my live plants, I bubbled straight co2 for a few days into the tank. The plants loved the high levels of carbon dioxide and the snails found themselves in a naturally toxic environment. after a few days of seeing no new snail activity, I replace the CO2 tank with regular air and let the tank balance out a week then reintroduced my cichlids one at a time and suffered no casualties other than the snails.


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