# invasive snails



## Biemowo (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm sure there's been threads about this before however a search yielded nothing so here we go...

I got snails from petsmart! I know I should have quarantined the plants first but I got antsy...
How do I get rid of them? I'm going on spring break for a week starting saturday and I really don't want to come back to a tank of 3000 snails. I can probably remove about 100 of them by hand in an hour but then theres so many hiding in the gravel. I figure if I remove the big ones that I can readily see that using a chemical won't cause the ammonia to rise uncontrollably from a few microscopic dead snails. They're eating all my oto's algae and I'd rather him not starve. I have aponogetons, lilies, moneywort, and onion plants. I've heard that the copper in snail killers hurts plants...I also have neon tetra.


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## froggle1 (Mar 3, 2011)

I added copper to my tank to kill snails but it didn't affect my plants. It worked, though!


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/invertebrates/pest-snail-faq-25186/


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## PRichs87 (Dec 30, 2009)

froggle1 said:


> I added copper to my tank to kill snails but it didn't affect my plants. It worked, though!


I wouldn't suggest doing this, as you may have gotten lucky here.

Snails are beneficial to aquariums, I actually ask pet stores to give me their "unsightly" snails. My fish and shrimp usually end up eating them but they take care of the detritus as well.


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