# Pest Snails out of control in Planted tank



## SeeBee (Jun 14, 2011)

Question or Problem:

My 10 gallon is doing great with lots of live plants! HOWEVER! I have a parasite snail problem! when I bought some new plants a month ago I had hitchhiker snails on them I did not know about, ugh! I just used some had a snail for a few days, followed instructions 1 drop per gallon / so 10 drops in my 10 gallon. I took my mystery snail out and put him in a mason jar with daily fresh water and some potatoe and veggie flakes. I use the aqua clear canister style filter. I use purigan bags (synthetic media / no carbon due to my plants so it does not strip the fertilizer I add to the tank). Now I am going to do a 50 percent water change and I dropped a carbon filter bag in just to make sure the copper sulfate from the had a snail will be out of the water for my mystery snail. 

Is the Had a snail even going to work?
Any other suggestions of getting rid of pest snails?
Am I doing everything write for my re-introduction of the mystery snail?
I have also heard that the cory cat is sensitive to the copper sulfate... is this true?

Fish:
7 neon tetras, 2 male guppies, 1 albino cory, and a mystery snail.

Equipment:
10 gallon
agua clear filter, canister build, purigan synthetic bag, bio bag, sponge
gravel large and small for plants
live plants - hygrophylia, banana plant, amazon swords, Water sprite, duck weed, and Rotala Indica
glass hood with T5 flourescent


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

Yes, the cory would have an issue with that. I have never used any "had a snail" or any other product like that. I guess my thought is... less chemicals in the tank the better. I had a huge Ramshorn snail issue in my tanks because I was purposely over feeding due to wanting to keep my fry alive. The Ramshorns saw it as breeding heaven and went nuts. I had thousands of them in the two tanks. I went on a full out attack against them but without chemicals. 

I did 60% water changes each day for a few days then every 3rd day and now every 4-5 days.
I also scooped as many as I could out by hand and then used bait "fresh melon and lettuce leaves". Not chemical bait. Here was the result after only afew seconds in the tank.









Obviously you scoop and remove. and repeat and repeat and repeat. Also, back off the food if you over feed they just keep going on the breeding. The last trick I used was to introduce a few Assassin snails. That did the trick, I no longer have any ramshorn snails in either tank.


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## Strand (Jul 20, 2011)

Ramshorn!!!


Don't throw those out send them to me! I'm setting up a breeder tank for my figure 8 puffer.


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## Pufferfish22 (Feb 6, 2011)

Where are you, if your in the UK I'll send you a container and take a load off you, my F8's would love them!


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## SeeBee (Jun 14, 2011)

*The small snails are gone*

The little pest snails are gone, but I did 2 50% water changes and added mystery snail into the tank and all he does is hang at the surface of the water floating... any suggestions?


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## Inga (Jun 8, 2010)

SeeBee said:


> The little pest snails are gone, but I did 2 50% water changes and added mystery snail into the tank and all he does is hang at the surface of the water floating... any suggestions?


 
Mystery snail? He won't hurt any pest snails, the Assassin snails do that. Mystery snails seem to go through periods where they are not active. Maybe a sort of sleep state or hibernation of sorts. Then they can perk up again, it just depends. I guess if I had just got him and questioned his health, I might take him back and trade for one more active. If you get a smaller one, they will likely be more active and they grow very very fast. Also, I have noticed the Pearl/white ones, show up the best in the tank. At least in mine.


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