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Old July 12th, 2008, 08:35 PM
t.pettet t.pettet is offline
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Getting rid of snails

I bought a plant that turned out to have snails on it and my aquarium was being over-run. Someone suggested putting a lettuce leaf in and the snails would congregate to it, then when its full remove and put a new one in. Its working really well and environmentally safe for the fish. Yeah!
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Old July 12th, 2008, 09:00 PM
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angeldogs angeldogs is offline
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That's good that it is working.i thought it might have been garden snails.i was going to say send them here.my daughter has over 30 of them that she has as pets.
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Old July 12th, 2008, 10:27 PM
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clm clm is offline
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Snails in an aquarium are a real pain. If you don't get them all with the lettuce, get yourself a clown loach. They need a hiding place during the day, but they'll come out at night and eat every snail you have.

Cindy
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Old July 13th, 2008, 08:53 AM
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want4rain want4rain is offline
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be careful of fish additions. make sure they are appropriate for the size of the tank. there are several fish that do some serious business to snails. -

loaches are a great addition to larger systems (they are bigger, messier fish than most and they are very social.... keep them in groups of 4 or more if possible. skip them if you cant keep at least two). there are smaller ones than clowns such as the polka dot loaches. weather loaches will also eat snails but they have several special requirements (very very cool fish!!!!!) and kuhli loaches are good for keeping snail populations in check although not for getting rid of them.

pea puffers (dwarf puffers, one of the few FW puffers) are great at keeping snail populations down too. they are a hit or miss whether they will totally terrorize your other fish though. ive had a few and all did well in a community setting although ive heard stories of them (they really are the size of a pea!!!!) harassing and killing much much larger fish (think angels and plecos!!).

-ashley
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Old July 13th, 2008, 10:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by want4rain View Post
pea puffers (dwarf puffers, one of the few FW puffers) are great at keeping snail populations down too. they are a hit or miss whether they will totally terrorize your other fish though. ive had a few and all did well in a community setting although ive heard stories of them (they really are the size of a pea!!!!) harassing and killing much much larger fish (think angels and plecos!!).

-ashley
I've had a little herd of FW puffers. I was lucky, out of 6 only one was a holy terror. They are really neat though, and they do love snails.

Cindy
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Old August 11th, 2008, 05:20 PM
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silk050 silk050 is offline
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Dont puffer fishes usually require brackish water?? They look so cute and i've always thot about getting some.

Warning about the clown loach.....they are easily stressed and are very prone to ich. I had much better luck with my Yo-yo and Zebra loach.
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Old August 11th, 2008, 09:12 PM
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want4rain want4rain is offline
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there are a few rare puffers that are true FW but the Dwarf Puffers are much more common (and smaller) than their cousins. they do a great job of working on the snails although they wont ever take them all out. it takes a loach to do that.

-ashley
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