Removing potential snails from plants. Cucumber?

[dazkeirle]

Hi All,

Won myself some pretty funky small coconut shell / java moss caves from ebay.

I contact the seller asking about how they'd been kept to determine what sort of quarantine was necessary.

The seller was an experienced betta breeder and assured me of no disease however did warn I may want to quarantine with some cucumber as there possibly could be some snail eggs.

Could I get a second option of the best way to remove the potential snails?

The shells are destined for Barney's Moss tank which will eventually be an awesome shrimp haven but I obviously don't want to put Barney in any risk.

 

[ted22]

Ah the dreaded snail problems haha, good luck with that! only way to clear up any eggs is to look for them and clean them off (very difficult sometimes might need scraping off with ur fingernail) and the snails you just pick em out when you see them. The other option is using chemicals but i dont know much about that as its harmful to shrimp and possibly axies so havnt really looked into it, I just use the remove by hand option which is a pain but it works! People have suggest the putting abit of veg in the tank technique and all the snails will gather on it for easy removal but I had no luck just picking em out when they appeer works for me!

 

[Azhael]

I personally don´t see why everybody is so obsessed with getting rid of snails! They are benefitial for the tank!!

 

[dazkeirle]

Cheers for the info.

As mentioned I don't have an issue right now, it's just there could potentially be one, as I always say, forewarned is forearmed.

Why don't I want snails? because they pose a possible impaction threat to Barney, that's all.

I wouldn't contemplate a few pieces of gravel so certainly don't want snails.

 

[Azhael]

Only large species pose a danger of impaction. The common species you usually get in aquariums never get large enough to be more than a small snack for an animal like an axolotl. The problem comes with species like applesnails and such, but the small ones are really no threat at all.

 

[dazkeirle]

ok dokey, I wont panic then.

Still I suppose a period of quarantine is still a good idea?

Out of interest though, how does quarantining plants work, I mean how would I observe that they pose a threat if nothing living is with them?

 

[DavidF]

In my book Daz, kill the snails. Take no prisoners. I started out with a few cute looking snails and before I knew it there were literally hundreds crawling on everything.....and they were the ones I could see.....

You've seen my other posts. My method has been copper treatments. I don't know if copper kills eggs though so my method has involved keeping the tank dosed with copper for a month and warm to 25 deg or thereabout with a heater to make sure all eggs hatch...and then die. I have to say, the results are not yet in as i'm yet to rebuild my shrimp tank. however.....I haven't seen a live snail for weeks.

I think it can alse depend on the type of snail you have becuase some don't die easily with copper. I have little brown round pond snails. I also had cone shaped snails that lived in my gravel (this is my shrimp tank, no gravel in my axy tank:happy. To counter the cone snails, I removed all gravel and will either toss it or boil it on the stove.

Good luck. In my book, snails have to go.

Cheers
Dave

 

[DavidF]

Can I just also say i tried cucumber. It does attract snails.

I also tried sucking them off the glass with my syphon when I did water changes

I also used my hand to squash all comers on the glass and any the eggs I spied.

I found all of these methods only reduced the population but only by insignificant amounts.

Daz, the most intelligent thing you can do IMHO is to kill all problems before they enter your eco-system.

 

[ted22]

Mate snails maybe good but the 3 I had in my guppie tank turned into well over 20 within a few weeks and all my elodea in there got destroyed! im still picking em out one by one and they just keep appeering! They will destroy any plants very quickly hence why they are a pain in the *** and people dont like em!


HAHA, I cant even say *** on this forum haha everyone has, i one dont see what the problem is!

 

[dazkeirle]

well as I wasn't ready to dump the shells straight in with Barney I put em in an ice cream tub with water overnight.

The moss looks great and will benefit from being on the windowsill I'm sure.


Now that it's not compacted i can easily see lots of tiny slimy snail like eggs, which I can only suppose is snails.

I'm gonna quarantine then to hopefully reduce the number of them present and hopefully remove all of them if possible.

Although the site I'm using as my reference source for all things invert, planet inverts, the guy there appears to like having snails in with his shrimps, however I'll do what I can to reduce the issue now, and in the future should I want snails, I'll do it on my terms.

 

[Azhael]

Snails do explode in number but that is perfectly normal and subsides with time. Every time you introduce snails to a new tank they will breed like rabbits and you´ll even get hundreds of them. After some time the population crashes and you are left with just a few adults that will reproduce normally.
You need to be patient and let them crash on their own, it does work.

 

[morphyrichards]

In my guppy/shrimp tank I've got many many snails ... so many in fact that some of them seem to be making the ultimate sacrifice for their tank mates and crawling lemming like out of the tank to expire on the floor and window ledge ...
Unavoidably some have made it into my axie tank (not through expeditious crawling but when transferring elodea etc) and they have caused no problem because Rho gobbles em before they get the chance to either grow to be an impaction risk and eats them so fast they never get the chance to have a population explosion.
My personal view on snails is that as long as they arent ridiculously large like apple snails or dangerously pointy like trumpet snails then they are good for two reasons.
1)Snacks / axie entertainment
2) Cleaner / Housekeepers

ps. I know that the thing about lemmings is really a myth.

 

[daremo]

If you put the plant in normal tap water for a while, maybe a good 12 hrs you will find all the snails on the bottom of the container... it worked for me with java moss (and I didn't want to kill the snails, I got the survivors and put them in another tank and now it's my little swamp flourishing with many kinds of lives hehe)

 

[morphyrichards]

My method has been copper treatments. I don't know if copper kills eggs though so my method has involved keeping the tank dosed with copper for a month and warm to 25 deg or thereabout with a heater to make sure all eggs hatch...and then die.

AFAIK you should never let copper go anywhere near amphibians because it's highly toxic for them. Maybe ok to use it to eradicate snails in a fish aquarium but definitely not with axies!

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but it would be tragic if someone reading this had snails in their axie tank and thought "ahaha - I know I'll use copper"

 

[DavidF]

In my book Daz, kill the snails. Take no prisoners. I started out with a few cute looking snails and before I knew it there were literally hundreds crawling on everything.....and they were the ones I could see.....

You've seen my other posts. My method has been copper treatments. I don't know if copper kills eggs though so my method has involved keeping the tank dosed with copper for a month and warm to 25 deg or thereabout with a heater to make sure all eggs hatch...and then die. I have to say, the results are not yet in as i'm yet to rebuild my shrimp tank. however.....I haven't seen a live snail for weeks.

I think it can alse depend on the type of snail you have becuase some don't die easily with copper. I have little brown round pond snails. I also had cone shaped snails that lived in my gravel (this is my shrimp tank, no gravel in my axy tank:happy. To counter the cone snails, I removed all gravel and will either toss it or boil it on the stove.

Good luck. In my book, snails have to go.

Cheers
Dave

Sorry,about my thoughts above. I should been clearer. If you are using copper, do it in a quarantine tank with just the infected plants to kill the snails before the plant goes into your main tank. I agree no copper in your main tank with your axie. And then properly wash your plants lots and lots of times to remove the copper. That way you wont introduce copper into your main tank either.

 

[zoezakella]

My poor apple snails are shocked at this thread and no they are not in with my axies but goldfish before anyone gasps

I personally like the little critters (tiny pond snails) zooming around the tank and clearing up the little bits but I only have a couple and as my tank is so big I rarely get to see them anyway.

Good luck Daz