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Snail Control Tip


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#1 Poncho

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 09:20 AM

Normally I don't mind snails in the tank as they provide some great benefits like eating left over food, cleaning glass etc.

But I have a few small tanks that are infested with cone snails. It got to the stage where the surface of the water was literally covered in tiny snails and I had a number of fish deaths which I put down to the snails pulling all the oxygen out of the water (not sure if this is true but would like to hear if anyone else has experienced this).

Anyway, I needed to get rid of these things and I didn't want to ditch the substrate, rocks or other decor. Someone gave me the tip to try salt. So I bought a 25kg bag of pool salt and trialled this snail elimination technique on a 30 litre fry raiser and a 80 litre juvie raiser. After removing fish and draining tanks, I relocated them outside and half filled them with water. I then proceeded to add the whole 25kg of salt into both tanks. There was a layer of salt on the bottom over an inch thick as the water became super saturated (used a couple of kettles of boiling water to get the temp hotter than normal).

I left it for a week, then drained water, half filled with fresh water and stirred up the bottom to dissolve more salt (and snails mwuahaha). Did this until all the salt was dissolved and drained off which took about five repeats.

Have just set up the little fry raiser and put a little bit of food in there to see if any snails will go for it. Not one sign of life in the tank after two days, plenty of snail shells which I can pick out if I feel like it, but no live snails smile.gif

I'm now going to systematically shut down all my cone snail infested tanks and put them through the salt treatment, which costs about $10 a bag so pretty cost effective. Then I can restock with the million mystery snails that I have as they are much easier to control if need be.

#2 Kleinz

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 03:15 PM

Just a question...If you are going to all that trouble, then why not just use copper sulphate or something?

#3 Neakit

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 06:46 PM

copper will leach into ornaments, substraight etc. Salt is easier to remove from everything and cheaper.

#4 werdna

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 07:11 PM

And has a higher kill rate IMO

#5 Kleinz

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 07:15 PM

I'd think both would leech into stuff, once in solution.

Which one did you reckon had a higher kill rate, Andrew?

#6 scottyhooton

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 07:22 PM

Salt Definately and it's easier to remove

#7 Kleinz

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 07:53 PM

Well, given that my Rainbow tank is having problems with black beard, filamentous and even blue-green algae, I have decided to leave the one or two cone snails I found in there after getting a new plant, be.

If this experiment proves an utter disaster, which it might well, I will keep a bag of pool salt handy.

wink.gif

#8 Fish Antics

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 08:36 PM

Have tried the salt treatment before, found it killed most of the snails but some survived and came out a few days later. Also tried using bleach, same thing, a few days later a few reappeared.

Tony

#9 Barf

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 09:02 PM

Boiling water from the jug worked for me.
And if you like a bit of escargo, why not smile.gif

#10 bigjohnnofish

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Posted 17 March 2012 - 11:39 PM

for cone snails i feel the best method is just to ditch everything except the tank... and use high pressure hose to hose out completely... (not too high pressure though)
fill with water and leave in full sun for couple days... then empty and re-rinse... and start afresh....

knowing in advance this is what your going to do get some filters pre seeded in other cone snail free tanks and then your ready to go again...

with any other snails i use h2o2 over a week dosing the tank nightly at about 50ml per 100 litres... kills everything bar cone snails... do remove all fish before treating with h2o2...
this way you dont need to toss out any substrate or filters... but you will need to recycle your tank...

one day someone will have some assassin snails and they will eradicate cones on their own.... smile.gif

#11 vinnie

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Posted 18 March 2012 - 04:25 AM

Put a couple of paki loaches in tank. Theyll fix the problem, or keep the snails hidden.

#12 werdna

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Posted 18 March 2012 - 05:33 AM

Where can you buy hydrogen peroxide?
I thought you could only buy in solution at around 10%...

#13 Kleinz

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Posted 18 March 2012 - 06:43 AM

Hydro shops will sell it at 50% str.

#14 bigjohnnofish

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Posted 19 March 2012 - 12:29 AM

QUOTE (Kleinz @ Mar 18 2012, 07:43 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hydro shops will sell it at 50% str.


yeah someone on here told me the same thing.... watershed in midland stock it....





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