Ramshorn plague.

[shawniebrock]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this brilliant site, so please be gentle with me!!
I have an Aqua one 620T which is my first real attempt at a planted aquarium, and all seemed to be going well.
The tank is planted with:
Hygrophillia polysperma
A large amount of crypts
Indian fern
I went for a variety of plants that are easier to keep due to this being my first planted tank.
I use TPN+ and Easycarbo as food and carbon additives both dosed @ 5 ml per day.

The problem is I am plagued with ramshorn snails.

For every dozen I manage to get out of the tank another dozen appear.

I was thinking of adding some Assassin snail to try and combat them.

Does anyone have any ideas for any fish that may eat them (possible loaches?)

The tank only contains 20 tetras at the moment.

The fish are fed flake once a day and frozen food maybe once a week.

The tank measurements are 24" x 12" x 24" tall so any fish would need to be moderate in size.

I change 50 - 60 % of the water every week.

Lighting is by 2 x T5's and is lit for 8 hours per day.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Shawn.

 

[Anonymous]

Any dwarf ciclids

 

[mlgt]

Feed your fish less. Grab some assasins

 

[basil]

I used to keep clown loach in a large planted tank. It's the only tank that I never saw any snails in and I've read elsewhere that they are efficient snail scoffers!

Assassin snails will do the job, but I'd warn against them if you have dwarf shrimp as they will eat them too.

Happy hunting!

 

[mlgt]

You can also offer some Ramshorn snails to members? Im sure they are fun algae eating snails.

Else loaches are good.

 

[shawniebrock]

Thanks for the quick response everyone.
They are only tiny snails, but are becoming unsightly.
Think I may get some assassins in to try and reduce the numbers.
I've seen a few advertised on e-bay, does anyone have any experiences of buying online?
Thanks again.
Shawn.

 

[mlgt]

Never ordered from fleabay before. Although if you have some interesting plants I can send you 2

 

[vauxhallmark]

Clown loaches would grow much too big for this tank.

Dwarf puffers would eat the snails, but they don't usually eat flake (for once the snails are gone) so you'll need to increase your frozen/live food feeds if you decide to keep them.

But they really aren't that hard to get rid of - when you syphon water out for a water change get as many as you can, or you could try using bait such as tablet food to see if they'll congregate round that.

Taking "a dozen" out seems a bit half-hearted if you've got a "plague".

Go for the bigger ones, too, if you keep taking the adults out they won't be able to breed.

Don't worry too much about them, enjoy your tank!

Mark