Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

Snail is one of the unwelcome inhabitants of the aquarium. Snails or snail eggs enter the aquarium by clinging to aquatic plants, decorations are transferred from one tank to another but are still wet and not washed, on a plastic bag of newly purchased fish or fish net. Sometimes just one snail can create an entire army of snails. These mollusks proliferate very quickly, and will soon spread into the aquarium. Getting rid of a snail takes time and effort but is well worth a clean, clean aquarium.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Remove the snail in the aquarium

1. 

   Avoid overfeeding the fish. Overfeeding the fish can be the cause of the snail population explosion. Try giving the fish less food (just enough to feed the fish at a time) to see if it solves the snails.

2. 

   
   
   Use chemicals to kill snails. Copper sulfate is the most common chemical used to kill snails that is safe for fish. If you want to use this chemical, you must carefully follow the directions on the label to make sure it doesn't affect the fish. Often the snails will die massively and can contaminate the aquarium. In this case, it will take time to remove the dead snail and adjust the water to ensure the safety of the fish and plants in the tank.

3. 

   
   
   Place the snail trap in the aquarium. There are many types of snail traps available online or in aquarium stores. One type of trap, however, is very simple: place a leaf of lettuce in the aquarium, clamp the petiole on the wall of the tank and leave overnight. In the morning, when you take out the lettuce leaves, you will see the snails gather on the underside of the leaves. Just do this for a few consecutive nights and you will be able to remove a large number of snails.
   • You can also remove snails from the aquarium when you see them. This is most effective when there are only a few screws in the tank. However, most snails are nocturnal so this doesn't help much.
   • When hatched, the baby snail is quite small and can crawl up into a tank. Use water pipes that are small in diameter, like an air pump hose, as a straw. Sweep around and suck these little creatures out. It may take several times to remove all snails, but you should be able to suck up to 100 in a few minutes. Repeat this process for a few hours.

4. 

   
   
   Drop the predator into the aquarium. Scavenger fish are very suitable for release in tanks with the task of eating snails. For a small aquarium, try releasing a zebrafish or a Dwarf Chain. With a larger tank, the clownfish or the Pictus catfish will do a great job.
   • Assassin snails will also eat their own. The killer snail is not easy to multiply, so it is not a nuisance.

5. 

   Try combining multiple solutions. There are many different methods for dealing with this pest. Snails can spread to the aquarium very quickly in large numbers, so this should be a priority. You may need to try several ways to get rid of live snails in your aquarium.

6. 

   General cleaning of the aquarium. If the situation is out of control, or if you want to deal with it completely, you can clean the tank thoroughly. This means taking everything out of the aquarium, from gravel, decorations to aquatic plants, draining the water, scrubbing everything and drying it before refilling with water and returning everything in. bellows. advertisement

Method 2 of 2: Prevent snails

1. 

   Double check everything before you put it in the aquarium. Preventing snails from entering the aquarium will save you time and trouble. Check your plants or decorations to make sure snails and snail eggs are not present before adding them to the tank.

2. 

   Isolate everything before you put it in the aquarium. Isolate your plants by placing them in a separate tank. Leave the plant there for a few weeks and pick up any snails you find.

3. 

   Soak your aquarium decorations in the snail killer solution before adding it to the tank. Soak the plants in the snail killer to remove the snails and eggs. Make a solution of 1 part bleach to 19 parts water, or about cup bleach to 4 liters of water. Soak plants in the solution for 2-3 minutes, take out and rinse thoroughly under running water for 5 minutes.
   • This can be quite powerful for some plants, so there is no guarantee that it will not harm the plant.
   • You can also add the plant to a solution of aluminum sulfate and water. Mix 2-3 teaspoons of aluminum sulfate with 4 liters of water and stir. Soak the plants in the solution for at least 2-3 hours, up to 24 hours. When removing the plant from the solution, rinse it thoroughly before adding it to the aquarium.
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Advice

• A few snails in the aquarium are not a problem. They are scavengers and in this respect also helps.
• Another invasive species of snail is the Malayan trumpet. This snail lives buried under gravel in the aquarium and is active mainly at night. You may not notice the problem until they have proliferated to the point that it looks like the gravel is moving. Snails can also breed and colonize aquariums.
• The baby snail can be used as food for fish.
• Some places offer aquatic plants that are guaranteed to have no snails, so look for these whenever possible.

Warning

• Clownfish can grow to a fairly large size. They are suitable for large aquariums to control the number of snails.