Snail invasion!

[skaandfish]

Hey!!! I have 6 CBS, bee shrimp, and with an order or riccia came three snails i only saw one at first so i didnt worry about. three weeks later i prob have around 70 in my ten gallon. they aren't eating plants but theyr layin eggs everywhere theyr tiny. dont get big at all. i cant treat the water cuz of shrimp nor can i get a puffer or loach. how can i get rid of them? there will be tons more in days. i see eggs everywhere. Also there are a bunch on the rock in the left corner of the pics

This is a pic. plant is micro sword

snailz edit.JPG (235.84 KiB) Viewed 1063 times

[icecube]

i had the same problem,
but even hydra included,
i had used fenbendazole in the tank at the rate of 1/4 tablet in 10g tank, with a 40% w/c alternate days, , and within 2 days all the snails and hydra had died,
try this out if u wish, or just keep scraping the snails and the eggs

[Terran]

Get some Assassin Snails(they eat snails)...Or you could just wait after several months the population tends to become more stabilized and they are less noticeable....Snails are great...And I would say avoid feeding the shrimp(and let them feed on the naturally occurring food that grows in the tank) ...but with 70 shrimp in a ten gallon there probally wont be enough food for all of them without supplemental feeding.

[7Enigma]

Terran,

I'm pretty sure the OP means he has 70 snails, not shrimp. Snails are opportunistic breeders; that is they quickly breed to above the level of food supply in the tank and then fall back in line with how much food is available. Be VERY careful with that many snails because they have poor digestive systems and will quickly foul the water with all the snail poo. Gravel vac's are a necessity, and I agree don't feed them or the shrimp for a while as it seems there is an abundance of food in the tank. If you don't like the idea of doing largish water changes what you can do is gravel vac into a container, let the container sit for 30min to an hour then suck the water back into the tank being careful not to suck the settled poo back in with the shrimp. I'd use a drop or two of Prime in the water to ensure you're not putting ammonia-water back into the shrimp tank but this way you can attempt to keep the nitrAtes down while waiting for the snail population to get under control.

I was interested to hear about using Fenbendazole, as this is the medicine I use for internal parasites. I've used this both with my puffer tank and with my community tank. My community tank has scores of malaysian trumpet snails and quite a few ramshorns. I detected no effects on the snail populations and was very pleased with the perceived safety of the treatment. I used a powdered version (sold at Petsmart as a 3-day dog dewormer) that I first soaked the food in for 20min or so, then dumped the food and water into the tank. The powder not absorbed into the food would fly around the tank and slowly dissolve but no snail deaths.

Are you sure you didn't mean Flubendazole? aka Flubenol. That I know is a fantastic chemical commonly used as a dewormer but with the added benefit of eradicating pretty much all snails (thought it also killed inverts like shrimp though). No longer available due to health/water concerns, but when it was sold people swore by it as the best way to get rid of internal parasites in tanks since it was one of the few that could be added to the water and effectively treat fish rather than having to actually feed them the drug.

OK enough rambling.

[skaandfish]

Thanks for the advise everyone. I've pretty much killed them all. I've just been doing 10-30% water changes twice a week and gravel vacc. Also every time i see one I get it with the net and put in alcohol then flush it. can't have the little bastards invading the local systems. tank looks alot better now.