Snails and sand in tropheus tank

[muuunkeeyy]

I have an outbreak of pond snails in my tropheus tank. i removed all the substrate along with the snails and now there aren't any visibly in the tank. they are probably in the filters tho lol. i kind of want to add sand back into the tank but i am almost certain that the snails would use that as their home and multiply within it. should i keep the tank bare bottom or eradicate the snails before adding substrate? whats a sure free way to do it without hurting my tropheus, petro, clown loachs, and bristle nose pleco? they multiply by the hundreds within a month and climb the glass of the tanks like crazy when i have substrate.

[muuunkeeyy]

btw everytime i clean my filters, there is probably hundreds in my 110 and eheim.

[AquaticAddict]

I had a snail problem too ane I ordered 1 assasin snail from petco a few months back now the assasin is the only snail left!

[muuunkeeyy]

oh really? lol i guess i should invest in assassin snails. would they leave plenty of snail shells in my tank? and where would i be able to get them in sw houston?

[AquaticAddict]

Specialone0812 had some for sale

[muuunkeeyy]

oh thanks! i contacted him and purchased some..then i failed to remember that clown loaches ate snails too. (even assassin snails) lol. i js threw them into my 10g tetra tank instead. not sure if i should remove the loaches for the snails or possibly the loaches would be able to clean up the snail mess.

[armthehomeless]

Get rid of the loaches . . . then transfer the assassins over.

[muuunkeeyy]

Assassins > clowns on the snails situation?

[Gene D]

Get rid of the loaches . . . then transfer the assassins over.

+1

The only way to completely eradicate them would be to clean the filters with bleach and starting over with new media. If you just keep a handful of assassins they will keep the tank itself free of MTS

[muuunkeeyy]

thanks guys. looks like my loaches are leaving home! lol. they didn't do much for controlling small pond snails. hopefully the assassins will help. 12 for a 75 sufficient?

[specialone0812]

oh thanks! i contacted him and purchased some..then i failed to remember that clown loaches ate snails too. (even assassin snails) lol. i js threw them into my 10g tetra tank instead. not sure if i should remove the loaches for the snails or possibly the loaches would be able to clean up the snail mess.

hey sorry, i did not know you had loaches in your tank. look like those loaches are leaving your tank.

[muuunkeeyy]

lol yeah that totally didn't cross my mind until i saw my loach try to go at one of the assassins..then im like OH YEAHH! they eat snails too. thanks again for the snails! they look great.

[armthehomeless]

12 in a 75 will be fine.

[muuunkeeyy]

cool thanks. they should be able to handle the high flow and activeness of tropheus right? lol every time i checked my tank, i only saw them sitting in the sand rolled up. not really moving around much. a couple dug inside the sand already. k4 with sure flow mod in the tank. lol. GL snails..

[Gene D]

They will be fine. I have 2 MP 40s on a 5 foot tank where most of my snails are. They don't don't zip around merrily killing, but given time you will see whitish gray MTS shells start to pile up