Assassin snails will end rogue MTS'???

[dblondfemme]

Okay... I acquired an assassin snail... in an attempt to tame my mts'. I am telling you that these snails... will land on a fish and kill it within minutes (as 30 of their closest friends pile on). I swear I have at least 1000 snails in a 29 gal planted tank. Plants that were totally healthy are being devoured. Fish that have lived in that tank for over a year are being attacked. The funniest thing is that they don't mess with the shrimp. My plecos are even in danger.

I am planning on getting a few more assassin snails. If they do not take care of the problem.. I am going to dip each plant (in a recommended chemical), remove my shrimp and let TANK (my fugu puffer) loose in the aquarium. I will then remove the substrate, and I was planning on putting pond soil in the bottom.
However... if three or four assassins will eliminate my problem... I may get to avoid all of the hustle and bustle.

What do y'all think?

[stevenallenbarnard]

buy yourself about 3-4 small clown loaches, that will take care of your problem in a heart beat. then, when you're done witht hem, you can give them away on here

[dblondfemme]

but they will eat my shrimp. I don't really want to tear the tank apart to get them out unless I am doing the latter choice for the tank.....taking the plants out etc.

[lilmissruffcountry]

but they will eat my shrimp. I don't really want to tear the tank apart to get them out unless I am doing the latter choice for the tank.....taking the plants out etc.

My 4 inch clown doesn't mess with any of my shrimp....he was a Walmart special...was about 1.5inches when I aquired him...my issue is...I have too many snails for him to keep up with.

[Somefishguy]

Have u thought of baiting the shrimp to catch them? Take a 20 oz coke bottle... cut off the top portion, invert it and attach it with a bit of silicone. Add some shrimp food on the inside of the bottle and put it in the tank standing up. The shrimp will have an easy time getting in but hard time getting out. It should work... and if you do it a few time you should get most of them out.

But perhaps you are overfeeding and that is why you have such a huge outbreak on snails... I have a 29g with MTS, but they dont seem to be out of control. not do they eat plants or attack fish. I dont even see them during the day, only come out at night.

[Somefishguy]

link to a trap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb_k2Wg9ayI

[jarrodaden]

+1 on clown loaches. When they get too big for your tank or start eating your shrimp, I will gladly take them.

[Nickintex]

I could use some assassin snails now that I do not have a Fahaka puffer to feed the MTS to.

[dblondfemme]

won't the snails AND shrimp go into the bottle?
Also.... Mike can speak on my behalf... typical things don't happen at my house. I even went to feeding every other day and only a pinch of flake (I used to give them brine shrimp... bloodworms.. and baby nls). I had beautiful plants like 2 months ago... now I have scraps of plants. They receive natural light as well as a plant bulb. I use liquid CO2 as well as the occassional fizz tab in a diffuser thingie. I am slightly devastated. TY everyone for your ideas.

[thekarens]

Fugu puffers are a brackish/salt fish so that doesn't seem like a good solution. +1 for the clown loach. I use zebra loaches in my tank and they have brought the population down, but not eliminated it.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Marine/T_Ocellatus/

[armthehomeless]

Assassins will get rid of the MTS in your tank. It might take longer than you would like though. How long it would take depends on how many assassin snails you have and how big the tank is.

[dblondfemme]

Guess what?
Here is what I did..
I pulled all of my plants and soaked them in Potassium Permanganate for 30 minutes. I made a 5 tablespoon to 2 gallons of water mixture.
I then scooped all of my snails and fish out and relocated them.
I THEN put 5 more tablespoons of potassium permanganate into the tank DIRECTLY (filter off - scrubbed filter parts and intake tube)
I also put a whole bottle of snail-away into the tank.
I let this sit for 2 days while the plants soaked in a shallow pan of water in the sunlight and the shrimp were in a separate tank with plants from an outside source..which until then had appeared snail-less.

So... I took out all of the substrate and put it in a 5 gallon bucket which I hosed and hosed (12 complete rinsings) then added boiling water...let it sit... then rinsed completely 5 more times. I then drained the tank... added boiling water... drained... rinsed... drained... and rinsed (process repeated 7 times).

I then added the substrate (after picking out the snail shells that I could find). I refilled then tank..... I added a bag of pond planting substrate and mixed it with my fluorite in the meantime.

I let the tank sit overnight. It cleared up..no sign of snails. I put my plants in after rinsing them again along with rocks that i had soaked with the plants.

I then places the shrimp back in (there were no snails in with the shrimp) I strained them through a net (over a bucket in case any babies slipped through) I then put them in and they swam with excitement.

Today.... i have about 500 little snails.

I guess I will just have a snail tank.

[Somefishguy]

is snail away safe for shrimp?

[dblondfemme]

nope
that's why I rinsed the substrate and tank so much

[dblondfemme]

the shrimp are super hardy.... but I wouldn't subject them to anything potentially dangerous unless i had taken every step to prevent harm.
I just want these FLIPPIN snails to DIE.

Assassins are on the horizon