Loaches Online Forum

Folks,
If one has 1) lots of snails and loaches continually "culling" the population or 2) live/whole snails put in as loach food, eventually one's gravel/substrate gets dominated with empty shells.
Any suggestions on getting them out? Any reason particularly to bother? Will they harden or buffer the water?

In everyone's lovely photos i never see this sort of "trash"... i feel like such a slum-lord :)

ps: Y. modesta are not bothering with other fish (angels etc...) as they are too busy with each other and re-mixing all the substrate/sand. SFSG. Plus my angels are really bloodthirsty cows.
Photos... when i clean the glass.

A

I have a whole snail graveyard in the sid tank! Never occurred to me to do anything about it - just waved it off as the loaches' trophy collection. I'll be interested to hear the answer on this

i think the reason you see no shell is because we have'nt got any.
i would'nt think it wouild change your water value by much if it's pond snails were talking about.
the only snail we have thats a swine to get shut of is the malay trumpet snail which stays under the substrate through the day and comes out at night to feed.

mick

If you use a sand substrate you can sift through the sand with a net or strainer and collect the empty shells rather easily.

If some of the shells still contain live snails, then put all the shells in a small bucket of water. Then put a piece of bait in there to help collect the live ones.

With any other kind of substrate, about once a year, I'll just pick out all the empties one at a time with some tongs.

My substrate is probably 20% MTS shells, with half a dozen other sp mixed in as bred over 12 months, then consumed by one ravenous clown over the subsequent 18. Other clowns never picked up the habit...
There's no picking them out :) ... unless absolutely necessary.
So if dem naa problem, den dem 'z 'abitat dem.

A

Mine usually get sucked up when I vacuum- but I usually x-fer the snails from the 'snail breeder' tank when they are still pretty small...'snack size'.

Kate

My 40 has a growing mts graveyard. I was going to post a pic of it but my camera has disappeared and my daughter's is in the shop.

It almost seems as if they bring the shells to this one spot in the front right corner to dump them.

I purchased my Yoyos in order to eradicate an unbelievable snail infestation.

I do not know the species of these snails but they were very small and spherical.

They were a gift which I received with plants.

My definition of infestation is virtually 100% coverage of wood, rocks and plants.

In addition the snails or their egg sacks were present on virtually 100% of the tank walls.

Several months subsequent to the purchase of the Yoyos no snails were visible.

I believe that a significant quantity of snails are present in my tank although not visible due the quantity of their shells present on the surface of the substrate.

shari2 wrote:It almost seems as if they bring the shells to this one spot in the front right corner to dump them.

Mine are on the left middle of my tank where I believe the least current is present in the tank although many are deposited in other areas.

TR

Snail shells dissolve so slowly they do not significantly increase the pH, GH or KH of the water.
Sifting them out of coarser or finer substrates is about the only way I know of to remove snail shells from either sand or coarse gravel. I suppose in gravel the same size as the shells you could figure out some way to crush the shells then sift out the pieces. I think the gravel would have to be out of the tank.

If a partial cleaning is OK (75%+, depending on your patience) then get a strong whirlpool going and the snail shells are lighter than the gravel and will accumulate in one area. I am envisioning doing this in a bucket or garbage can that is round.

Of course most of these are not applicable in a tank. If you are moving a tank for any reason, though, here is a chance to get rid of snail shells.

Will they siphon out through a tube, leaving the heavier gravel? (Not a gravel vac with a restriction)

I think Malaysian Trumpet Snails have heavier shells and these ideas migh not work.

Where is Maxwell's Demon when you need him?

Diana wrote:Snail shells dissolve so slowly they do not significantly increase the pH, GH or KH of the water.

Diana:

I do not disagree.

I python the bottom very infrequently now but the snail shells come out and I believe this to be beneficial although I cannot specify a reason.

TR

Lots of stuff going on in the tank that do not show with the few tests that are commonly available.

Diana wrote:Lots of stuff going on in the tank that do not show with the few tests that are commonly available.

Diana:

Absolutely and our tests are reliable only within several standard deviations.

I do not understand your post.

Do you believe that I should not be removing the snail shells from my tank?

TR

When we had little red ramshorn snails for loach treats I felt the shells were a bit sharp. I tried to remove some so nobody got hurt. Years later I still use the same substrate but only rarely see any shell pieces so I think they may have either floated off when rinsing or dissolved over time.