Loaches Online Forum

I posted here 4 months ago that I was starting to see tiny ramshorn snails in my sewellia tank. I tried picking them out by hand, trapping them, baiting them with vegetables, nothing decreased their numbers and in fact there are hundreds, maybe thousands of them in my tank covering the walls and the stones which grow algae for the sewellia to graze.

I wasn't feeding the tank because the sewellia never ate anything but the algae so the snail numbers were not due to overfeeding. The sewellia were doing great at first - I had 2 batches of babies appear but in the past few weeks I've noticed the fish seem to be thinner and fry were dying. I started feeding dry Repashy which seemed to work well for the sewellia - but I fear also for the snails. I finally decided to break down the tank and move the sewellia to a new, longer tank. It's been 2 days and I just found a tiny ramshorn snail in the new tank. ARGH!

The only thing that moved from the old tank to the new was the sewellia but catching them was very challenging and I suspect a snail hitchhiked on a net or my hand. These snails never get bigger than 2-3 mm and start even smaller. I've never seen eggs - they must be microscopic.

I need to put something in the tank to kill snails. I've narrowed it down to Planaria Zero which is a Japanese product that contains betel nut or Seachem Cupramine which contains copper. Does anyone have any experience using either of these products with sewellia? I hate to put them at risk but they are not doing well with all the snails in the tank. Very very frustrating. Thank you for any help.

I never tried one of these products, AND I never kept Sewellia. However, I do know Sewellia comes from very clean, rapid moving water, and fish from these areas are usually rather sensitive where it comes to toxic products.

I would suggest not using any, but feeding a bit less

Thank you for the reply but as it says in my post, I wasn't feeding anything at all. No food. And the snails multiplied horrendously. I only started feeding when my fish looked thin.

My options are to allow the snails to multiply in the new tank and wait for the sewellia to die off or to try a medication. Or get rid of the fish but I don't want to pass a problem on to another fish keeper.

Maybe you could try an assassin snail, they prey on other snails. Copper will ruin your tank for ever keeping inverts of any kind, I haven't used it in more than 30 years. I wonder if it might have an effect of fish reproduction. I never heard of using betel nut in aquaria.

Trumpet snails are live bearers, which is why you do not see eggs.

You are right, it only takes one snail to hitch a ride, as you suspect perhaps got caught in the net when you caught a fish.
This is usually the safest way to eliminate snails, that is, by moving the fish to a new tank.
I wonder if a temporary stop in a quarantine tank would have helped- A tank with no decor, no place for the snails to hide. Treat net and Q-tank with snail killer. When you are sure snails are dead, then move fish,
Or even throw away the net.

Still will not keep all snails out of the tank. ANYTHING you add to the tank from another tank might carry baby snails.

I had 3 assassin snails in the old snail tank and they did seem to kill a lot of the tiny snails but there were still so many more. I can't imagine how many assassins it would take to control the tiny pests. I've put the assassins in the new tank and I hope they find any more snails that show up.

I think the quarantine tank idea is a good one except it's so hard to catch the tiny fry. I'm committed to getting rid of these *#?! snails! And I guess moving the sewellia from one tank to another is hard but doable. I hope it's not too much stress for them.

I still have one tiny fry in the old tank which is drained down to 1" of water. I can't seem to get this wily little guy! Turkey baster, double nets, glass jar - he just flits away out of reach or squeezes through invisible openings. He's only 1/2" long. I hate to give up on him but I'm spending so much time on the tanks doing ridiculous things lately!

Thanks for the replies, any other suggestions are welcome!