Loaches Online Forum

I would love to put real plants in the tank I am planning for kuhli loaches, but whenever I have tried to have a planted tank no matter how much I wash the plants beforehand the tank always ends up completely covered in snails!! I wonder how others manage it or whether it is possible at all???

Val

Hi Val

You can always treat the plants with a snail treatment before adding the plants to the tanks. Gastropex by Esha is available and usually recommended for this.

Preventive bath; for 10 litres or 2.2 Gallons. For 1-2 hours use 2 drops.

Jules

I rinse in tap water. I know people use bleach and rinse well.

I like snails. They keep the tank clean, they are an early warning sign of water quality and some are beautiful.

Even if you introduce snails, if you do not overfeed your tank, you should be able to keep them under control.

[quote="FishyLady"]I would [i]love[/i] to put real plants in the tank I am planning for kuhli loaches, but whenever I have tried to have a planted tank no matter how much I wash the plants beforehand the tank [i]always[/i] ends up completely covered in snails!! I wonder how others manage it or whether it is possible at all???

Val[/quote]

One way to 'disinfest' plants is immersion in potassium permanganate solution for a few hours, and the other, less worrisome is to purchase a couple of assasin snails for the hatchet job...

On the other hand, if you like hunting, then you can be assured of fun for as long as you going to maintan woter in your tank!

There are several ways to disinfect plants that you get before adding them to a tank. Some of them have been mentioned above, and Google searches will net many other successful methods.

Should snails be introduced, it's not difficult to keep them in check. Common pest snails will not lay eggs if there is not excess food available. Keeping the tank clean and ensuring that no uneaten food lays around will go a long way towards preventing an infestation.

A great way to remove snails from the tank once they've been introduced is to leave a vegetable (Lettuce leaf, slice of zuchinni, etc.) in the tank overnight. The snails will swarm this and can be removed in the morning before they go off to lay eggs.

Planted tanks are well worth the extra effort! Your kuhlis will thank you for it.

I have never seen a problem with snails. I have them but never in huge numbers. To me they seem like a good back up if you have no other bottom(leftover crap) feeders.
I am even getting a great green mat on my rear glass, their are not so many snails that they eat it all. And don't they eat the algae off of your plants?

If you have sails, in spite of your best efforts, one option would be to introduce fish that eat snails. They could merely be temporary inhabitants. Trade them in or give them away once they take care of the problem. I've used Opaline Gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus) for that before, as well as Pea Puffers (Carinotetraodon travancoricus). There are also a number of Botia-types that love snails.

FishyLady wrote:I would love to put real plants in the tank I am planning for kuhli loaches, but whenever I have tried to have a planted tank no matter how much I wash the plants beforehand the tank always ends up completely covered in snails!! I wonder how others manage it or whether it is possible at all???

I know this is an oldish topic, but I thought I'd add a bit.
Snails are a natural part of most natural ecosystems. In my experience, it is very possible to keep their numbers managable if there are no other problems in the tank. From what I have seen, the most common cause of a snail population explosion is long term overfeeding.

If you still really do not want snails, then I recommend that you just get a couple of assassin snails and keep them in a smaller tank, using that as a quarantine for plants. I very strongly advise against snail-cides because these can be harmful to fish and even to plants.