Oh lawks, I have a sudden population explosion of snails

[Stratters]

And I think they're the dreaded MTS. Any tips? I was hoovering the sand, and it's full of the little buggers

[bertie 83]

You can buy a snail trap for a couple of quid, bait it and leave it overnight remove in the morning and dispose. Reset it each night in a different spot and numbers will deplete

[hadla]

I think mts are eating some of the plants in my snail tank hoping the rams horns will keep breeding and cause the damn pests to starve!

[Pufferpunk]

Or just rubberband a piece of zucchini to a rock.

[Stratters]

Ah, zucchini I have. Off to do me some snail murdering

[RTR]

It is extremely difficult to rid a tank of MTS.

My usual practice is extreme, but works. Fish are transferred to another MTS-free tank. Plants are discarded, or valuable specimins are transferred to a substrate-free tank for isolation until clear of MTS (months commonly for largish root mass specimens). Substrate is rinsed well and the boiled, cooled, re-rinsed and returned to a bare tank for monitoring (months again) Original tank is cleaned and disinfected w/ original OxycleanOxyclean while bare.

Or if nothing in the tank is special, substrate and plants are discarded and bare tank is cleaned and disinfected. That is my commonest practice.

Have I mentioned that I hate MTS?

FWIW

[Stratters]

I'd do that, totally nuke the tank, except I have nowhere to put Pig meanwhile. I've only got a tiny 15l BioOrb, and Liv's community tank. It would be carnage, and she'd hate me, she's got guppy fry and she's v v protective

[Pufferpunk]

Just use the zucchini trick.

[Stratters]

I'm going to try it, the sand is heaving with baby snails <weeps>

[RTR]

Do you have a fine mesh stainless steel soup stock strainer? Even with the fish present, you can with patience get >>90% of the snails out. Then do the zucchini trick.

[hadla]

So if I do a zucchini or lettuce trick, what do I do with the snails I catch? Lol... Smash them with a hammer? XD

[Stratters]

Liv put them on the lawn, I TOLD her to bin them

Yes, I have one of those sieves, I'll spend a happy couple of hours tomorrow sieving the sand. The snails are ignoring the zucchini, Liv's fish are eating the one in her tank, Pig's is being ignored by all.

[RTR]

Once you reduce the population, you can hold it down more easily in the future by stirring and vacuuming at least weekly. I have not caught MTS over-rasping live plants, but I have never had that heavy an infestation. Any tank can become over-populated w/snails if it doesn't get at least periodic vacuuming. If heavily planted w/small plants such as crypts, frequent vacuuming will be difficult. How long has the tank been set/planted?

If such an infestation recurs, consider using feeding/water dishes to position any foods which generate lots of fines while the fish are consuming them. It might help. I use a reptile water dish in one corner for my very old and blind goldfish - when I feed, the fish is commonly there waiting - if not, it detects the flavor in the water shortly and heads directly to that dish. That is the one tank I never re-arrange. No matter what folks say about goldfish memory being short, they can and do learn where barriers are quite quickly and do not forget. That fish has now been blind longer than it had sight. For a goldfish which has never had a winter temperature reduction, it is remarkably healthy, although stunted. It started life as a feeder for carnivorous frogs and was the only left-over when said frogs were traded off. It became pet.

FWIW, HTH

[Stratters]

Awww blind goldfish

The tank is vacuumed every day, it's been set up since January, there's a fair bit of rock and artificial plants in it; Liv's not the most adept hooverer, but then my tank is almost as badly infested and I'm fanatical. Little gits must be breeding under the rock. I'm going to do what you suggested, and sieve the sand. Perhaps I need an additional tank, so I can treat these ones with a nuclear blast.

I feed Liv's tank with the Tetra tabs you stick onto the glass, plus they tend to compete with the crabs when they get their treat prawn once a week. Neither tank had live plants, Pig destroyed his, just ripped it all up; Liv's fish weren't much better, nobody explained to them about gentle nibbling of the edges. Both tanks have 4 good sized marimo balls in them, and I tend to leave the algae alone on the tank sides

[hadla]

Love the goldfish story! Wish they didn't have that feeder fish reputation...