Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Tain't fresh, and tain't marine! Talk about brackish setups.
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littlepuffers
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Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by littlepuffers »

Hi everyone. We have had our two GSPs since summer of 2007? Or 2008? One of them we helped cross the bridge back at the end of December.

Anyway, we put some ghost shrimp in the tank late this spring, and one of the shrimp has survived. Our remaining puffer wouldn't go near it because it was so big. Lately we noticed that our decor has been really clean for the most part then one late night we ended up turning on the living room lights and I went and looked at the aquarium. To my horror, there were so many (mostly really small) trumpet snails ALL over the glass! We of course never see them during the day. The only way I can think of that they were introduced, was with the last batch of ghost shrimp... that maybe there were eggs on the one ghost shrimp or that it had ingested and passed eggs?

Which brings me to my question--what is a safe way to eliminate the snails without hurting the puffer!? Ironically, we have tried to breed pond snails so many times with no luck!

Please help!
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G S P Freak
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by G S P Freak »

Why bother them if you didn't even notice them before? I you're not over feeding they shouldn't become a problem. I'd love to have snails that could survive in my f8 tank, but alas he harasses even nerites to death. If you really wanna get rid of them though you can buy/make a snail trap and remove them until they're mostly gone. There are also medications to kill off snails, but this isn't recommend.
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LRU
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by LRU »

G S P Freak wrote:Why bother them if you didn't even notice them before? I you're not over feeding they shouldn't become a problem. I'd love to have snails that could survive in my f8 tank, but alas he harasses even nerites to death. If you really wanna get rid of them though you can buy/make a snail trap and remove them until they're mostly gone. There are also medications to kill off snails, but this isn't recommend.
Is there any risk of the Fig 8s choking on a trumpet snail? I only ask because my first Figure 8 died suddenly shortly after I fed him a trumpet snail, so I haven't used trumpet snails since, only pond snails. Obviously it could have been coincidence but I wonder.
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by defool89 »

If I had your problem I would set my alarm at 3am or so and just remove as many as I can unroll its not too much of a problem. Don't kill em in your tank, you'll have bad water for a long time.from rotting snails all over your tank and in your.gravel and decor
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by bertie 83 »

They will reproduce to a level to suit the food that is available to them, they are doing you a favour by consuming excess waste. However mts can crack a puffers beak. Snail traps with a novo tab in will remove loads each night when they come out to feed, place it every night until you seem to be getting very few snails and then starve the tank for a couple of days and keep the trap baited, boom snail infestation reduced to minimal numbers. From this point you will need to stop over feeding the tank and you should not see a reinfestation of these critters, you could add more large ghost shrimp to outcompete them for food also at this point. What's your current sg?
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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littlepuffers
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by littlepuffers »

Hey everyone. Thanks for the replies. The main reason I'm not comfortable with them in there, is because I don't want our puffer to break its beak... But I also know that the SNAIL's bio load can become quite a bit if they take over the tank too much. Though, I must say, it's nice to have cleaner decor and no algae on the glass!

There shouldn't be that much excess for them to eat. I only feed the fish every 3 or 4 days--depending on whether it runs from me or comes zooming up to the top to eat. And then it only eats a bit until its belly is rounded.

I'm not sure what our SG is right now, I'll check and post sometime soon. Is there a range the MTS cannot survive in?
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bertie 83
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by bertie 83 »

If you raise the salinity to a level not suitable for them to live in they will all likely die, this will cause a large spike potentially crashing your tank. They will only populate to the food available, bear in mind puffers are messy eaters, thoroughly vacuuming the substrate on a regular basis will also help keep their numbers in check.
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: Trumpet Snail Infestation!!

Post by Iliveinazoo »

bertie 83 wrote:If you raise the salinity to a level not suitable for them to live in they will all likely die, this will cause a large spike potentially crashing your tank. They will only populate to the food available, bear in mind puffers are messy eaters, thoroughly vacuuming the substrate on a regular basis will also help keep their numbers in check.
Good luck with that, I had some living in my old fiddler tank that often rose to SG1.018.

I'm with GSP Freak on this one and not worry about it. If you don't overfeed then they will happily live in and turnover the substrate though the day and then pop out at night to clear detritus and algae. I have a figure 8 tank with MTS and one of the puffers has broken teeth but the culprit wasn't the snails it was the vet I took him to to get his teeth clipped - he uncermoniously took him out of the water and cut with cutters at a right angle to the length of the teeth and the cutters were blatantly too large for the job. It all happened so quick that all I managed to say was "don't take him out the wate....."

My other puffer catches the MTS when he can and has had no teeth problems - he mostly sucks them out of the shell.
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