Can anyone help with my snail problem please?

[stormycat]

Hi

We started up a small tank about 8 weeks ago for red ramshorn snails only. Trying to breed them for my 2 GSPs rather than orderering them in. Where we live only 3 fish shops - not many snails.
So far so good. Eggs, babies hatching, then the tank goes nuts and the pump stops working properly.
Tank goes all yacky overnight.
Get a new pump, tank clears up. 2 weeks later same thing, pump stops working properly.
We have come to the conclusion it is snail slime. It is over everything. Even though we cleaned the pumps thoroughly they slow right down again quickly.

Does anyone else breed snails and have this problem?
What is the solution please?

The tank is an Azoo night and day about 15/20 litres.
We feed them carrot and algae wafer.



Thanks in advance
Nicki

[inkyjenn]

i have a ten gallon with TONS of snails. i mean dozens and dozens. never had a problem with slime. is the pump you are referring to a filter or an air pump for an air stone? if you dont have a filter, you are probably getting algae and possibly blue green algae (cyanobacteria) over everything. do you have a water test kit? what are your parameters?

[Content2Swell]

Never heard of a slime problem before, but I suppose there is always a first.
First thing that comes to my mind is, are there little snails clogging the filter? in my tank, every time I change the filter I have a fist full of snails to scrape back into the tank.
How long has your tank been set up on the whole? Because of adding a mineral block, my filter cartidges had nasty sludge on them for the first couple of weeks, I had to change them twice a week. That and no matter how much I rinse sand, when I first set up a tank it always get on the cartridge.

[taureandragon76]

I have heard many times of peoples filters getting clogged with snails and sometimes eventually destroying the impellor. I find that if it only a breeding tank then the best option IMO for filtration is just a Hydor sponge filter. With this there is no equipment to get clogged up but an airstone and a sponge.

[Dwarfpuffer2008]

My 2 filters on my 20 Gal did the same thing...I would clean them, couple days later..they would slow down..to almost nothing..what I did I took a couple of aquaclear sponges and covered the intakes...never had a problem since

[stormycat]

The tank has a built in compartment in the back that hold the filter medium, the powerhead and the heater, the water is drawn in through the top through floss but also drawn from underneath the gravel across the whole bottom of the tank. The actual pump is purely a pump, it is in the filter area and pumps water into the main tank thus the water is drawn back into the filter - hope this makes sense

we put a small internal canister filter in and within 24 hours had slowed down to a crawl, the filter medium wasn't blocked but when you pulled the filter out you could feel slime all over it. There is no sign of algae and the slime is clear. We have since done a 90% water change and removed all of the original plants and the pump outputs have now picked up. There was no sign of any snails dead or alive in the filter. I have seen that some people's snail breeding tanks have no gravel so I am contemplating removing all the gravel and blocking off the bottom where the filter sucks in. We have lost a lot of the brand new baby snails however the slightly larger snails are still around and the eggs are growing. What is the best thing to feed the snails on ? we tried cucumber but it turned to mush very quickly so we feed them carrot now instead. Maybe we are overfeeding them?

[Content2Swell]

I don't want to frustrate you by asking this, but are you washing the vegetables off before feeding them? There may be a waxy residue building up in the tank from insecticides.

[stormycat]

Yes I wash the vegetables, and I peel the carrot when we put it in.
Checking it this morning it seems stable at the moment. I feel a bit mean now, it seems really bare in there with no plants!!!But the water flow is better. I wonder did I have too much stuff in there - plants, too much carrot etc. Will monitor it daily.

[StormySkiez]

My 10g snail/shrimp filter gets thick w/ sludge and slime every 6 months or so and does stop/slow the water flow. The maker of my filter (tetra) recommends cleaning the filter parts monthly so I have neglected it slightly.....I think your filter can not handle your snail load. Another thing is how much do you feed your snails? I may have missed this. They really do not need a lot of food. They eat the algae in the tank. I feed mine usually 3 times a week. Less feeding also cuts down on to many snails.

[jinnan-tonnyx]

I used to have the "mystery snails" that you can get at the generic pet shops and the filter tube in my snail breeding tank would have to be de-slimed on a weekly basis. (I think I was overfeeding them as well, but they do seem to produce a lot of slime). Then I had a big temperature drop last winter which killed all those snails, so I started over with some free ramshorn snails & pond snails from the local pet store and the tank is staying a lot cleaner. I also don't feed them as much as I used to feed the mystery snails.

Also, if you think the baby snails might be getting sucked into the filter, perhaps you can shorten the filter tube length?

[Content2Swell]

Hmm I never thought it might make a difference depending on which type of snail it is. I plan to start up a red ramshorn breeder (same equipment and all) so I will let you know if it behaves differently from my current pond/ramshorn setup. I also have a dwarf frog and a zebra danio in the tank with the snails, I don't know what that means.

[inkyjenn]

i have ramshorns and pond snails and malaysian trumpet snails in my 10 and i have never seen any kind of slime or residue in the tank at all. could you maybe post a picture so we can help you more?