Pest Snail Overview
Fish tanks, especially planted aquariums can be overrun with pest snails. These little invertebrates may hitchhike into your aquarium on plants or other aquatic decor purchased at a fish store. If caution isn’t taken, these little nuisances can take over your tank which can become a headache. There are ways to help prevent your aquarium from being invaded by nuisance snails and there are ways to help control pest snails once they enter your aquarium.
Help Prevent Nuisance Snail Invasions
As stated above, these little invaders may hitchhike into your aquarium from plants purchased at pet stores. Often, the snail itself will not be hanging onto the plant but its eggs will. The eggs are hard to see because they are almost clear. Before placing plants into your fish tank visually inspect each plant. Check the leaves and stems for snails and eggs. I also recommend running your fingers through each of your plant’s stems to feel for nuisance snail eggs. They will most likely be wet and squishy. This is not always successful but it’s a measure you can take to help remove pest snails.
Bleaching Plants
If you’re still paranoid of bringing snails into your fish tank, bleaching your plants is something that can be done before adding plants into your fish tank. If you know the fish store you purchased your plants from has pest snails, you can remove snails and by using a watered down bleach solution. I recommend using a ratio of 3/4 cups of bleach to a gallon of water. Mix the solution in a bucket to evenly disperse the bleach and then place your new plants in the solution for 2-3 minutes. Remove the plants from the solution and rinse them under running water for about 5 minutes. This should help eradicate baby pest snails and adult snails. Most treatments will not kill off eggs though!
It is harsh on plants and I would be weary of trying this method on more delicate plants. Hardy plants like Anubias and Java Fern will be more tolerable of a diluted bleach solution compared to less hardy plants like Madagascar Lace. This solution can kill a plant so assess the risk before conducting it.
How to Control Pest Snails in Aquarium
Freshwater aquarium pest snails can be easily missed and can make their way into your fish tank. If snails are already in your fish tank, there are measures you can take to help lower the population but also remove them completely. Not every method will work but using a combination of each can help remove these invaders.
Population Control Pest Snails
The first step that should be taken, in my opinion, is to attempt controlling the population of snails that are in your fish tank. Controlling the population will not guarantee the removal of snails but it will slow down the invasion. One way to control the population is to physically remove the snails. Get down and dirty and pluck the little inverts with tongs or your hands. I personally use the tongs from an aquarium planting kit like this one from Amazon. It helps keep my hands out of the water and I can often get into the nooks and crannies my hands can’t normally fit into.
Trap & Remove
The second method I would use to help control the population is to “trap” and remove snails that you cannot find or see. Something as simple as a piece of lettuce on a fish feeding clip will attract nuisance snails. Set the trap up at night before bed, leave it there throughout the night. Check on it in the morning and you should have plenty of little snails munching on lettuce. Once a bunch are on there, take out the lettuce, remove the snails and rise and repeat the process. Please do not flush nuisance snails down the toilet. If they are not native to our waterways they can invade our streams, rivers and lakes!
Cut Down on Feeding
Part of our excitement in keeping fish is feeding the animals you owns. Many times and without knowing, we overfeed our pets. This is just perfect for pest snails. They will utilize the leftover food and this can be part of the reason their populations explode. Cut down on feeding and see how the snail’s populations react. It won’t change overnight, but this can assist in lowering the snail population in your aquarium.
How To Kill Pest Snails in Fish Tanks
There are many different ways we can kill pest snails in a fish tank. Snails are on the bottom of the food chain so there are plenty of aquatic animals that will eat them. You can also kill them chemically (not my preference). We have options to work with and I will go and discuss some methods we can take.
Assassin Snails
Assassin Snails are a species of snails that assassinate other snails. They have little stinger that they use to paralyze snails and possibly other small animals. It’s not as common for them to go after shrimp and larger snails but there is always a small risk. If there are small snails in the tank, they will most likely focus on them. You may need more than one Assassin Snail if your fish tank is completely overrun with nuisance snails. They’re not very big themselves but should get straight to work once introduced into an aquarium. These snails are an excellent choice for Nano fish tanks that can’t house snail eating fish due to capacity limitations.
Loaches
Loaches are excellent snail eaters. However, there are many different loach species, and they all have different aquarium requirements. It’s important to research information on anything before adding it into your fish tank. Regardless, this fish can and will decimate snail populations. Clown Loaches and Yo-Yo Loaches always come to mind when I think of snail hunters. Clown Loaches grow slowly but will outgrow small aquariums and the YoYo Loach is excellent for aquariums 20 gallons or larger. As a warning, most snail and shrimp can become a snack for loaches. Loaches can really clean up a fish tank with snails.
Puffer Fish
Freshwater Puffer Fish are not very practical for many aquariums. They are often times very territorial and will nip on most fish. However, if you have an empty fish tank infested with snails, consider getting Puffer Fish. There are many different species to choose from. The smallest and probably the most practical to keep is the Pea Puffer. They will grow no larger than 1.5 inches but are mean and these little fish can devastate snail populations. If you are looking into get one, know that they are aggressive amongst themselves so I personally would only keep 1 in 10 gallons.
Chemical Removal
My last resort to remove nuisance snails is through the use of chemicals. Just like with other fish tank ailments like algae problems, I stray away from using chemicals unless it is the last option. However, if you’re snail infestation has gone off the deep end, consider using chemicals to help eradicate them. I am not talking about bleach or hydrogen peroxide. There are chemicals that are “relatively” safe for aquarium use. Copper is often used to treat sick fish and also remove nuisance snails. Cupramine by Seachem is one that comes to mind. Be sure to also purchase the Seachem Copper Test Kit to monitor how much copper is in your fish tank if you choose to go this route.
Invertebrates are incredibly sensitive to copper so make sure any inverts you want alive are removed before dosing. Also, copper can be harsh on your system as a whole. Do your best to not overdose because that can end up being lethal to fish as well. This dosing can cause quick die off of nuisance snails. Remember to remove the dead/dying snails. They can quickly make your water parameters suffer if not kept in check. Lastly, the copper can linger in your aquarium even after a few water changes. Keep track of the copper levels before reintroducing invertebrates into your fish tank.
Final Notes
Freshwater Pest Snails are relatively not bad for an aquarium. They are beneficial because like many other snails, they act as a clean up crew to remove food and algae. However, they can really become a nuisance if not kept under control. I highly recommend trying to naturally remove nuisance snails before moving on to more dangerous control methods. It’s better to remove the source of the problem rather than putting a Band-Aid over it.