What will be a good Community snail-eater in a 15 gallon fishtank??

I am getting a new 15 gallon fish tank and I think I will have a probleme with snails. I have a very small tank that I keep my Guppy fry in. I put live plants and there are 5 snail I manage to find them and threw them in the pond. If you have any suggesion, please conssider that I am going to keep it with neon tetras. And no cruel ways please!|||Clown loaches do a great job but get way too big for a 15-gallon, especially since they do best in groups of 5 or more. The Yo Yo Botia also does a great job eating snails, but I'm not sure how big they get. You might try Googling them because I've never seen one longer than a couple of inches so that might be a good choice for you if you can find them in a local fish store.





So as not to overload your tank, your best option might be baiting. Just put a piece of cooked squash, lettuce, or an open green bean in the bottom of your tank and let it sit overnight. When you wake up it should be covered in snails. Remove it and then repeat again for a few nights until the population has dwindled. This won't get rid of every single snail, but ramshorns are actually very helpful in cleaning aquariums and keeping plants alive (if that happens to be the particular snail that you have) so having a handful of them wouldn't hurt.





Also, you should know that actually selling these snails is illegal. I found this out when I bought a puffer and was trying to track snails down because he cleaned out the snail population in his tank so quickly. Some people at PetsMart and PetCo don't know better, but anyone at a LFS told us that they can't sell - or even give these snails - to customers because they populate so quickly that it becomes a threat to our environment when people throw them in ponds. What I'm trying to say is, if you think the snails multiplied quickly in your tank, imagine what that pond will look like in a year. Please find another way to dispose of your snails.





If you can't bear to squish or otherwise kill them yourself, then find a loach to do the job for you. Don't release them into the wild. When the loach gets too big, sell him back to the fish store (local stores will often buy fish off of customers).|||check under the leaves of all plants you add to the 15 gallon for jelly-like egg sacs. rinse, squish and remove. this should prevent the new tank becoming overrun.





if you still find yourself with some snails, just pick and squish is the best way, chemicals will kill the snails, but leave the tank littered with dead bodies which will cause an ammonia spike and harm the fish.





i recommend picking and squishing, that's how I rid my tank of a ramshorn invasion (1 to 400 in a matter of months, 400 to none in a matter for several further months).





there are fish that will eat snails, but loaches are too big and/or too active for a 15 gallon. and puffer fish would shred the guppies to pieces.





there is a new snail on the market, the assassin snail, which is predatory towards other snails. they're not cheap and quite a new import i think, but interesting none the less! i have yet to find proper care instructions for them and have only seen them for sale in 2 independant stores in London.|||never use chemical for killing snails in an aquarium with fish they will still reduce your fish immunity even though they claim to be harmless. A Clown Loach will eat the snails. You might like to try a small bottle (pill or spice bottle very clean) add a small piece of lettuce and place in tank on its side, leave overnight and you should find snails inside the bottle in morning that you can dispose of in a humane way.|||Say hello to my little friend, the algae eater.


If you get one big enough, and the snails are small enough this creature will eat the snails whole!


If you take the guppy fry out, then you could get a salamander or even a crayfish. They would eat those boogers no matter how big!!


That's pretty much the most "humane" way I could think of.


Hope I helped you in some way.





Best regards,


billcollins531|||I'm not sure about snail-eaters but I've had this problem before. I took the gravel and plants out of my tank - I threw away the gravel and got some new and I washed the plants with hot water. Those are pesky little snails that usually come from the petstore.|||I don't think anything will officially eat all of the snails.


But there is a liquid formula that you can put in the tank that will destroy the snails, and not harm the fish.


It can be purchased at pet stores.|||there is only one organic way.you take your fish (if you have any) and then scrub the the tank.