Snails in my aquarium, how do I get rid of them?

The origin of snails that appear in an aquarium

Snails are generally unbearable inhabitants who displease by their presence in an aquarium. When seeing a colony of snails in their aquariums, many aquarists tend to question their origins. Whether it is the snails or their eggs, they integrate an aquarium through the introduction of new elements into an aquarium.

These new elements include living plants, decorative objects, gravel, nets used to transfer fish from one aquarium to another... In short, snail larvae cling to these elements and end up reproducing in an aquarium.

Apart from thoroughly treating all of these elements with an anti-snail product before their introduction, it is almost impossible to prevent the introduction of a few larvae which will multiply once they are adults. Snail invasions are therefore very common in aquariums.

Indeed, snail larvae are almost undetectable and a single snail is more than enough to create several. Snails reproduce very quickly and are therefore capable of invading an aquarium very quickly. You will then need time and effort to get rid of them.

Is the presence of snails in an aquarium good or bad?

It is legitimate for an aquarist to wonder whether the appearance of snails will be dangerous or not for the balance of his aquarium. In a lesser proportion, these mollusks can contribute to the proper functioning of an aquarium.

Snails have a reputation for being very effective against waste because they make it their food. In your aquarium, they will thus limit pollution by eating excess food, algae, waste, dead plants, dead fish, etc. Also, the presence of snails is an excellent indicator of the state of an aquarium. Clearly, their rapid reproduction reflects the presence of a significant quantity of organic waste which comes from the fact that the fish are overfed.

You must then act before this pollution impacts your fish. Similarly, snails can suddenly start dying in large numbers or moving to the surface. In this case, you must understand that there is pollution, poor oxygenation, a major imbalance, unsuitable parameters... in your aquarium. You must then act quickly before your fish suffer from these same problems.

Top Tips for Ridding Your Aquarium of Snails

Having a small number of snails coexist with fish can be very useful. However, it is largely clear that it is preferable for an aquarist to have an aquarium without snails, because beware of their invasion. Here are the solutions that we offer you to rid your aquarium of snails.

It is still recommended to test the water in your aquarium before attempting to eradicate snails. Because the presence of snails necessarily has an origin. This test will allow you to determine if the water has no problem.

Avoid overeating

Overfeeding your fish can cause the number of snails in your aquarium to explode. You should therefore be careful to feed your fish sparingly.

In short, just feed your fish with the right amount of food each time. You will then evaluate after a few days whether this technique is solving the problem of snail overpopulation in your aquarium.

Introducing Snail-Eating Predators into Your Aquarium

This method is clearly the easiest if you want to rid your aquarium of snails. You can then simply introduce snail-eating fish into your aquarium.

These fish will have the particular objective of eating snails. The most recommended fish species for this mission are: striata, lohachata, horae, botia clown… Also, to eliminate snails you can introduce a snail-eating snail like the anentome helena into your aquarium. This snail-eating snail is generally very useful.

However, you need to be careful when selecting fish species that are marketed as snail eaters. This is because snail-eating fish such as gouramis or pufferfish are aggressive and will eventually attack the fauna in your aquarium.

Removing Snails from Your Aquarium by Hand

You can manually remove the snails from your tank or crush them. Most of the fish in your tank will feed on the remains of these snails. However, this method takes time to be effective and you will not be able to eliminate all of the snails by applying it.

Because if the snail invasion is large you will have a tedious job to do. Also, this method will not allow you to eliminate the larvae and the snails will continue to develop.

Using chemicals to kill snails

Copper sulfate remains the fish-safe chemical that is commonly used to exterminate snails. However, you should know that using chemicals to remove snails from an aquarium is strongly discouraged. Therefore, you should be sure that the chemicals will not be toxic to fish before using them.

In addition, the use of chemicals will cause a sudden death of all the snails that you will be forced to remove from your aquarium. The corpses of dead snails can thus pollute the water of your aquarium while increasing the nitrite concentrations of the water. On the other hand, chemicals can effectively kill the larvae.

Clean your aquarium completely

Usually, this method is applied in the very last position. Also, aquarists do not like it too much. This method consists of storing the fish in another aquarium in order to completely clean the aquarium soiled by snails.

You must then clean without exception all the elements of the aquarium soiled by snails as well as the aquarium itself. For good reason, snail eggs can be found anywhere. You will then have to dry all the cleaned elements and reorganize your aquarium.

Placing Snail Traps in Your Aquarium

Of all the methods to eradicate the presence of snails from an aquarium, this one is the one that combines simplicity and effectiveness. One of these traps is to place lettuce leaves under an upturned plate when you turn off the light of your aquarium. The snails will migrate to the plate during the night.

The next morning, you will only have to remove the plate with the attached snails. By doing this for a few nights in a row, you are sure to rid your aquarium of a very large number of snails. However, you will find the best snail traps for aquariums on the internet or in pet stores. JBL LimCollect is one of these snail traps for aquariums that we recommend on foudebassin. JBL LimCollect is a trap with multiple advantages that will allow you to capture unwanted invaders such as snails, shrimp and crustaceans that invite themselves into your aquarium.

The JBL LimCollect snail trap is chemical-free, harmless and easy to use. This trap is designed to maintain excellent water flow in all situations. This means that you can be sure that an accidentally caught fish will never lack oxygen. JBL LimCollect is simply the ideal tool for you if you want to safely and effectively remove snails from your aquarium.