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Re: Snails



Amy, chemical warfare is a waste of time with MTS, IMHO.

I have soaked gravel for weeks in bleach (fairly strong) and when the stuff
was rinsed and water added, there were MTS crawling up the walls the next
night. Yes, their shells were covered with white blotches, but they were
still going strong.

They have a trapdoor that they slam closed when they detect copper or
hypochlorite or any other snail-killing product, so you just cannot kill
them that way. They apparently can go dormant for months.

Boiling, strong acid or complete substrate replacement are the only things I
know that work. 

Clown loaches have been a joke, in my tanks. The larger snails all survived
and enough babies escaped to allow populations to actually rise.

This is a serious problem for fish breeders, as the MTS are, by preference,
highly carnivorous. They are the most devastating egg eaters I have ever
seen. [That may be why plant folk like them so much. They only eat veggies
when really hungry.]

There will be more than you expect in any substrate, so killing them would
be a foul mess, even if it could be done. Certainly not something for a tank
with good fish and/or plants in it.

Wright

> Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 20:06:02 +0000
> From: "Amy Ayukawa" <amyayukawa at hotmail_com>
> Subject: Re: Snails
> 
> I too have been experiencing explosions of MTS in all my tanks. I've tried 
> removing them by hand, with cantaloupe rind and cucumber, and with 
> snail-eating fish. These methods keep them in check temporarily, but they 
> rebound as soon as my removal efforts slacken. Drastic as it seems, I'd like 
> to rid all my tanks of all snails forever!
> 
> I'm tempted to try a chemical snail poison. There are so many snails in some 
> of my tanks that I worry that if they all died at once, the rotting snail 
> flesh could seriously pollute the tank. My plan was to mount a concerted 
> attack on the snails using manual and bait removal, then zap them with the 
> chemical.
> 
> Can someone tell me if these snail-killing chemicals harm plants and fish? 
> Is there a product that people recommend?

-- 
Wright Huntley -- 650 843-1240 -- 866 Clara Dr. Palo Alto CA 94303 
                    http://www.sfbaka.net.

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