Re: snails , the guest that won't go home

["Catherine Carney" <schmidtcarney at ecr_net>]

For a coldwater tank, rainbow darters are about the best snail eliminators
I've found. For those that are curious, they're a small (3") native fish
found on the gravelly rocky bottoms (riffles) of swift moving rivers. I
suspect that snails and other bottom dwelling invertebrates are their
natural diet....BTW, they can be maintained on frozen foods (brine,
bloodworms--I'm not allergic to them yet), live (daphnia, bbs, whiteworms,
etc) and I even have 2 fantail darters that greedily eat flake.

I haven't tried using them in killie tanks--I suspect that the water might
be on the warm side and not oxygenated enough--but I have used them when
I've emptied the fish from a tank, added a power filter, and turned the
darters loose to forage. They even will clear a MTS's from a tank if given
time.

My 0.02.

Catherine


> Snails,
> I set up a 50 gallon Discus tank about a year ago.
> Discovered some beautiful plants in a local ditch.  Knew better, but
cleaned
> them up and planted them.
> From then on, I killed about 30 snails, every time I feed the Discus.
> I added a pair of Clown Loaches to the tank for color.
> In about two weeks the snails were gone -  Haven't seen one since -
> Try it - you will love the Clowns -
> ( by the way, the plants didn't work either -)
> Larry
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mark bethke" <ferreterr at netscape_net>
> To: <killietalk at actwin_com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 8:13 AM
> Subject: snails , the guest that won't go home
>
>
> >
> > Good morning , I'm new to the list and would like to relate a problem .
> > We have a 40 gl w/ a double biowheel filter . The tank is heavily
> > planted and for the most it's a gourami tank.
> > About a yr back I did find a pair of  aplocheilus lineatus and they seem
> > to have adjusted to the tank rather well .
> > With all the plants it was inevitable that we would be importing snails
> > , there are three types , one is a typical "ramshorn" another is a small
> > thin shelled type that resembles a "marginela gastropod" the third is an
> > inlongated snail that only eats detritus in the gravel , it's not a
> > problem snail and seems to be more helpful then destructive.
> > The other two types are destuctive to the plants and even get into the
> > filter which stops the biowheels . I began a crusade to elimanate the
> > first two types . I crush them then drop it into the water, the killi's
> > seem to only eat the thin shelled types and the ranshorn type are eaten
> > by the other inhabitants . it's a losing battle though as they breed so
> > fast that I can't keep up . i turned to a snailicide, after three
> > treatments there have been no true reductions in the snail population. I
> >  discontinued use for two resons , 1) , the snails weren't being
> > reduced, 2) i don't like using any pesticide or chemical due to unknown
> > effects in the fish.
> > Any other suggestions???
> > Also , is there a book out there for gourami people , i know this is a
> > killifish forum but I would appreciate the imput .
> >
> > mark bethke
> >
> > ---------------
> > See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
> > Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm
> >
>
>
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