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Old 18-07-2003, 11:15 AM
LeighMo
 
Posts: n/a
Default Malaysian snails gone wild

Yeah, I've already thought about the prefilter idea. I've ordered a sponge
that should function as a prefilter by mail-order when I did all my food
mail-ordering this week. It should come sometime next week. I'm still
concerned that the very small snails will get through the sponge, but at
least those won't clog up the intake as badly as the ~0.5-1" ones do.


Yeah, a lot of people use Aquaclear sponge inserts are prefilters. You cut a
slit in one edge, and stick the intake in. (It's important to use filter
sponges, since they are designed to let water flow through them.) I used them
for years. They work well, but they're kind of ugly.

IME, few snails get through a foam prefilter. And the ones that do probably
get in through gaps, rather than actually traveling through the foam. (I have
quite an MTS farm myself, in my 29 gallon tank.)

I got home from a two-week vacation Wednesday, to find the filter on the 29
gallon tank running very slow. I thought it was dirty media, so I took the
filter apart to clean it. The media was very clean. The strainer with its
foam prefilter had fallen off while I was gone, leaving the 1" diameter intake
unprotected. (I probably didn't connect it tightly during the pre-vacation
cleaning.) As for why the flow was so slow...a 1" diameter apple snail had
lodged itself in the intake tube. It was stuck so tight I thought I'd have to
break the shell to get it out. I did manage to rock the shell back and forth
and work it out of the tube eventually. I thought the snail was dead, since it
was hanging out of its shell and not moving, even while I was manhandling it.
But as soon as I put it down, it started crawling around, seemingly none the
worse for wear.

And of course, I had to wash zillions of MTS out of the filter...

Ah, that sounds much easier to lift out than a couple of the other
suggestions. Maybe I'll sink one of my 1 cup measuring cups that I usually
use to mix up food. I know those don't have any soap residue on them
(which I'd worry about with "normal" dishes, hard tap water means the
dishwasher doesn't rinse well). Hmm... I also have a "nursery" net that is
usually meant to float up top for picked upon fry. Perhaps that would work
as well if weighed down.


I sometimes use a small, wide-mouthed jar. Like the size of a baby food jar.
(My tank is so heavily planted I no longer have room for a saucer!) Sometimes
I leave the veggie bait in for two days (if there are veggie-loving fish in the
tank). The fish will lose interest after the first day, and then the snails
really go to town. (Fresh or frozen vegetables don't pollute the tank as too
many algae wafers might.)

Whatever you use, make sure it's something the fish can't get trapped in!


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/