OT snail control, was What I Did This Morning
 

"Dunter Powries" wrote in message
...
NetMax wrote in message
.. .
Regarding this gadget, does anyone have positive experience with it.

To Dunter, after you have laboriously removed every duckweed you
find, my
experience is that there is always one more hiding somewhere, in a
filter
pipe, under a leaf etc...

Oh, yes. This is NOT the first time I've performed this excercise.

Check again in about 1 week, to prevent the
next onslaught. It usually takes more than one episode of mechanical
removal to truly make your tank duckweed-free. Even though it's a
nuisance, I wish I could get rid of my snails as easily. Is there
some
magic potion I could put in which would make all my snails float to
the
surface where I could pick them off like duckweed? *humour*

Lettuce works for me in my open tanks. Just put a leaf of lettuce in
every
night and remove it every morning. Depending on the variety of snail,
it
should clean out the tank in a couple of weeks.

snip

I hadn't tried the lettuce trick in a long time, but I must have either
the wrong types of snails, or they didn't like Romaine lettuce, or the
tank plants taste better, because only 2 snails were on the Romaine leaf
in the morning.

I try to avoid loaches as they disrupt my more delicate plants (ie:
Riccia on driftwood), and I have the impression that they would eat any
fry they could (they are opportunistic carnivores). Of the loaches, the
Yoyos seem to be the least 'carnivorous' but my one test sample has been
ineffective on these snails after 2 months. Rather than buying more (for
a shoal), I'm going to try a Zebra or Chain loach next.

Plan C is do drop a Julidochromis into the tank. I think these guys are
insectivores. Catching him later will be an adventure, though.

NetMax

OT snail control, was What I Did This Morning
 

NetMax wrote in message
.. .

"Dunter Powries" wrote in message
...
NetMax wrote in message
.. .
Regarding this gadget, does anyone have positive experience with it.

To Dunter, after you have laboriously removed every duckweed you
find, my
experience is that there is always one more hiding somewhere, in a
filter
pipe, under a leaf etc...

Oh, yes. This is NOT the first time I've performed this excercise.

Check again in about 1 week, to prevent the
next onslaught. It usually takes more than one episode of mechanical
removal to truly make your tank duckweed-free. Even though it's a
nuisance, I wish I could get rid of my snails as easily. Is there
some
magic potion I could put in which would make all my snails float to
the
surface where I could pick them off like duckweed? *humour*

Lettuce works for me in my open tanks. Just put a leaf of lettuce in
every
night and remove it every morning. Depending on the variety of snail,
it
should clean out the tank in a couple of weeks.

snip

I hadn't tried the lettuce trick in a long time, but I must have either
the wrong types of snails, or they didn't like Romaine lettuce, or the
tank plants taste better, because only 2 snails were on the Romaine leaf
in the morning.

I try to avoid loaches as they disrupt my more delicate plants (ie:
Riccia on driftwood), and I have the impression that they would eat any
fry they could (they are opportunistic carnivores). Of the loaches, the
Yoyos seem to be the least 'carnivorous' but my one test sample has been
ineffective on these snails after 2 months. Rather than buying more (for
a shoal), I'm going to try a Zebra or Chain loach next.

Plan C is do drop a Julidochromis into the tank. I think these guys are
insectivores. Catching him later will be an adventure, though.

I've had some very bad experiences with loaches and botias in the planted
tank! The only loach I've found that have been 100% effective and
non-troublesome have been 'horsehead' loaches - I don't know the Latin, but
they look like stretched-out seahorses. They don't actually eat the snails
but they do eat every bit of snail spawn. They've never eaten any of my fry
that I've been aware of. They bury themselves in the sand like eels.
Entire months go by that I don't even see one.

OT snail control, was What I Did This Morning
 

NetMax wrote in message
.. .

"Dunter Powries" wrote in message
...
NetMax wrote in message
.. .
Regarding this gadget, does anyone have positive experience with it.

To Dunter, after you have laboriously removed every duckweed you
find, my
experience is that there is always one more hiding somewhere, in a
filter
pipe, under a leaf etc...

Oh, yes. This is NOT the first time I've performed this excercise.

Check again in about 1 week, to prevent the
next onslaught. It usually takes more than one episode of mechanical
removal to truly make your tank duckweed-free. Even though it's a
nuisance, I wish I could get rid of my snails as easily. Is there
some
magic potion I could put in which would make all my snails float to
the
surface where I could pick them off like duckweed? *humour*

Lettuce works for me in my open tanks. Just put a leaf of lettuce in
every
night and remove it every morning. Depending on the variety of snail,
it
should clean out the tank in a couple of weeks.

snip

I hadn't tried the lettuce trick in a long time, but I must have either
the wrong types of snails, or they didn't like Romaine lettuce, or the
tank plants taste better, because only 2 snails were on the Romaine leaf
in the morning.

I try to avoid loaches as they disrupt my more delicate plants (ie:
Riccia on driftwood), and I have the impression that they would eat any
fry they could (they are opportunistic carnivores). Of the loaches, the
Yoyos seem to be the least 'carnivorous' but my one test sample has been
ineffective on these snails after 2 months. Rather than buying more (for
a shoal), I'm going to try a Zebra or Chain loach next.

Plan C is do drop a Julidochromis into the tank. I think these guys are
insectivores. Catching him later will be an adventure, though.

I've had some very bad experiences with loaches and botias in the planted
tank! The only loach I've found that have been 100% effective and
non-troublesome have been 'horsehead' loaches - I don't know the Latin, but
they look like stretched-out seahorses. They don't actually eat the snails
but they do eat every bit of snail spawn. They've never eaten any of my fry
that I've been aware of. They bury themselves in the sand like eels.
Entire months go by that I don't even see one.

OT snail control, was What I Did This Morning
 

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .

Thanks Michi, but in my case, I'm not so sure that an African butterfly
would be too happy in my 8.4pH ;~)

Oops, no, probably not :-)

I keep mentioning Anomalochromis Thomasi for snail control
simply because it seems to be a very-well kept secret; I've never
seen them mentioned in the litature or elsewhere. I got mine on
recommendation from my LFS, and the tip was spot-on. So,
I'm just trying to spread the gospel :-)

Cheers,

Michi.

--
Michi Henning Ph: +61 4 1118-2700
ZeroC, Inc. http://www.zeroc.com