I have a 40 gal planted tank that I just restarted and the plants I have bought brought in snails I want the plant eating things gone.There use to be a product called Rid a snail I have looked on line and in all the stores in Az and cantnot find it? Is it still on the market? HOW DO I kill them

Assassin snails,loaches(yo-yos are awesome snail eaters). I know fishypharmacy has a chemical called de-los that WILL nuke then dead but If its plant only you are fine, http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/products.html#D

just dont use with prehistoric fish (sharks,catfish ect)

It works wonders. I bought a pound of it for my 210 when some plants brought in eggs of the bastid pond snail.

I agree with WhiteGlove. I have had Yo-yo loaches for some time now and at the time I purchased them my tank was full of snails, the yo-yo's cleared up that problem.

Don't you just love the way they stack the empty shells?

mine stash em in spots around wood and flora. Got a nice big pile in the 210 now. I like the wrath of the yo-yo


One other one is the Banjo cat.

Mine left them all over, but more around the plants. Great fish for getting rid of snails.

Thanks guys I knew I could count on you

Yes, banjos are known snail eaters. the problem is the small mouthes the banjos have.

Thanks again guys me question is can Dojos handle my low P H its 6.0 I have lots of soft water fish so I keep lots of drift wood in my tanks to keep it that way. Also is there something that I can treat the new plants with that wont hurt them but will kill any snails and their eggs that come in in on the plants.

yes you can use ALUM on a 3 day dip for the plants, this will not kill them all but they loosen their grip and fall to the bottom of the bucket

http://www.aquariumplants.com/Articles.asp?ID=111

go halfway down that page, past the illustrations and junk there is a section how to rid hitchhikers from aquatic plants.


As far as loaches go

try this out
http://www.loaches.com/species-index

cant get more info then that site has to offer, its 100% pure loach content.

ALUM works great I used it on all my new plants after I heard of it.

Thanks again

I am new at this business so I don't know who will be getting this message, but I can tell you what has been working for me. I too, have a planted aquarium and I keep Skunk loaches in my tank, the main reason skunk loach is because they do not get big at all and they do not attack the plants either. I have an 150 gal planted aquarium and I have kept 4 skunk loaches and two Japanese Dojos for the past 2 or 3 years, they are peaceful fish and vociferous ( they make a clicking sound) when excited.
I do not recommend any type of chemical to kill your snail problem, because not only will it kill the snails, but your plants will also be greatly affected, and ram sack your good bacterias in your bio-filter.

De-Los wont kill the plants. my 210 is heavily planted, I made sure of that, ALUM is a pickling spice and will not harm the plants at all, even soaking for two weeks in it.

Pakistani aka yo-yo loaches only get 3-4" max and do the same, skunk loaches arent readily availble up here by me and they would have been my first choice over yo-yo's


we all get the messages you type in the reply box. Welcome to the forum, we'd love to see pics and/or videos of your set-up.(Im an aquascaper by profession as part or what I offer my customers)

I guess I've lucked out. Outside of the one tank with apples, that are absolute destroyers of plants or any other organic matter really, I've never had any that caused me any trouble.

Do you all just not like the look of the little pond snails? Or is it an issue of not having anything to do with them when they start to go nuts in the tank?