10 replies to this topic

[az9]

If I get some assassin snails from a pet store do I run the risk of adding parasites like ick? 

 

I've never had ice and don't want it in my tank with black crappies. 

 

I have an overabundance of snails in the tank and was told this may be one way to control them. 

 

Is a salt dip possible with snails? 

[9darlingcalvi]

I don't think snails transfer ick but I do know that salt will kill them


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[littlen]

I don't think snails play host to ich.  However, it would be the water they came in that may have some in it--especially if the snails closed up with old tank water in their shells (assuming the old tank they came out of had ich).  I wouldn't be overly concerned.  I'd put them in a bucket with your new water and let them 'rinse off'.  Not sure how'd they'd do in a salt bath.  My guess is it would likely really irritate them and they'd close up in their shell.  A quick, low-dose (25-50ppm) formalin bath might be a better option if you really feel like you need to treat them.

[littlen]

Thinking about the salt bath a little further---it probably wouldn't do much good.  The encysted ich wouldn't be affected by the salt IF ich were to be a snail parasite which again I don't think they are.  And, a short (even 1-2 hour), low dose (5ppt?) salt dip wouldn't be enough time to really do much for any free-swimming ich either.  So I'd vote double for a quick formalin bath if anything at all.  Good luck.

[KalebRinehart]

Are they just regular pond snails? If so they will take a lot more to kill than salt. I had them in my tank when I first started the hobby and decided to take the whole tank down and bleach everything to kill every snail and their eggs. After I set it back up I had snails with white shells in the tank. That's just my experience though. Assassin snails will breed a lot too, maybe not as much as pest snails but could still cause you the same problem.

Edited by KalebRinehart, 10 January 2017 - 05:07 PM.

[KalebRinehart]

Also I agree with littlen and 9darlingcalvi, I have never heard of snails carrying ich.

[Michael Wolfe]

Wouldn't a sunfish be just as effective at snail control? Say spotted sunfish for example?

[az9]

Wouldn't a sunfish be just as effective at snail control? Say spotted sunfish for example?

 

Absolutely! When I had bluegill or even yellow perch in this same tank they cleaned the snails right up. Not one visible. However the crappie have no interest in the snails. 

 

I also got a couple hundred blue tilapia shipped Fed Ex overnight once, and put them in a tank with lots of tiny snails clinging to the circular tank wall. Within 20 minutes the tilapia (only about an inch) were going to town munching them down. It was like a feeding frenzy. 

 

I normally have plenty of bluegill, tilapia, and yellow perch, but just not this time of year. They are in the ponds under ice right now. 

[az9]

Thank you for your responses! 

[az9]

Took four small blueglls about the same size as the crappies out of one of the ponds today cleaning out dead bullrush. Am acclimating them and will add them to the tank with the snails. I'm sure they will clean them right up if past experience is an indicator. 

[az9]

Added about 50 more4 to 6 inch bluegills to the tank. In no time any snails on the tank wall have been wiped out! Of course they are also feed trained and feeding on pellets.