How to Remove Snails in an Aquarium

Snails are one of the unwelcome inhabitants of the aquarium. Snails or snail eggs enter the aquarium by clinging to aquatic plants, decorations that are transferred from one aquarium to another that are still wet and not washed, on newly purchased plastic bags or fishing racket. ^{[1] X Research Source} Sometimes just one snail can create a large army of snails. This mollusk proliferates very quickly, and soon becomes widespread in the aquarium. Removing snails will take some time and effort but is well worth it for a shiny clean aquarium.

Table of Contents

Remove snails in aquarium

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Avoid overfeeding the fish. Overfeeding fish can cause an explosion in the snail population. Try feeding the fish less (just enough to feed the fish at one time) to see if that solves the snails.

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Use chemical insecticides. Copper sulfate is the most common chemical used to kill snails that is safe for fish. If you want to use this chemical, you must carefully follow the instructions for use on the bottle label to make sure it does not affect the fish. Often the snails will die in mass and can contaminate the aquarium. In this case, you will have to take time to remove the snail carcass and adjust the water to ensure the safety of the fish and aquatic plants in the tank.

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Place a snail trap in the aquarium. There are many types of snail traps available online or in aquarium stores. However, there is a very simple trap that is to put a leaf of lettuce in the aquarium, clip the petiole to the wall of the tank and leave it overnight. ^{[2] X Research Source} In the morning, when you take out the lettuce leaves, you will see snails gathering on the underside of the leaves. Do this for a few nights in a row and you can get rid of a large number of snails.

You can also pick up snails from the aquarium when you see them. This is most effective when there are only a few snails in the tank. However, most snails are nocturnal, so this does not help much.
When newly hatched, baby snails are quite small and can crawl up the sides of the tank. Use a small diameter water pipe such as an air pump as a suction pipe. Sweep around and suck these little critters out. It may take a few tries to get rid of all the snails, but you can get up to 100 in a few minutes. Repeat this process for several hours.

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Release the predator into the aquarium. The scavengers are well suited to the tank with the task of eating snails. For a small aquarium, try stocking a zebrafish (Zebra) or a Dwarf Chain eel. With larger tanks, clownfish or Pictus catfish will do well for this task. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Killer snails will also eat their own kind. Killer snails don’t breed easily, so they’re not a nuisance either.

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Try a combination of solutions. There are different methods to deal with this pest. Snails can spread in aquariums very quickly in large numbers, so this should be a priority work. You may need to try several ways to get rid of live snails in your aquarium.

Snail prevention

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Double check everything before putting it in the aquarium. Preventing snails from entering your aquarium will save you time and trouble. Check the plants or decorations to make sure there are no snails and eggs before adding them to the aquarium.

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Isolate everything before putting it in the aquarium. Isolate the plants by placing them in a separate tank. Leave the plant there for a few weeks and pick up any snails you find.

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Soak aquarium decorations in a snail solution before adding them to the tank. Soak the plant in a snail solution to remove the snails and eggs. Mix a solution of 1 part bleach to 19 parts water, which is about ¾ cup bleach to 4 quarts of water. Soak the plant in the solution for 2-3 minutes, remove and rinse thoroughly under running water for 5 minutes. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

This can be quite strong on some plants, so there’s no guarantee it won’t harm the tree.
You can also put the plant in a solution of aluminum sulfate and water. ^{[5] X Research Source} Mix 2-3 teaspoons of aluminum sulfate with 4 liters of water and stir to dissolve. Soak the plant in the solution for at least 2-3 hours, up to 24 hours. When removing the plant from the solution, you need to wash it thoroughly before putting it in the aquarium.

Advice

A few snails in the aquarium are not a problem. They are scavengers and in this respect are also useful.
An invasive species of snail is the Malayan trumpet snail. ^{[6] X Research Source} This snail lives buried under the gravel in the aquarium and is active mainly at night. You may not realize problems until they have grown to the point where it looks like the gravel is moving. Snails can also multiply and invade aquariums.
Baby snails can be used as fish food.
Some places offer guaranteed snail-free aquatic plants, so you should look for these whenever possible.

Warning

Clownfish can grow to quite large sizes. They are suitable for large aquariums to control the number of snails.

Steps

Remove snails in aquarium

Snail prevention

Advice

Warning

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