Re: Snails at LFS...

[Earl D Fitzgerald]

You can kill the snails with a 10:1 water to chlorine beach mixture.
Immerse the plant into the solution for about a minute and then rinse well
with clean water. This should rid yourself of snails w/o destorying the
plants.

However I would sneak a yoyo loach past your GF and claim that the snails
are dying of "natural causes."

<grin>

Fishboy


"Marcus Fox" > wrote in
message ...
> There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do
not
> want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my tank
to
> get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the
fact
> that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants
with
> KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.
>
> Marcus
>
>

[Marcus Fox]

"Earl D Fitzgerald" > wrote in message
...
> You can kill the snails with a 10:1 water to chlorine beach mixture.
> Immerse the plant into the solution for about a minute and then rinse well
> with clean water. This should rid yourself of snails w/o destorying the
> plants.
>
> However I would sneak a yoyo loach past your GF and claim that the snails
> are dying of "natural causes."

We were at an LFS in Sussex and the owner was in the process of introducing
a couple of fish into his plant tank. She was not happy to see the fish suck
the snail clean out of its shell, I can tell you! I forget what the fish
were now.

Marcus

[Peter Ashby]

In article >,
"Marcus Fox" > wrote:

> There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do not
> want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my tank to
> get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the fact
> that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants with
> KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.

Have you been to your local friendly pharmacist and asked for some? or
alternative get a girlfriend who appreciates that when you create an
ecosystem in your home you also get nature red in tooth and claw and
that is an inevitable fact of life.

Peter

--
Peter Ashby
School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Scotland
To assume that I speak for the University of Dundee is to be deluded.
Reverse the Spam and remove to email me.

[Dave Painter]

"Marcus Fox" > wrote in
message ...
> There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do
not
> want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my tank
to
> get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the
fact
> that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants
with
> KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.
>

Plants in a bucket of old tank water,
treat the bucket chemically for snails,
at next water change dump the water in the bucket and replace,
Wait a couple of days,if no sign of snails then move plants to the main
tank.

If you see snails then repeat chemical attack.

Ask your g/f which is more cruel....
Clown loaches doing what comes naturally, eating snails
or you pulling snails out of the tank and killing them somehow.

My g/f doesn't like snails but doesn't mind how they are disposed of as long
as she doesn't have to watch.

HTH

Dave

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Marcus Fox wrote:

> There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do not
> want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my tank to
> get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the fact
> that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants with
> KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.

Potassium permanganate used to be sold in pharmacies as disinfectant, a
dilute solution was used to rinse sore throats. Note that you realy only
need dilute solutions (pink in colour), which means a few crystalls in a
bucket of water. If you have contacts to a science teacher, ask him/her
for a teaspoon of the stuff. Note that KMnO4 gives nasty brown stains on
skin and clothes.

But in my experience clown loaches are your best bet. You can tell your
girl friend that the snails will not suffer, the loaches will crack them
in a single bite (yumm-yumm). Works like a charm, too.

[Marcus Fox]

"Dr Engelbert Buxbaum" > wrote in message
...
> Marcus Fox wrote:
>
> > There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> > inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do
not
> > want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my
tank to
> > get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the
fact
> > that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants
with
> > KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> > restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.
>
> Potassium permanganate used to be sold in pharmacies as disinfectant, a
> dilute solution was used to rinse sore throats. Note that you realy only
> need dilute solutions (pink in colour), which means a few crystalls in a
> bucket of water. If you have contacts to a science teacher, ask him/her
> for a teaspoon of the stuff. Note that KMnO4 gives nasty brown stains on
> skin and clothes.

Yep, I know, I used to use the stuff regularly during my chemistry degree. I
also know the reason why it's not sold widely in the UK, as an oxidising
agent, it can be used to good effect as an ingredient in D-I-Y explosives.

Marcus

[Phil]

I got loaches to get rid of a fairly nasty snail infestation, but as they
are nocturnal all I noticed was a diminishing snail population... I didn't
actually see them eat a single snail.

"Marcus Fox" > wrote in
message ...
> There are two LFS's near me that do live plants. However, on closer
> inspection, the tanks holding the plants have many small snails in. I do
not
> want snails in my tank, but neither do I want to add chemicals to my tank
to
> get rid of them, once introduced. My girlfriend is also adverse to the
fact
> that clown loaches eat snails alive. I've heard I can treat the plants
with
> KMnO4, but I don't know where to get it in the UK, I guess it's sale
> restricted due to it being an oxidising agent.
>
> Marcus
>
>