SNAIL BAIT REVISITED

To control snail populations in an aquarium, many of us use vegetables as a bait. A favorite is the white part of leaf lettuce; in a day or two, you toss out the lettuce along with its accumulated load of snails. Anyhow, I just found a new snail bait that fellow gardeners will love: Swiss chard. The young, tender leaves are also good on a sandwich or salad.

Hi JohnA!
In my tank i had 2 apple snails(one died recently, unknown causes) between the two snails i had about 40 baby snails (more or less)and some others that i think came from plants that i bought, anyways, about a week ago they all started dieing (I have a snail graveyard in one of my caves LOL). I do know if your PH is too low the shells will get soft and the snails will die. so my question is, is there any other causes? My other apple snail hasen't moved in about a week..I'm not really fond of my snails i just want to know why this is happening.

I think you're right about hard water and high pH being good for snail shells. Of course, many freshwater fish do well in the opposite conditions, so all of my aquariums have Malaysian driftwood and Indian almond leaves. Before i moved to Phoenix in 1965, i raised and sold apple snails (mystery snails) in Dallas. I could never get them to live in Phoenix water, but all the fish are doing fine. A lady who contributed to the old Angelfish Web Forum said that she used natural means to lower pH and water hardness, and that it softened the snail shells so much that angelfish started eating them for lunch.

Probably there is nothing wrong with your aquarium so long as the fish appear healthy and water parameters are within reasonable ranges. Like other aquarium creatures, snails probably need certain conditions to thrive. By the way, the chard is still working great.

My fish are all healthy and so are my plants. I checked my water parameters and it is good my Ph is 7.6 i cant remember off hand about the others.Oh good to know about the swiss chard I allway's have some in my garden in the summer (my son loves the stuff).im allway's getting snails with my plants so if i ever have an over abundance of snails ill know what to use. Do you just let it float on the surface?

thanks for responding
Leah

I just clip off a small leaf and let it float for a couple of days. Since it's fresh, it lasts for quite a while. The used leaf and snails end up in an outdoor container garden, as does any excess duckweed.

Hi!

I'm not sure about the deaths of your snails, but I loose a few snails every now and then.

I just worry about when they die... and making sure that I get the carcass out of the water as soon as possible.

Good Luck to you!