Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => General Fishkeeping Chat => Topic started by: TopCookie on April 11, 2018, 11:11:53 PM
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One issue I have in my tank at the mo, and for a little while now in fact, is a growing number of freshwater limpets... Bit of a catch 22 situation, as I believe they're great as unofficial members of your clean up crew and in this respect I wouldn't mind too much, but their numbers have risen lately and they're starting to become a bit annoying...
Have any of you guys and gals had problems with limpets and if so, how did you deal with them - or is it just a question of having to accept them...? :-\
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I think there may be an element of having to accept them...
Caveat, I've not personal experience with them but from what I've heard, I would recommend:
A) trying to remove their food source - difficult in a dirted tank but this is normally the route cause of problems such as this so I would normally say gravel vacuuming etc
B) manual removal - not the answer youre after I'm sure and you'll never get all the babies
C) assassin snails - would harm your other snails
D) try a planaria medication which affects copeopods but not much else I THINK - I've seen this used effectively but it was a while ago and please don't just go buy some and dump it in your tank (I know you wouldn't anyway) but it's something to research for sure. I would also think about a potential ammonia spike if you go dowe this route as killing lots of things in the tank will do this!...
Something I've put in my 220litre has come with a variety of free baby pest snails. I am fortunate to have a puffer tank that I can move snails to for 'treatment' so I'm actually not removing them till they are a decent size but I do have mixed emotions seeing them in the tank. I think the general consensus has shifted in recent years to them being a good clean up crew and part of a natural healthy ecosystem, I think though that we are all brought up thinking they are slimy and disgusting and that they eat mums plants in the garden so they are a bad thing... hence something just doesn't seem right about then appearing in our aquariums.
EDIT I've just realised that in my old setup I actually ended up purposefully buying Malaysian trumpet snails... I think I'm slowly convincing myself they are a good thing to have...
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I have searched the internet high & low for a solution to the problem of limpets only to find that there appears to be no one solution out there... What makes it tricky is that it would appear that different folks use different approaches and all with a varying degree of success - pretty much none of which are completely successful... The closest one would appear to be planaria treatments and I do have some "No Planaria" on hand just in case those horrid things ever should show up, but I would always be super reluctant to use it though... Even with medication, this is still not consistently successful - nothing would appear to be at all in fact... :-\
Then there are many folks that have outbreaks of limpets, only for them to "bloom" for a period and then die off of their own accord, never to return... Other folks get stuck with them indefinitely... You even find some folks actively seeking to add them to their tanks as a part of that whole natural healthy ecosystem notion...
This is the problem, it's all about as clear as mud (excuse the almost pun there) when it comes to finding accurate information on these little blighters... To be fair, they're only tiny little things and I bet nobody has noticed them in my photos posted up, as they're so small etc... plus numbers aren't that bad - impossible to give a clear indication on numbers, there are a lot, but not epidemic/plague numbers, kinda thing...
I suspect that there may well be more than one species of freshwater limpets, which might explain why no single solution fits all etc...
Would be great if there was a fish, or snail, that would actively eat them but even assassin snails, more often than not, are reported to ignore them in most cases... Once again, there are no universal fish recommendations that I've yet come across that will eat them either...
The tetras in the tank will frenzy for them when you squish one and knock it off the tank glass, then the hordes show up and the race is on...!!! But they just plain refuse to try and eat them on the tank glass or on plant leaves etc...
Fingers crossed that I'll be lucky and they will naturally die off as several folks report can happen... In the meantime though, they are an unwanted nuisance... (http://www.cdv-forum.com/Smileys/default/banghead.gif)
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Have you looked at loaches as potential predators? I've not seen it, but I'm pretty sure that my kuhli loaches eat the pest snails in my tank.
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I have considered them Helen, but there is the potential issue of already having Corys in the tank... The other thing is that while trying to research limpet problems, Loaches did get a mention by some folks, while other folks complain that they have Loaches that won't sniff them... :-\
I know it's a potentially unsolvable problem really, am just hoping that there might be one of the gang that's had a similar experience buy managed to find a solution... I'm guessing that's probably unlikely though...
Any suggestions still most welcome though... :)
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My experience is that kuhli loaches are fine with cories (I have had both together in my tank before).
*Disclaimer* Kuhli loaches are my favourite of my fish, so I'd always encourage others to get some! ;)
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My experience is that kuhli loaches are fine with cories (I have had both together in my tank before).
*Disclaimer* Kuhli loaches are my favourite of my fish, so I'd always encourage others to get some! ;)
(http://www.cdv-forum.com/Smileys/default/thumbs.gif)
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You gals on the forum are a bad influence, I swear...!!! I'm now thinking about the prospects of a small shoal of Kuhli Loaches, lol...!!! Wouldn't matter if they don't eat the limpets, coz I agree Helen, they are extra kewl anyway...!!!
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:rotfl:
:cheers:
Just call it revenge. :raspberries
I've got a lot of nymphoides hydrophylla in my tank because of you.
And those bucc plants (which I. Can't remember how to spell) are looking quite intriguing. And I need to stop buying plants and buy more fish.
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Oh blimey, after a moderate start, my nymphoides hydrophylla is starting to go a bit berserk now, lol...!!! Well, that's perhaps an exaggeration but it is growing faster now than it did at first - in a more striking way than other plants speed up once established and comfy...
On the other hand, it's super easy to trim the taller stalks off and those leaves are just gorgeous, eh... :D
PS: get more fish...!!! ::)