fish tank plant warning

[blondscot]

My mam bought "real plants" from Pets at Home for her fish tank a few weeks ago and now she has a massive problem with snails. They are completely taking over her tank and she is removing loads every day sometimes twice daily but every day there are more and more.
When she went back to PAH they told her that they to have snails and that she should get this loach fish as they eat snails to get rid of them, this has not helped there are to many for the loach to eat. PAH were not in the slightest bit interested about this happening even though it was plants bought from their shop which caused this problem. There is no warning when buying these plants that the customer may be putting their tanks at risk of a snail invasion, which i think is pretty poor customer care!!! So if anyone is going to buy real plants from there, then try to get ones with no snails!! will save you an awful lot of hassle trying to get rid of them after they are in your tank :(

[router]

Unfortunately snails in live plants is a common problem everywhere. Its not just PAH. Here is a solution to your snail problem. http://www.snailshop.co.uk/p/650054/assassin-snail-anentome-helena-snail-eating-snail.html

You cannot condemn the shop or its plants, sense and logic tell you that you should check your plants and dip them in warm water for 5 secs to kill off any eggs, i would also check your filter as they breed in there and may not actualy be coming from the plants, they will appear only when the food is available, eg food that the fish have not eaten, rotting on the bottom of the tank, they hide away for months and then suddenly bloom, so they may not have come from the plants although it may seem they have, its probably a coincidence. If your mother has more than 10 snails then they are already in the substrate.

They deliver here and with them being single sexed snails they can only breed if you have a pair. My OH had snail problems for months, now with these snails she has no problem.
Most people who know about fishkeeping should realise that the eggs of the snails cannot be seen in the plant roots, and the people at pets at home dont have to care,its a fact of live plants.
Weather loaches are no good at killing snails, the may eat the odd one but not all of them.Try the link above and that will clear your problem up

[blondscot]

thanks for that link i will pass it on and hopefully she will be able to solve her snail problem.:)
i will also tell her to dip any future plants that she may get before she puts in tank. I never use real plants so have never had this problem but thanks for sharing your knowledge :)

[jockyplunck]

hi buy some clown loaches they will get rid of you snails trust me they worked for me!

[unicorn]

worse still is we got live plants as a gift at xmas from p@h but dont know whether it was inverness or wick and got dragonflies with them, the nymphs like to eat fish. Fingers crossed we have got rid of them, 3 hatched and we found 3 nymphs.