Tank being overrun by snails/bristles/planaria!

[moorediddy]

Ok, so my 10g has been setup for about 6 months now and is just starting to settle in.

 

I've added GSP, frogspawn, mushrooms, candy cane, and various zoos... and some margarita/nassarius snails for cleanup.

 

Since I don't exactly have any predators in there, my pods have been overwhelming. And more recently, an outbreak of bristle worms, planaria and I'm just noticing where I believe are snail eggs (little white sacks about the size of an eraser.)

 

I've been doing tons of research on each individual problem, but am looking for a kind of "cure-all." I was thinking about using a six-line wrasse, hoping it will eat the planaria (vs. using flatworm exit and having all their dead bodies polluting my tank). It should also, obviously, keep the pods in check.

 

But, what about the snail eggs? Are they good, bad, will they actually hatch and spawn a ton of new snails? So far I'm seeing what look like TINY white snails crawling around, but up until spotting the eggs, I wasn't sure what they were.

 

Bottom-line: I'm tired of my 'pests' being the main attraction in my tank, I need something to put them in their place.

 

-moore

[Dingo]

Pods = good

Bristleworms = good

Planaria = depends

Snails = good

 

I guess I don't get it. Get a fish if you want a fish to look at. Everything else will start hiding to avoid being dinner.

[2manytanks]

sounds like you got yourself a good system going....

 

the flatworms won't really hurt, just make it annoying to look at. And they'll eventually go away.

 

Everything else is a good thing... If you end up having too many snails, (unlikely) trade some to friends or LFS.

[onthefly]

Try a cleaner shrimp.....mine goes after anything that moves. Reduced my planaria and bristle pop's down to a few

[caja]

A six line wrasse would be a good choice too.