Lake Tanganyika Species • snails killing frontosa and pleco?

[Glynn]

i've just had our alpha male and pleco die in the last couple of days. we have a large infestation of some sort of snail (quite small to 1cm long) and were wondering if fish can die from eating them, getting digestive system blocked. the pleco looked very boated. apart from this i can't think of a logical explanation. water parameters are fine. any ideas?

[flashg]

Usually if your tank has an over abundance of snails it mean you are OVERFEEDING your tank. Maybe cut back on your food a bit... If that is not the case then I have no idea and I don't think your fish eating snails is the problem.

[cichlidgirl1]

I recently read a post , cant remember where , in it the poster was having unexplained fish loss and a explosion of tiny snails. It was determined that it was likely the huge snail population could have overpowered the cycle of the tank and the tank was having ammonia spikes or some other toxic issues related to the snail infestation. I would attempt to clear out those snails or at least drasticly lower their population till you find out what the cause actually is. It cant hurt anything to curb them in or get rid of them. I dont overfeed and had snails once. I had a terriable time getting rid of them, they came in on a live plant i bought . They got into the tank, gravel, glass, and worst of all the filters, both cannister and hobs. Nasty buggers.

[Glynn]

thanks for the replies. we haven't been feeding too much so still not sure what the problem is. have completely emptied the tank and moved the remaining fish into a separate tank while we remove this problem.

[Charles]

can you provide more information? Tank size? how long has the tank been setup? How many fish?

I have million; perhaps a few hundred snails and never has any explained death. Dead fish is almost always caused by water quality. Check if your food is bad. Check what kind of food it is...