Comments on: Freshwater Snail Removal

By: Aimee

Aimee — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 19:26:26 +0000

Cupric sulfate pentahydrate is CuSO4*5H2O, also known as “blue vitriol” and “bluestone”. That is to say, it is copper sulfate with five water molecules incorporated into a crystal structure. When you put it in water, the ions disassociate and you have free copper in the water. If you put pennies in your tank, small amounts of copper will dissolve into the water. So effectively, cupric sulfate and copper pennies will do the same thing. The difference is that if you use cupric sulfate, you know how much you’re putting in the tank, and you can limit it to exactly what will kill snails without harming fish.

If you use cupric sulfate crystals, it will harm amphibians and invertebrates - snails, as well as crabs, shrimp, frogs, etc. Cupric sulfate is blue…don’t use anhydrous cupric sulfate, as this will have more copper ions per gram, and your measurements will be off. If you only have the anhydrous form, leave it exposed to air for a while, and when it turns blue, that means it has absorbed water out of the air and become cupric sulfate pentahydrate. Make a 6.34% solution of the pentahydrate form (add 6.34 grams to 100ml of water), then use ONE DROP per gallon. You’ll have to do some water changes after that (do a google search to figure out how much).

You can prevent snails from getting into your tank by dipping them in a potassium permanganate (KMnO4) solution of 20mg/L for a minute, washing them off, and then adding them to the tank. It is a strong oxidizer and will react with organic matter (i.e. snails). If you want to put it directly into the tank, use 1.5-1.75mg/L. I got this info from http://madhunag.tripod.com/potassium.html and you should go there to see precautions and neutralization treatments.

Also, a quick google search yielded “Malaysian Trumpet Snail” as the first result for “MTS”. You should try google before asking questions on forums because it can take months for you to get an answer here.

By: Brad Gray

Brad Gray — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:22:00 +0000

I’m just wondering what “MTS” stands for as well as if it is cupric sulphate or pure copper? As the two are different.

By: Pure

Pure — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:07:22 +0000

The last 2 are my favorite methods. The chemical one works wellbut not on MTS. And no you don’t have to run out and get any special product for killing snails. Pure copper (I beleive it’s copper sulfate) found in most ich medications for sensative fish works just fine.

In older more mature systems massive die off isn’t that much of a concern as it is in newer systems. But IMHE I’ve never seen a mass die off of the snails with this method. Dose 2-3 times what the package says you should use for cureing ich and don’t do any water changes for about 3 weeks. over the course of those 3 weeks you will slowly notice that there are less and leass snails in the tank. The only word of caution i can think of is don’t use this on a tank that has other inverts you wish to keep as they will parish also.

The last method is my favorite. It works best, and from all the times I’ve had to do this I can tell you just toss the gravel in the trash and get more. Bleaching doesn’t effect MTS and baking dosen’t totally get rid of them either.

I’ve done this so many times I have a system to doing it, and I do not EVER have a bacteria bloom afterwords.