All my fish are dead :(

[alibobins]

Brought some snail away yesterday to help me remove some of the snails in my tank it says completely safe for fish but now they are all dead

[whomovedmychocolate]

Oh dear - you did dilute it before putting it in didn't you?

It doesn't work in any case, I used to just not feed the fish and they'd eat the little buggers.

[alibobins]

yeah followed instructions
its made the water really cloudy
Shall I do a complete water change before getting new fish?

[alibobins]

[sweetnitanitro]

How many snails were there? If loads of snails die at once it can send the ammonia level in the water sky-high and that might be what finished off your fish. Hard to say without a recent water test result.

You should clean out the tank and do a proper fishless cycle before getting any new fish, info here

[pooka]

A few of our fish died after using snail away. Now we tend not to bother with the snails - just clear the visible ones when we water change/gravel clean.

[southeastastra]

sorry about your fish

was just wondering how snails get in the tank in the first place?

[sweetnitanitro]

They can come in on plants or with fish or with gravel even. It's tough to keep them out. Best way to keep the numbers down is like pooka says and just pick out a few when you can. If you try and get rid of them completely you'll go nuts or kill all your fish . Some snails are actually good. I even paid money for some of mine!

[pooka]

They're pesky creatures - one plant with snail egg is enough to lead to multiple snails. And is practically impossible for vendors of aquarium plants to guarantee that they are snail free.

[pooka]

I don't mind them either. Harmless enough in moderate quantities.

[southeastastra]

ew freaky!

[alibobins]

The tank was over run by them it doesn't kill the snails just knocks them out.
They were getting massive.
We left 3 or 4 in as they are good at keeping tank clean.

[Blondeshavemorefun]

aww no

def change water before getting new fish

[RubberDuck]

Best thing to do with snails is to wedge a piece of cucumber at the bottom overnight then pull out the cucumber (covered in snails) in the morning. Doesn't get rid of them all but is a far safer method.

Get nerite snails (can't breed in normal aquarium conditions) or Apple Snails (either a single snail which can't breed by itself, or multiple and remove the eggs when they appear - they lay just above the water line) to keep algae down.

I really feel for you. I added melafix to my tank once (a fairly benign medication) and wiped out all but one of my pencilfish within an hour of treatment. They are apparently (it's not widely known) hyper sensitive to the stuff. I felt terrible.

[sweetnitanitro]

Hello again RubberDuck I never knew that about pencilfish!

Alibobins- I just googled Snail Away and it says to massively reduce the dose if you have soft water, does that apply to your water?

[RubberDuck]

I didn't know that about pencilfish either until after I brutally murdered mine Googled it afterwards and there were loads of posts on the 'net about similar issues. No warning on the bottle of course

[sweetnitanitro]

I always thought melafix was safe for everything, I think you can even use it in reef tanks although I dunno cos I'm too lazy and poor for marines

[RubberDuck]

Marines is hard bloody work, from all I can gather. I get emotional enough when I lose my tropical fish!

(lost my Apple Snail this morning... )

[sweetnitanitro]

Aw, that's sad I don't have apple snails any more but I've got quite a few nerites, I haven't had to algae scrape my glass at all since I got them

A few of my mates have marine tanks, I can't get over how much the fish cost apart from the 'nemos' obviously, although I think they ought to cost £50 to discourage people from getting them to put in goldfish bowls

[RubberDuck]

My apple snail, RIP

[RubberDuck]

Yes, so many people don't realise clown fish are marine fish

[alibobins]

Going to sort the tank out let it settle and maybe get some more fish at the weekend

[sweetnitanitro]

Did you not read that link about fishless cycling? Adding more fish right away is a bad idea, they will probably end up dead too.

[RubberDuck]

Even if you had some fish left, as a rule of thumb you should wait 2 weeks after deaths just in case there's any nasties left in the water.

Would definitely recommend you look at fishless cycling - you may well have an ammonia or nitrite spike after a lot of deaths and you need to make sure your water is safe before adding any more fish.