Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Where did you come from! that is awesome.

Simo,

From New York actually :-)

Thanks, it's a really simple system. So far it's working really well. There is more info and updated photos here: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7535

I have 4 tub duckaponics which has successfully grown tomatoes, lettuce and melon. I have tried cucumbers several times and the plant goes really well but the fruit don't set despite all efforts ( hand polinating, supplementing, dipel). I have found alot of ants and some Malaysian trumpet snails. I have come to the conclusion it is either:
1) ants farming aphids (no sign of aphids though)
2) these Malaysian trumpet snails

The snails don't seem to affect anything else (I did find some on the lettuce but I had such a bumper crop it was incidental). Has anyone else successfully grown cucumbers with Malaysian trumpet snails?

Some snails can be carriers for parasites, part of the parasites life cycle is in the snail and part is in the fish. Here's an interesting article - Parasite of the Day - Ramshorn snails get an honorable mention

http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2013/02/drepanocephalus-spathans.html

Cheers

Thanks Scotty. Good read and may be applicable as the older growth on the cucumbers looks quite sad but the new growth looks lush and green. I am wondering about a bacteria or virus.

The fish parasite is not applicable as I am using ducks, not fish.

Sorry Alana, I was looking back and not noticing the dates on the posts. Pictures would be helpful to see the condition of the plant.

Are the flowers dropping off or are they being eaten. I would expect the snails to eat them and any small cucumbers just starting to form (or at least a part of them). If they are just falling off then it's probably got something to do with the temperatures and the variety you're trying to grow (other things like pollution can sometimes cause this as well but this is more common). I suspect you've checked to verify that the plant is producing both male and female blossums - sometimes they produce male only at the early stages of blooming (these fall off normally). If none of the blossums has a tiny little cucumber then you've got all male https://completegarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/cucumber-how-to-identifying-male-and-female-flower/

I noticed on the aquarium forums that they actually bait these snails with cucumber, to be rid of them when they overpopulate the tank. You could try pollinating a few flowers and then covering them with a small paper or cloth bag to keep the snails out and see if this helps. Having the cucumbers on a trellis might help, they do better this way.

I suspect the ants are up to no good so keep an eye on them.

Hope this helps

Snails pretty much will keep your fish tank clean and neat. But as someone else mentioned said fish tend to perceive them as snack sometimes... Mother Nature and her ways.

Yes, i have various small pond pieces scattered around my yard with nothing but some dirt/sane in the bottom, water and maybe a plant or 2, there are always snails in them, however never a huge harverstable amount.
I take no care of these things, maybe with attention you could get many more.

Free floating algae (pea soup) will certainly use huge amounts of oxygen, so will blue green algae (different thing?).

Stringy algae isnt anywhere near as bad, i have had ponds almost filled to the brim with that stuff and there was plenty of aquatic life left in the pond pieces.

If you were to farm snails, it is the stringy algae that you will want.

Damn you guys got me too, would help if we all checked dates.

This is an old thread, but it has some good info so---


I was trying to identify a species of aquatic snail I found in a local river.
Can anybody identify this for me or point me to an id guide ?

______________________________________________________________________________________

These are the ones I'm trying to control !


The populations of these snails do increase dramatically in the warmer months & I have noticed a significant increase in the number of small snails on the roots plants harvested from the NFT system.

Their not a problem in the rest of the system as the fish/yabbies clean them up & it would be nice to do the same in the NTF but the yabbies just don't stay in the tubes.


Just trying to pre-empt any problems !
I was thinking some kind of pull through scraper to clean inside the tubes, cleaning the snails , their eggs & any build up of crud. A type of bottle brush that can be pulled through the 90mm PVC pipes. The NFT system may need to be turned off & isolated from the rest of the system while cleaning.
I can also see snail build up in the polly pumping lines would significantly reduce the volume of flow being pumped though the system.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/322113817020?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
This may work for the smaller pipes.
Any ideas ?

While researching for ways to control snail populations in my systems NFT [ 90 mm tubes ] I found this :
http://www.ozwatergardens.com.au/pest-control


Copper 4g / 1000 L ? At this concentration the copper is toxic to the snails (and also algae), but not harmful to fish or other pond plants.
I thought Copper was bad for fish ?
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8682&hilit=copper+sulphate
Is this right, Any ideas ?
I wonder how long it would take to kill them ? Maybe if it get out of control & I just isolate the NFT, kill the snails then dump the water with the additive. I guess chlorine would do the same thing.

I have been keeping very large snails in some of my grow beds to clear out hair algae so to me snails are great! I found out it was illegal to sell them so I don't sell them anymore but I was able to keep my snails and they really clean up hair algae like crazy:)

I did a video for my YouTube channel sometime back if any of you guys want to check it out.

I have about 8 snails they have been rooting like made and have eggs all the way around the top of the tank about 20cm out of the water few egg sacks look like they have hatched but they are smaller than there feed i think they are getting eatin

Wow! Look at those snails go after the hair algae! Thanks for this post.