Senor Frog (our blue snail) seems to be lacking the common sense that tells him not to climb on the filter intake tubes. I think we've turned off the filter and released him at least 3 times today alone.

Once he's on there, he doesn't seem to be able to get off on his own.
Can we put something over the bottom of the intake tubes to keep him from getting sucked in and not being able to release himself?

Ms Piggy doesn't seem to have this lack of common sense, just Senor Frog

That's odd. My snail climbs up the intake tube, but she never gets stuck.

make that 5 times so far today!!

theres 2 remedies I ahve used so far, and both have worked wonders. and yes, I do agree, snails often lack common sense!

you can take some filter floss(the fluffy white stuff that looks like quilt batting) and wrap it aroud your intakes, securing it with zip ties or gumbands or you can get a heater guard(its bascially a tube of plastic lattice looking stuff that sucktion cups to the side of the tank) at petco or someplace like that, and put that over the intake. I prefer the latter method, since it does less to inhibit the filter.

good luck!

For anyone living outside of PN, Smack means "rubberbands".

I was wondering what gumbands were!
Those are great tips...I know what you mean about the snails too....I've had to release them from the intake a few times too. Luckily I didn't have one that kept doing it over and over again though

I knew what she meant!!! (I don't know if that's good or bad though! )My snails are fine on the Emperor's,Penguins,etc,it's the bigger Aquaclears that get them if I'm not careful.I also took a piece of Pantyhose and wrapped it around the intake.It's not the best for letting "bigger" pieces of waste through,but it keeps the little guys from getting stuck and it doesn't block the intake as much as the filter floss seems too.

hehehe....darn pittsburghese... thanks for the translation, erika

and yeah, aquaclears are the only ones that have ever given me problems iwth snail feet getting stuck

Mine never seem to get stuck.

usually its just hte little snails that get stuck to big filters. I only ever had problems iwth my smaller brigs, the big old guys just cruise right over the intakes with no trouble.

Babies, especially newly hatched ones, can get sucked right up the intake, too. I always run a baby tank with no filtration, 100% water changes until they are big enough to be safe with a filter with pantyhose.