Clown Loaches and Snails

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mikekomm

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Oct 30, 2010
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My understanding is that clown loaches eat snails. I just purchased some olive nerite snails that are supposedly great algae eaters. Some are very small like 1/4" in diameter. First, do clown loaches eat only baby snails or do they go after larger snails 1/2" to 1" in diameter?

Any help is appreciated.
 

jackiomy

Lover of Oddballs
Jul 6, 2008
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They will try to eat them if they are that small. I wouldn't chance it myself.
 

RazzleFish

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Oct 28, 2009
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Well depending on the size of the clowns, yes and no. Young clowns simply aren't big enough to take down a full grown nerite but an adult wouldn't hesitate to eat them.
 

mikekomm

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Oct 30, 2010
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Thanks for all the replies. I have 3 tanks with algae. There seem to be many opinions on what are the best algae eating snails / fish. I have regular plecostemus (doesn't eat much), bushy nose plecostemus (not much better) mystery snails (worthless) and just got the olive nerites (seem to be better algae eaters)..... any other ideas?
 

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
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Sherry N.
would be better if you found out the cause of the algae and made changes to keep the algae from forming, instead of buying critters in the hopes that they would eat it.

what is your lighting? how long do you leave it on for? does your tank get sunlight on it?
 

mikekomm

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Oct 30, 2010
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None of the tanks get direct sunlight. The lights are on for about 8 hours a day. They are 6500K compact lights. There are live plants in each tank and yeast type CO2 generator.
 

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
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Sherry N.
have you tried cutting out the co2? or lessening the time the lights are on for?
 
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