I'm getting fed up...

Beeker

Beeker

Aquariaholic
Oct 8, 2004
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What kind of fish can peacefully fit in a 20 gal with a ram, 4 tetras, and 2 sparkling gouramis and take care of about a thousand snails?
 
you could get a couple or three small clown loaches (have to QT them first, they usually have ich). let them eat the snails and fatten up, then return them to your LFS. you may not be able to sell them back for more, or even get all your money back, but they will get rid of the snails. you can't keep them though, they get way too big for a 20g. loaches in general seem to go crazy over snails, you may want to look up some smaller species.
 
Have you tried other methods of snail removal? I've never tried to get rid of my snails but I've heard that if you leave a piece of lettuce in your tank overnight the snails will collect on it. That way you can remove a whole lot of them at once and with very little fuss.
 
wataugachicken said:
you could get a couple or three small clown loaches, let them eat the snails and fatten up, then return them to your LFS.
Click to expand...

Not a good idea :thud: !! There are much simpler ways to get rid of snails than that. Plus its never a good idea to buy fish you can't properly house! I'm sure you know that though Beeker :) The thread should give you some more ideas! good luck
 
Kuhli loaches will eat snail eggs and little snails, and they won't outgrow the tank like clowns will.
 
try a couple female dwarf puffers...the only thing I might be worried about is them attacking the gouramis...but im pretty sure they would be fine with the tetras and the Ram..and they would love your snails
 
They make a chemical additive that stops reproduction. It does not kill the snails, but they wont have any more snails.

This might be a good idea to use after you find a way to get rid of them, this will keep them from coming back (in case you missed a few).
 
loaches

In my experience, loaches are amazing at wiping out snail populations. I used to have a 20 gallon with a yo-yo loach and I would sometimes drop snails in there for him/her to eat. It took about 5 seconds for the loach to find and devour any single snail. That equates to 720 snails per minute, assuming the loach is a bottomless pit! Just a suggestion... and it would be a frency to see! Plus, you could keep the loach in there permanently. Yo-Yo's are peaceful and stay around 3", I think...
Cheers,
~Matt
 
Erm - have you considered trying to control the snails in a slightly different fashion? It sounds like you may have an excess of nutrients in your tank. Try feeding the fishes less (yes I know - they look at you, suck their tummies in and try to look starving!) and do more gravel/sand vacs to get anything up from there. This, combined with regular water changes should *control* the population (won't stop them I'm afraid).

I say this just because I had exactly the same problem in my 29g. Got strong willed on the food thing - and noticed a rapid decrease in snails. (The lettuce trick never worked for me)

R
 
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