Fresh water snail eaters?

H

hodgie

Registered Member
Oct 3, 2003
1
0
0
39
Visit site
I've got a question concerning snails in my tank. I seem to have aquired some snails when I purchased some aquatic plants at my local fish store. They multiply quickly and don't seem grow to be much larger than a small piece of gravel. So my question is if there are any cirtain freshwater species that would feed on these snails, or the small bundles of eggs and larvae that they deposit about my tank? Thanks to any help you might be able to offer.

Hodgie
 
Well i would try taking them out by hand first. Sometimes this works well but i know in my case months of taking them out by hand didn't help.

For snail eating fish Loaches from the genus(dont' know if this is the right word?) Botia are the best. I got zebra loaches(botia striata) help in my tank. But i have also tried B.robusta. Clown loaches are very good at eatign them but aren't always the best as they get big. Make sure you a group as loaches like groups,the bigger the better but 3 is the min.
 
Valerie is right, loaches are the fish for eating snails. And they are great fish, too. I have 3 Botia straita because my tank is not big enough for grown Clown Loaches.
 
loaches, loaches, loaches. wonderful fish that also have the side benefit of eating snails. have a big tank with space? try a trio (or more) of clown loaches. not that big? try yoyo loaches...or zebra loaches...or skunk loaches. all of them eat snails happily. i haven't seen a snail in my loach tank....errr...ever. they WERE there when i put them in!
 
I have yo-yo loaches in my 72g, 3 of them. Snails were over running the tank and I had to do something. My LFS had 1 adult I just happened to see one day so I got him, then a few months later, I got some baby yo-yos. Now, there is maybe 1/25th of the ammount that were origionally in there. It happened in a matter of months. I would have gotten clowns, but I knew they would grow too big. So, I would recommend yo-yo loachs, they are great and very lively.
 
Before you run out to buy loaches, or (god forbid) some sorta snail-pesticide... lets try to find the root of your problem.

What is your tank feeding habit? How many fish do you have? How much do you feed them, and how often? Fish need surprisingly little food to do well on... a lot more food hits the bottom of your tank then you'd believe. Reducing on feedings might help stablize the snail population in your tank... once the population stablizes, you can remove the snails by hand, and slowly reduce your snail population.
How about your plants? Do you have any dead/dying leaves hanging around your tank? Snails also feed on dead/dying plant leaves, removing these would also remove another food source for your snails.

Try those suggestions for a bit first before running off to get more fish... its free, and it doesn't put a strain on the bioload that your tank can handle. Always a good thing.

HTH
-Richer
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom