New here. I have been a fish keeper for about 5 yrs after about a 15 yr break. Im no expert but I love keeping my fish happy & healthy. I maintain a 55 gal & a 35 gal. My methods are a mixture of old school & newer techniques but nothing really over the top. As for major issues my biggest is in my efforts to have success with live plants. Many simply turn & wither away others get devoured by the tank Tennants. My 35 gal has shown the most promise in the live plant dept. Primarily i keep fancy Guppies in it with a small school of Cardinal Tetras. However, the last plant purchase came with some unintended visitors...Snails! This was a first for me because im always careful to rinse any new plants really well before introducing them into my tanks & i look them over. I had no idea how fast those things procreate & in no time they were all over my tank. I couldn't pick them out fast enough & they just kept coming. I learned that Clown Loaches will eat them & they happen to be one of my most favorites in my 55 gal tank. I have a lovely school of 6 fairly mature & good sized Clowns so I opted to give it a try even tho I didnt like breaking up my school & separating them. It has turned out to be a good choice & my little beauty's are snacking up the snails. Now I love them even more but I want to eventually return them to their other tank mates. I am keeping a close watch for the snails & i can still find 1 or 2 here & there so the Clowns are staying for now. Perhaps I've just been lucky because this has never happened before & i read all the time that others have introduced stowaways from live plants. I've had to be extra careful not to use any nets, etc from the 35 gal to the 55 gal otherwise I risk infesting both tanks. I really have nothing against snails as a whole, I just prefer not to have them ( I dont want snails lovers to hate on me). I dont know for certain when it will be safe to say the snails are gone & I can reunite my (2) Clowns with their tank mates. As for what it is that i love about Clown Loaches so much I'll share that in another thread sometime. But make no mistake, im really hooked on my Clowns. Im looking forward to getting into this & picking up some pearls of wisdom plus hearing some of the challenges that others deal with will help me feel better that im not the only one scrambling to resolve little problems before they become big ones.
