I had a pond snail explosion. I have guppies, platies, cories, a pleco, an oto, and a rainbow shark, a crab, a from and a handful of mystery snails of various ages. My LFS told me to get skunk loaches, three would be enough to keep them pretty passive, and they aren't known to nip fins. I got four. By the end of day two, most of my guppies were missing chunks of tail, one was missing the whole darn thing. And he was my favorite. The snail population was way down as well. I quarantined the skunk loaches in a breeder floating tank, and scooped out the rest of the snails that I could find and dropped them in. They plucked the squishy snail bodies right out of those shells. Very efficient.
But I would NEVER risk putting skunk loaches in with my guppies EVER again. And was reprimanded for not doing better research first on this very site.
They left the platies alone (or the platies were a little too quick for them). But they trimmed the tails on a few of my cories as well. My pleco and rainbow shark were unscathed. And didn't bother the live plants much either.
They were fun to watch, laying in wait for any other fish to go by and then darting out and nabbing them, but it was horrifying to see them do it to my pet guppies that I am attached to.
So I would say....DON'T DO IT!!!!!
But I would NEVER risk putting skunk loaches in with my guppies EVER again. And was reprimanded for not doing better research first on this very site.
They left the platies alone (or the platies were a little too quick for them). But they trimmed the tails on a few of my cories as well. My pleco and rainbow shark were unscathed. And didn't bother the live plants much either.
They were fun to watch, laying in wait for any other fish to go by and then darting out and nabbing them, but it was horrifying to see them do it to my pet guppies that I am attached to.
So I would say....DON'T DO IT!!!!!
