Snail eating Fish??

I don't know your tank size but many of the fish listed above to eat snails will end up gettign far too large for anything smaller than a 30 gallon. For clown loaches it is a 75 gallon tank.

As mentioned snails will not hurt anything, but if they start to spread too much it means that things are out of balance in your tank. Probably too much food and not enough cleaning.

Use a gravel vacuum siphon tube to do your water changes with, using it to get old excess food out of the gravel.

Right now I can see about 15 or so fair sized snails in my tank. They help munch on algae so they get to stay.
 
The best all time snail eater is a clown loach IMHO..... They like to be in groups of at least three tho. I just got six of the buggers for my 75.... If they get too big in a year or two, I will sell them to the LFS and get smaller ones.
 
The best all time snail eater is a clown loach IMHO
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6 Months ago I would have agreed with you, but I had never kept firemouths and snails in the same tank together before that.
My firemouth is ferocious with the snails, the dempsey is as well. The only pond snails surviving in my tank are in the filter sponges, and under the ugf plate. Nothing that moves has a chance in the main tank except the MTS's which seem to be kept in check way better than I wanted by these two fish.

As far as small tanks, Dwarf puffers and beatta's are the only fish I've heard of that would go well and still eat snails. Of course both of these fish come with their own limitations and difficulties.
 
I have found dwarf puffer to be very nasty community fish. I had one dwarf in a 58 with other semi- agressive fish and he tore them up! I think firemouths are pretty agressive too, aren't they?? I have never had one as I don't keep a ciclid tank.
 
I think pretty much all loaches are snail-killers.

I know that folks love their clowns but they get much too big for the average hobbyists tank. Much.

I have 4 zebra loaches in my 30g and I've never seen a snail. They max out at about 4 inches and are great little fish. Scale counts.

Plus the usual aside about snail explosions coming from too much extra food in the tank and the trick with using the leaf of lettuce to draw them in overnight and then collecting them in the morning.
 
You know what else works pretty well?

A film container with holes punched in the lid and end (big enough for the snails to fit through) laid on its side in the tank. I put a stone inside and 1/2 an algae tablet. I put this in the tank in the evening and the next evening I've got a container 1/2 full of snails. Works a treat. If you do this for a few days in a row, most of the snails will be gone. I chuck them outside in my flower bed for natural compost.
 
Well I caught my Dojo in the act!

I have 2 dojo loaches and I caught my bigger loach in the act of eating baby snails! I have some blue mystry snails in my other tank having babies up a storm, so I thought I'd move some babies into my larger tank (with the loaches) to grow. Well, my loach was popping them in his mouth one after another like M&Ms! I don't think dojos get very big so this may be an alternative for you. I have some malasian (sp?) trumpet snails in my tank too, but he leaves those alone (but I don't see any babies) and some juvenille what looks like some kind of brown apple snail that may be too big for him to eat now. He's a common weather loach (dojo), I haven't seen my albino dojo doing the same thing, but that one probably too likes escargot. These guys are not picky eaters either eating cucumber that I set out for my plecos, sinking pellets, and even going to the top for flake food! An added bonus is that they have great personalities and are fun to watch :)

Take care
 
My Angelicus Botia seems to be keeping the ponds snails under control in my fifty five, again they don't get much larger than four inches. They are rare and because of this spendy, my lfs didn't know what they had. I pull MT shells out of the tank each cleaning.

So, in short, i think all loaches have a crave for snail.
 
Well, incase the snails decide they would like to have kids here is my opinion: dwarf puffers work nice.:D
 
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