Yo Yo or Clown Loaches

[only6foot6]

I have a snail outbreak in my 90 galllon tank. It currently has 3 Yo Yo loaches in it. I heard that they eat snails but I have not seen any progress as of yet. I have heard that clown loaches are snail crazy. Is this true? Also if I decide to get some clown loaches, will they be ok with my current Yo Yo Loaches?

 

[echoofformless]

I would suggest rethinking the idea of trying to rid a tank of snails by adding fish.

For one thing, clown loaches get huge if allowed to live a good, full life. We're talking like close to twelve inches and sometimes larger. I wouldn't put them in anything less than a 75g tank if I had my choice.

Your yoyos will take care of the smaller snails.

But the point I really want to make is that snails suffer from a completely unfounded bad rap. They do not generally devour your plants or cause any waste problems as we are often led to believe. Truth is, they're actually a very natural cleanup crew and will never overpopulate or ruin your tank so long as you keep it properly maintained, which I would assume you do anyway. So why worry about a few extra creatures in your tank that cause no commotion or damage? Therefore I say it's better to just accept the snails and move on.

 

[sharonm]

How long have you had the yo yo's? In less than 2 weeks I found they had eaten all the smaller snails. WhenI was vacuuming the gravel, lo and behold, tons of empty snail shells!

 

[TKOS]

Also try reducing the feeding in your tank. Even stop feeding for a few days. This will drive the yoyo's to eat the snails. Reduced feeding will also help to slow the growth rate of snails. They only reproduce to the level of food available.

I also agree with Echo in that snails aren't a bad thing. Biodiversity is pretty cool. I have snails in all of my tanks, mostly pond and common ramshorn as my tanks are a little on the small side for the larger apple snails.

 

[liv2padl]

here's what i do. i buy about 6 small clown loaches and install them in any tank that has too many snails. i leave them there until the snails are gone ... about two weeks to a month ... and then i take them back to the store. they're always happy to have them back since i've grown them up some for them, and they always give me a bunch of stuff in return. it's a win-win situation except to the snails. they always lose. :idea:

 

[H3D]

here's what i do. i buy about 6 small clown loaches and install them in any tank that has too many snails. i leave them there until the snails are gone ... about two weeks to a month ... and then i take them back to the store. they're always happy to have them back since i've grown them up some for them, and they always give me a bunch of stuff in return. it's a win-win situation except to the snails. they always lose. :idea:

Its not a win-win situation for the loaches either!

 

[bettagurl]

here's what i do. i buy about 6 small clown loaches and install them in any tank that has too many snails. i leave them there until the snails are gone ... about two weeks to a month ... and then i take them back to the store. they're always happy to have them back since i've grown them up some for them, and they always give me a bunch of stuff in return. it's a win-win situation except to the snails. they always lose. :idea:

loaches need more than snails,thats not a good thing to do to them
especialy clowns,they stunt very easily...I totally agree with :bowing: H3D

 

[liv2padl]

and why would you assume that just bacause the clowns were eating snails, they were starving by not eating anything else? clowns peruse the bottom eating anything they find, which includes any food bits or flotsam and jetsom that any other 'bottom fish' would eat. it just so happens that while eating all this, they also eat any snails they happen upon. it does them no harm whatever.

 

[H3D]

I was more concerned about the unecessary stress placed on the loaches by transporting them frequently.

 

[Woofy]

my sis had a huge infestation, put two clowns in and poof gone in three days, but thats another horrible story and besides the point. Try getting a small cup with a lid and a hole in it, stick a cucumber in it and wait after a bit you should have a kazillion snails inside the sup ready for you to remove, repeat till you have done away with your snails :idea: