burrowing snails - what do they eat & what eats them?

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frog girl

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
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Lubbock, TX
So I am planning to get khuli loaches & have provided a soft sand substrate over my clay. I thought I read somewhere that khuli's like to eat burrowing snails but I don't know what the snails eat. If they are going to eat my plant roots then NO WAY. But I have heard that some are like earthworms & just run substrate through their guts.

What are your opinions of the idea of putting some in? Will they stay down in the clay so the khuli's can't get to them??
 
I think you mean malaysian trumpet snails by burrowing snails. Their shell is too hard for most fish to crack, I think it won't even be possible for your kuhli's to eat them. If I were you I would set up a small container near the window and put some common pond snails in it. They reproduce very easily, and just toss in a nice piece of letuce once in a while. I've set up a breeding tank about 3 weeks ago, and one pond snail hitched a ride on a plant. Now I have 10 snails that are the same size as the parent snail and several smaller ones. The new ones are already laying eggs.

So Pond snails are the easiest way IMO to provide your kuhli's with a nice snack :twisted:
 
well, small MTS can and are eaten by my kuhli loaches and my spotted and stripped raphael catfish. Infact almost all my MTS will not go to the gravel because of my kuhli loaches.
 
They don't need to crack the shell to eat the snail. I dropped 4 MTS's into my tank with my jewel Cihclid, and 2/4 were sucked out of their shells before they hit the bottom. The 3/4 got nailed soon after hitting sand.
 
SerLunchbox said:
well, small MTS can and are eaten by my kuhli loaches and my spotted and stripped raphael catfish.

I still haven't seen either of my spotted or stripped catfish eat MTS. Have you actually seen them eat the snails?
 
The kuhli loaches will stir up the sand and the clay, so it will all be mixed up together before too long, most likely, which may create a cloudiness/dust problem.
 
I still haven't seen either of my spotted or stripped catfish eat MTS. Have you actually seen them eat the snails?

yes ... i have watched them with all lights off and a flashlight indirectly shining on the tank so it gave off a nice glow
 
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