Snail eaters?

[Ben K]

What kinds of snail eaters are out there? I've read that Clown Loaches are one. Any others? Perhaps smaller ones that would fit into a 30 gallon (113 liter) tank?

 

[DepotFish]

Loaches are schooling fish and clowns don't belong in tanks under 75 gallons or more. Kuhli loaches might eat smaller snails. Its really not a good idea to add another animal to eat a pest. You'd be better off using other methods. Have you ever heard the song "there was an old lady who swallowed a fly?" Then she swallowed more and more animals to get rid of the previous and died in the end. That's basically what happens if you start adding animals to your tank to get rid of a previous occupant.

 

[Ben K]

What are some of the other methods? I am hoping to use a heavily planted tank but fear the possible snail overrun.

Do snails have any useful purpose and is it possbile to keep them in check rather then have dozens or hundreds of them?

 

[rich311k]

If you do not over feed, the snail population will stay in check. They will eat algae and left over food. They are not really a bad thing. I could not imagine a tank without a few bopping around.

 

[neilanh]

YoYo loaches are much smaller than clowns and love to eat them.

An easy way to remove them, if you have an overpopulation is to put a slice of lettuce in for a day or so. Snails love it, and will trample over each other eating it. When it gets a lot on it, just remove the leaf with all the snails on it.

But like Rich said, proper feeding will keep them under control.

 

[flip_lx]

if your starting the tank or starting to plant the tank just dip the plants in a solution to kill hitchhikers. check here: http://www.aquariaplants.com/index.htm found that site today actually in the planted section. as for a purpose to snails some eat algae and MTS stir up and keep a sand bed in check

 

[LandGhoti]

I second what Neilan said: yoyo loaches. Small enough for a 30 gallon and will wipe out snail population in no time. And will be happy doing it. And you will be happy with the yoyos; they are great fish!

 

[DepotFish]

Underfeeding doesn't work as well with trumpets as it does with round bodied snails. Try the trapping method with the lettuce leaf, or just pick out as many as you can by hand every once in a while. They don't do much harm. I have two dozen adults and a hundred babies ranging from a mm to half an inch and they haven't destroyed my plants.

 

[Ben K]

I'm just not much of a snail fan. Sure, I can see the benefits of a few, but hundred just don't suit me well.

 

[theotheragentm]

It's pretty easy to get rid of them. Just make a snail trap and dump them out. It only takes you a half hour tops to get a good collection of snails after the bait.

 

[tropicfishman]

if you just want some to get rid of a few snails you may have....and you wanna keep the fish temporarily...I would get the clown loaches then, but them small and you can enjoy 3-4 of them for a year or so before they outgrow the tank, I have 2 small guys in a 29 gallon and thered oign fine, when they getr bigger I'l move them to a bigger tnak, but they are great for snail populations

 

[helicopter]

Dwarf puffers will devour snails. They tend to be nippy to other slow fish but stay under 1". You can put 1 per 5 gal.

 

[Ben K]

Yeah, the thing is I don't have a bigger tank at the moment. My biggest would be my 30 Gal. And I wouldn't feel right if the Clown Loach got too big and I'd have to dispose of it. I don't know of anyone who would have a big enough tank for it.

The dwarf puffer seems like an interesting option. My question is, if I gut MTS snails and got both puffer and yoyo, would they outright kill off the MTS thus preventing them to perform their job in a planted tank? Another thing is, if I make a heavily planted tank, for example something like this: http://www.aquariaplants.com/hometank.jpg would the puffer and yoyo be able to get at any of the snails or would the snails find enough hiding spots?

I basically want some snails for their benefits, but don't want to have a tank full of hundreds of them. I think I may like the lettuce idea, but if I had a fully planted tank, would they go after the lettuce?

 

[Jarred Darque]

most snail eaters do not harm a MTS population. MTSs cannot be killed by crushers, and are very hard for suckers. (the two methods of eating snails) Even chemical dosing is hard to get rid of MTSs. best bet though I think is a DP, they are suckers, and kill snails readily. but tehy will also go after just abotu any other fish in the tank.

 

[helicopter]

It is hit or miss with DP whether they attack other fish. My current DP doesn't attack the other fish but previous DP that I have own did. If you put a DP in your tank then it will probably eat all of the snails unconditionally.

Interesting note on snail killing, there is this stuff called flubenol 15
http://www.flubenol.co.uk/
which will absolutely kill every invertebrate in your tank. I had to use it on my figure 8 puffers to kill internal parasites after several different internal parasite treatments didn't work. It is so good it will work through the fishes gills (doesn't have to be added to food) and is so safe to fish, plants, and bacteria that you could add 10 times the minimum dosage and everything would still be fine.

 

[aquariumnoob]

so a bit off topic, but someone mentioned snails and killing plants. I have recently had a problem with snails also, the round ones, I mean this snail lays TONS of eggs, and apparently more and more are surviving, however I don't feed my fish too much, I've even been told to maybe up their food. Anyways, I noticed something has been eating my plants, and I didn't think it was my fish (see sig), could it be the snails?

 

[Jarred Darque]

how big are the snails? need to ID breed first, and are they round likea softball, or round like a disc?

 

[Ben K]

What is a DP?

 

[DepotFish]

What fish do you already have in this tank Ben K? Nobody should be recommending ANY new additions without knowing what's in the current tank. A DP is a dwarf puffer- a fish that belongs in its own tank with no tankmates.

 

[Jarred Darque]

DPs can have tankmates...just only certain ones..like otos