Few questions about loaches

[MarkP]

So, my snails are getting a bit out of control. Not the MTS, not the big Bridgesii, but some little ones that snuck in.

And I'm not happy- Some are gnawing my plants.

Would a clown or yo-yo loach eat the small ones but leave the 3 inch one alone? Would either of these be happy to be the only loach in the tank?

I suspect the answer is no, and I'll be continuing the campaign of trapping snails, identifying them, and taking the desired action.

 

[current516]

My 2 Zebra loaches left the larger snails alone. But gobbled the smaller ones.

Maybe you need more than 2, but mine did not school. I don't think they liked each other. LOL I guess there's always an exception to the rule.

 

[HiFi]

I can't help you about the large snail, but my pair of clown loaches cleaned out my tank of small snails. I even saw one suck in the eggsack that was stuck to a leaf.
Clown loaches get bigger than Yoyo's, so be prepared to house them later if you keep them.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Striped (Zebra) Loaches are excellent for getting rid of the small snails. And they love the snail eggs too. Plus they stay small. Mine get along great with each other, as well as with my yoyo's. But the skunk loaches? That's another story, lol. But they are cool, and eat snails too.

 

[Glenc]

I've heard loaches are social and like to have other loaches around. I had two big clown loaches. One died. The living one stopped eating and was pining away. I gave it a week, I thought I would lose him, so I got two small clowns to cheer him up, boy did it work. He came back to life immediatly. They are very happy now, the big one is a giant, he's over 6" long. Looks like a proud papa with his two kids!

 

[MarkP]

Hmmm... I'd rather fish the snails out then get a fish who won't be happy, so it sounds like I might want to consider a pair or none.

Thank you

 

[HiFi]

My daughter liked the "Loach Races" my pair performed in the tank. They zipped back and forth switching the lead.
Although I've never tried it... I've read that dropping a small leaf of lettuce in the tank overnight works sometimes.
The snails crowd up on it, and you just pull the piece of lettuce out in the morning.

 

[Zezmo]

Loaches prefer 3 or more, they actually like 5 or more best. But I have kept them singly or in pairs with success.

YoYo Loaches, and Kubotai (Angelicus) will munch snails and get 3-4 inches long. A rarer find are some Sidthemunki Botia (Dwarf Chain Loaches) which love snails and only get 2-3 inches long max.

 

[MarkP]

Stopped by the LFS, and decided that I was going to keep up the removal process- I found the dwarf chain loaches for 13 bucks each. Kuhli(sp?) loaches were much more reasonably priced, but seemed a bit large- And while I'm no where near overcrowding my tank (And never will be if my planned 150g purchases in a few months happens), if the big tank does get delayed, the fish will be happy for the room to grow.

The 150 will either have loaches or a much stricter policy on allowing pond snails in!

 

[JRagg]

Loaches prefer 3 or more, they actually like 5 or more best. But I have kept them singly or in pairs with success.

I definitely agree here. I've kept clown loaches before, and their behavior is completely different solo or in a pair than with 3+. I've read before that an odd number with 3 or more is best for clown loaches (so they don't pair off), but I've got no personal experience on keeping any more than 3. They gobbled up the planaria that I had due to overfeeding within about a week. If you've got space for clowns they are excellent fun.

 

[MarkP]

I should have space for loaches "Soon", once a few finacial deals work out. I'm working with a 45H tank at the moment, and have about 30 inches of fish now. However, I have about 50 inches full grown, and don't want to add 10-15 inches of loaches in case it takes a while to get the new tank. And the dwarf loachs, while smaller, would have been over 50 bucks for 4-5 of them.

Angelfish are very pretty, and my wife adores them, but if you try to stock based on full grown size, even a pair of Angels eat up a big chunk of a 45H tank!

 

[Zezmo]

If you found chain loaches (B. sidthemunki) for $13, that is an awsome price. They are 20-29 typically around here. I paid $70 for my 3.