Loach choice needed

[bkiggy]

Here's the problem. I bought a couple ramshorns snails, For my puffer. Turns out he doesn't like them. My puffer will only eat nuisance pond snails... Now I have a tank with millions of ramshorn snails .... I need a fish or a loach in my Peacefull 40 gallon tank. That will eat those snails !!!! My tank consists of all plants, 15 Cory catfish, 1 bristlenose pleco (a little grumpy) - Longfin Danios, Orange Cela Danios, 1 male Betta, pygmie rasboras
- What do you suggest

 

[Stewy]

I don't have a lot of experience with loaches...but have you thought about assassin snails? Won't mess with your community and a couple should take care of your problem within a few months. Just something else to think about

 

[Rodeo one]

I put loaches (Zebra & Yoyo) in my peaceful community & ended up setting up a separate tank for them & my Angels to restore the 'peaceful' part! They re really busy & they kept dive bombing my Cory's . I d also reccomend Assasin snails.

 

[bkiggy]

Thank you for the information on yo-yo Loches , I can't do assassin's nails they will kill my Nerite Snail. Maybe a snail box like a snail trap would catch them

 

[bkiggy]

Anything else

 

[Rivercats]

Dwarf Chain Loaches are small and will take care of the snail problem. As long as you don't have the tiny horned nerites they won't both them. At least mine never did. I even have Angelicus loaches in one tank and they leave the larger nerites alone.

 

[flitabout]

How big is your nerite? Assassins only eat snails the same size or smaller than themselves.

 

[bkiggy]

@rivercats -hi !! Haven't talked to you in a while. Never heard of dwarf chain loach! Thank you are they peacefull. ?? My Corys are my pride and joy !!!!!!!'

-@ flitabout - Nerites are 1/2 dollar size

 

[flitabout]

Then the assassins shouldn't bother them. My big ones are nowhere near that size.

 

[Rivercats]

They are non stop moving machines! Loaches like to be in groups but I've found you can do one or two. Someone on here got 1 when he had a real pond snail problem and it cleaned up his tank and left everyone alone. He did finally get a second and no problems. I've always kept them in groups of at least 6 usually more and are kind of like high energy kids, always moving and poking into everything. They are fun to watch but are also pricey. Still IMO worth the price. They only get a couple inches so they are a lot smaller full grown that other loaches. Check out some video's on you tube so you can get an idea.

 

[bkiggy]

@rivercats Thank you I will look into it

 

[bkiggy]

@ River cats - Are the dwarf chain loaches prone to ICH the other loaches are - I found them

 

[Luananeko]

I love my dwarf chain loaches, they're freaking water monkeys! Always getting into everything, tumbling across the front of the tank together, and following my other fish around (it's like they're pretending they're one of them and trying to school with them). I also love watching them swim by with snail shells stuck on their faces

My loaches never had an ich issue until the rest of the tank already was infected by a gourami shipment that I didn't have room to quarantine...

 

[Rivercats]

@ River cats - Are the dwarf chain loaches prone to ICH the other loaches are - I found them

All loaches are very susceptible to ich. Most of the time when I get loaches I use Paraguard at 1/2 strength for a couple weeks. It's not a strong medicine at all and has more natural ingredients than anything but it doesn't allow parasites to stick on the fish. It's safe for plants, inverts, etc. That or AngelsPlus has a protozoan fish flake you can get and use when you first get them.

 

[ddodad]

Think the dwarf chain loach is a great choice (they like to be in groups) but I would really recommend a couple assassin snails I always have couple in my planted tank to keep my mts population in check and they never touched my nerite snail

 

[Luananeko]

As long as the assassin snails are well fed, they shouldn't bother any large nerites... However there have been occasions where people have seen several full grown assassins gang up on a nerite to take it down. As long as you don't keep too many assassins and supplement their food as needed you *should* be okay... But it still is a calculated risk.

 

[bkiggy]

Ok I am wrong - it is MTS that are the problem not ramshorn snails ..... Loaches will still eat MTS right ?????

 

[Luananeko]

They will when they find them, but since MTS bury themselves in the substrate they'll have a tougher time getting at them. You can do a combination of loaches plus snail traps and that should get them under control pretty quickly.

 

[bkiggy]

Very Good. Going to get them tonight! Very excited. Haven't hot new fish in a very long time ! Thank You for all the suggestions !!!!