Clown Loach

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Can I have some advice on the ability for clown loach to clear up a snail problem in my planted aquaria?

DO they eat snails? If so how big do they need to be to start eating snails ?(mine are about 2 inches long).

They are in good health, and appear to forage around at the bottom of the tank, but ignore the snails?

Also - do they eat plants and tear up the leaves? It appears that they do since adding to my tank.

Any other suggestions for a good snail eater suitable for a Community Aquarium?

Thanks

 

[SamUK]

my clowns ate all my snails in about 2 days and never touched the plants...... weird.

maybe if you gave them cucumber they would leave your plants alone?

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Your right....they love cucumber !!!

Tried that already. Im more worried about the snails and why they dont eat them???

Trust me to buy some veggie clown loach

 

[jayjay]

What sort of snails are they?

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Not sure...dont know much about snails.

Ill try taking pictures when I get home.

2 basic tyoes really:

1 type with flat spiral shells (like a cumberland sausage) these are always fairly small.

1 type with a round shell like a small version of a garden snail. These are bigger than the spiral ones above, but still fairly small.

Thanks for looking at post.

 

[b.c.f.c]

best way to get rid of snalis ive heard is put a piece of lettuce in the tank over night and all the snalis should be on there early morning , keep doing this for a few nights and take pout the lettuce in the morning and throw it away and all the snails should be gona eventually.

 

[jayjay]

That way removes some of the population but would unlikely remove them all.

To cut down the population you need to clean your tank more often, don't overfeed and clean up algae. If you don't do these then you won't stop the population growing back to the same size everytime after you remove them.

 

[morgan]

I bought 2 Yoyo Loaches and 1 Clown Loach (I know you are supposed to get 2 or more Clown Loaches but I was assured by experienced lfs that the Clown Loach would be happy with the Yoyos). I was overrun with snails, now I can't see any! My tank is big enough for when the Loaches are full grown (65uk gals). I have since read that Yoyo Loaches are especially good for eating snails. HTH

 

[jayjay]

Clowns need groups of 5 IMO they haven't mixed my yoyo's either.

Also clowns can get to 12" so i don't think 65ukg would be big enough.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

1st- Morgan your lfs guy told you wrong- lone clowns get nutso over time from lack of their own kind for company- I know because I have experienced this.

As for loaches and snail eating. Loaches eat snails by sucking the neat out of the shell, not by grushing the shells as puffers do. That means what snails any given clown (or other loach) will eat is a function of the size of the loach vs the size of the snail. Smaller loaches eat snails which are smaller and can't eat larger ones, Conversely, larger loaches eat larger snails but not smaller ones which they would just inhale whole if they tried.

When loaches are young/small, they are often not aware that snails are food. When this happens one way to teach them is to crush a few snails in the tank to expose the goodie inside. the clowns are pretty quick learners.

I collect snails from other tanks to feed my clowns and it is not uncommon for the clowns to catch the snails dropped in before they hit the bottom. I have also been able to control snail pops using large clowns as well as under 2 inch sidthimunkis. Though with the latter I did have to manually remove the larger snails they were unable to eat.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Thanks Guys for all your Knowledge

gratefully received

I'll try the crush method for a while and try teach them

Whats a YoYo loach look like?

 

[sophos9]

I bought 2 Clown's last week and have been perplexed by them. Think I saw the first empty snail shell today and they eat loads of cucumber!

Their behaviour is strange, one is well outgoing for a few minutes then they both dive straight into cover and you wont see them for ages

One swims all over, the other seems a bit lazy.... Love em though!

 

[sophos9]

Yep, just checked and there are 2 shells laying on the bottom.... Yey for the loach!

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Now Im just jealous !

 

[b.c.f.c]

this is a yoyo loach