Fish To Munch Snails

[ant0]

It's probably been askled before and i did a search before posting and found nothing...

I need something to keep the snail population in my tank in check. Tank is 60 litres 12*12*24 so something small is needed. I went to my local fish store and they recomended me a clown loach Didnt seem to care it would be horrendously cramped when grown...

So.. what can I get that likes to eat snails? I was looking at the poakistani loach, a good fish?

 

[PaulEbs]

What other fish are in your tank?

My two zebra loaches love to harrass any snail that may enter the tank, great to watch chasing each other around too - lively little characters.

Paul.

 

[Sp00ky]

It's probably been askled before and i did a search before posting and found nothing...

I need something to keep the snail population in my tank in check. Tank is 60 litres 12*12*24 so something small is needed. I went to my local fish store and they recomended me a clown loach Didnt seem to care it would be horrendously cramped when grown...

So.. what can I get that likes to eat snails? I was looking at the poakistani loach, a good fish?

a pakistani loach will get just as long as a clown loach. I beleive Gouramis are a coniseour of the snail

 

[Miss Wiggle]

my opaline gourami's love snails...... yum yum yum

 

[ant0]

60 Litres, 12*12*24 with a number of plants, bogwood and a couple of ornaments

5X neon tetra
4X Zebra Danio
2X male Guppy
2X male Molly
2X White cloud minnow
1X freshwater shrimp

so it's about full! Will a dwarf Gourami do fine then or do i need to get a pair of them? I read too that they don't like overly active tankmate - read guppy/ molly

Does anyone know anything about this: Zebra Loach

edit: i'm in leicester so the water is fairly hard and the PH is around 7.5, looking at the Dwarf Gourami here: here would it still thrive?

 

[lildozer74]

yeah i had thousands of em, yoyo loach=no more snails

 

[geo7x]

well, what i suggest, and it may seem a bit drastic, get rid of the 2 WCMMs and 4 danios, 2 WCMMs is not a big enough group, you need at least 6 for them to be happy, and your tank wouldnt allow any more, the 4 danios isnt really a big enough group, plus danios would be better off with a bigger tank as they like the swimming space. IMO dwarf gouramis wouldnt solve the problem, youre looking at loaches, particularly botias, i suggest that once youve got rid of the danios and wcmms (sell them to lfs or on here) yeah, zebra loaches would probably work, get a nice group of about 4 or one or two more, so you end up with a stocking list like this:

5 neon tetra
2 guppy
2 molly
1 shrimp
4ish zebra loaches

sounds drastic i know, but if you want to add fish to eat snails, only way imo. might need someone to back me up on this plan though.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah dwarf gourami's won't eat snails, it's just the bigger one's.... which are too big for your tank, so yeah back to loaches then.

geo's right about the stocking levels... i don't know about zebra loaches myself so can't say you could definately have 4, but his comments re the WCMM and danio's are pretty spot on.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Or you could do what everyone else does any get rid of the root of the problem, ie, overfeeding, killing snails you see, wiping off snail eggs etc. Buying a so called 'snail eater' does nothing, it adds more waste, still needs other food (leaving more leftovers for snails) and doesn't even eat that many. And even the ones it does it, there are still more and it only takes one snail to multiply.

 

[geo7x]

geo's right about the stocking levels... i don't know about zebra loaches myself so can't say you could definately have 4, but his comments re the WCMM and danio's are pretty spot on.

thanks miss wiggle, im pretty sure that 4 is a good number for zebra loaches, IME loaches group size preferabilities doesnt differ greatly to corydoras, i mean, you could get away with 3, but i think that with you could have 4 once the other fish stocking is sorted

 

[ant0]

thanks for the replies. I had 5 white clouds but got a bad batch - 3 died As for the Danios, I had 5 and 1 died. I'm thinking along the lines of getting 3 zebra loaches. Will i be able to just take the danios/ white clouds back?

Also... with this:

5 neon tetra
2 guppy
2 molly
1 shrimp
4ish zebra loaches

Will i be able to add another shoal of something small?

edit: the white clouds were a mistake, didn't realise they were a cold water fish Would another shoal of tetra be good i.e. rummy nose etc? or should i get more neons? I'm just after variety!

2nd edit: I want some snails in my tank to clear up the dead plant matter but not too many, 4 zebra loaches wont eat them all will they?

 

[geo7x]

i think that stocking level is pretty much as much as it can take, it really doesnt have room for 6 more fish, i would add another 1 or 2 neons, 5 is ok but better to have more. Im not sure whether theyd eat all the snails or not, i know loaches love them, but im not sure.