Loaches vs MTS

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seangee

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I have heard / read that MTS are able to resist the attentions of loach. Is this correct. I decided to add some MTS to my tank tonight and the sids went into what looked like a feeding frenzy and were working in teams to try to extract the snails from their shells. I thought I'd give them a fighting chance by burying them in the substrate but they also seem pretty good at sniffing them out and digging them up.

I did have MTS in the community tank before I moved the sids out but that was a well established colony, so if they were food there was plenty to go around.
 
Malaysian Livebearing Snails tend to escape predation by loaches more than most other snails because of a physiological feature often called a "trap door" which makes it much more difficult for fish to get at them. I had fewer MLS in my two tanks with loaches, but they were still there but remained more in the substrate, probably for good reason..

The dwarf chain loaches are not that adept at snail eating, not as much as some of the botine species. I'm not saying they won't eat them, or won't try, but I have never seen any of my dwarfs do this, and I've had them for 8 or 9 years now. Maybe they only do it when I'm not observing, lol. My Botia kubotai seemed a tad more effective, as their tank had fewer snails to be seen than the tank with the dwarf chain loaches.
 

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