Other snail-eating loaches

[PETsMARTchick]

So I have a snail problem. It just came up out of the blue(haven't bought any plants lately) and I want to get rid of them. I know there are other loaches besides clown loaches that eat snails, but what are they? Are there any small community snail-eating loaches?

 

[ryan]

Most Botia species will eat certain snail species to a certain degree. Some smaller species you might want to try are Botia sidthimunki, Botia dario, Botia striata and Botia kubotai.

 

[Bignose]

Botia Rostrata a.k.a. Sergeant Major Loach. Only 2-3 inches adult size, and 5 of them destroyed the 15-20 snails I had in 2 days.

 

[Gunnie]

Check out this website, and just take your time looking at each one. This is a great site to find the right loach for your tank:


loaches.com

 

[myenigmaself]

Red Tailed Zebra/Sand Loach will do the trick. They reach an adult size of about 3", but are quite aggressive so it depends on what other fish you have. I currently have one medium sized RTSL in with tetras and a severum and even a guppy. There used to be kuhli loaches in with them but the RTSL ate them. The LFS I got them (used to be more but most died from a paracite they got from bad blood worms) from said that they had eaten a fully grown blue lobster (durring a molt) right before I purchased them. Food for thought, but yeah, loaches.com is where you want to be.

 

[northpaul]

your snail problem might be caused by uneaten food how often do you feed them

 

[myenigmaself]

That will increase the snail population but I've found that a snail "problem" can arise no matter what. Snails will eat anything, including fish waste. They'd rather eat plants or even fish food, but it's not necessary for a problem. I found snails in a tank that had been abandoned for 6 months.

Another alternative to remove them is to put lettuce or spinach in the middle of the tank, leave it over-night, then remove it in the morning. A good majority of the snails will have congregated on the leafy vedgie and can simply be removed. Then try to crush any egg clusters you see. A good fish to take care of the problem is prefered in my opinion, but there are options.