# small loach for snail control



## efish (Apr 23, 2006)

I've got a 20G tall planted and i'm noticing more and more snails (3 to 6) each night that i keep having to throw into my 90G as a snack. I don't mind doing it, but thought I'd add a loach to help with the problem (and give a little action to the tank).

See my sig for stocking list. Are there any small loaches that would be good at cleaning up these snails?

TIA


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## crazie.eddie (May 31, 2004)

What type of snail? Loaches can't handle MTS, due to their hard shells and their trapdoors. Fortunately, MTS are live bearers, so manual removal is the best method of reduction/elimination.


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## efish (Apr 23, 2006)

no clue on the type. they are dark brown/black, they look like the typical spiral shell snail. i'll try to get a pic this weekend. is there a link with types of snails?

when i throw them in my 90G, I've seen the 1 clown loach chew on the openning for a while. But usually the Green Terror just eats them.


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## efish (Apr 23, 2006)

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn12687/dn12687-2_250.jpg

looks like this except much smaller.


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## jade_dragon71 (Dec 2, 2005)

Ramshorn by your description and the pic if they are smaller...at least, in my tanks I've never had any that big anyway.


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## kana (Oct 23, 2007)

I have Dwarf Loaches (Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki) that keep my tank snail free. I added the 6 loaches before I had evidence of a snail problem, so either I don't have snails or they take care of them, I think the latter to be true.

My loaches were pretty expensive($10 each) and they tend to be less aggressive in groups. 

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki


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## newshound (May 9, 2005)

your tank is way too small for any loaches!
Loaches need other buddies to hang out with (at least 4 if not more).
I am not sure about your fish in your 90gallon being clown friendly once they mature.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/why-loaches-should-not-be-kept-with-malawi-cichlids
loaches have different needs than some of your fish too.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/an-introduction-to-keeping-botia
maybe buy a small clown loach to add to the 90 gallon later. It should take care of the snails.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

I think 10 bucks a piece for sidthimunkis is a great price! Where'd you get them?


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## Riley (Jan 24, 2006)

You could try a dwarf puffer too. I put one in my 29 gallon and he slaughtered everything. 

Fish: Dale at FF has them for 9.00 I think.


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

I got 4 yo-yo and 2 zebra loaches, can't get rid of these MTS in my planted tank, any other suggestions?

I handpicked about 100 of them out last night. no more snails if I open any other tanks





crazie.eddie said:


> What type of snail? Loaches can't handle MTS, due to their hard shells and their trapdoors. Fortunately, MTS are live bearers, so manual removal is the best method of reduction/elimination.


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## newshound (May 9, 2005)

another idea is to rip apart the twenty gallon. Put all the plants in your big tank for a week so the clowns can pick the snails off. Rinse the substrate in really hot water to kill the snails and eggs.
Then re-setup the 20 gallon tank again.


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## sc204 (Nov 27, 2007)

Botia striata are cute, plant friendly, do not grow too large and will eat all of the small ramshorn snails you can feed them. They may even get some of the larger ones but they may survive OK. 2 of them wiped out the pond snail population in my 500 gallon tank in just a few days. As mentioned they do not do too much for trumpet snails.

Stuart


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## efish (Apr 23, 2006)

thanks for all the replies. 

First, my cichlids aren't African, so that link about mixing cichlids and loaches doesn't really apply. Also, my loaches are large enough that the cichlids don't bug them. 

I think I'm going to try dropping my plants in the 90G and letting the loaches pick it over. I don't think I have room for 4+ more fish in my 20G.

Thanks again.


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## kana (Oct 23, 2007)

fishscale said:


> I think 10 bucks a piece for sidthimunkis is a great price! Where'd you get them?


 
I got them at Anthony's Aquatic Adventures in Saginaw, formally Scales and Tails. He ordered them for me, but later told me due to the expense he probably wouldn't be stocking any. I could maybe ask him again if you are interested. PM me


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

Riley said:


> You could try a dwarf puffer too. I put one in my 29 gallon and he slaughtered everything.
> 
> Fish: Dale at FF has them for 9.00 I think.


Wow! :icon_eek: Petsmart has them for $1.99. 

I call Dwarf Puffers my "2-Dollar, 2-Day Solution" for pond and ramshorn snails. MTS will not be afected unless they are on the glass, or a plant or driftwood with their soft parts exposed. Here is a clip of what happns to a hapless snail: 

Snail Snack

Note the litter of empty shells. 

Dwarf puffers will eat until they look like they will explode. In the clip, the dominant one harrassed the weaker one to death, so I am assuming they were both male.


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## rasetsu (Oct 11, 2007)

Is it safe to assume that puffers and loaches will eat amano shrimp and large nerite snails too?


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

rasetsu said:


> Is it safe to assume that puffers and loaches will eat amano shrimp and large nerite snails too?


When the small snails are gone, the puffers will look for other living food. 

To its credit, my puffer did not start attacking my Cories until, over the course of about two days, it examined every millimeter of the tank for any remaining snails. When it became clear they were all gone, the puffer began to see the cories as food, and I removed it before it could do any damage. 

Shrimp can dart away, so they might be safe. Large snails would probably be at risk. 

When your problem snails are gone, remove the puffer. It's a shame, since they are really pretty fish, especially their jewel-like eyes.


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## imeridian (Jan 19, 2007)

I had a betta that decimated populations of both common pond snails and the supposedly 'too hard of a shell to eat' MTS. Particularly in the case of the MTS, I had a pretty full tank of them, on purpose, within a week of introducing the betta there were only empty shells left.


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## ovenmit331 (Mar 27, 2007)

i wanna get rid of my pong snails too. i've got them in a 2.5g cube, standard 10g and 30g hex. i'm thinkin for the 2.5g and 10g the only thing that would work would be a dwarf puffer. but i have a ton of RCS in there. would they decimate that population as well?

in the 30g hex, what kind of loach would be best?


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

I had a terrible problem of MTS in my 20Long tank. So I got 9 dwarf loaches (_ Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki_), and they have done a fantastic job of controlling the snails.

They don't eat the shells. They suck the snails out of the shells.

I don't know if they automatically know how to do this or what. While they were in Q/T for about 2.5 weeks, I put some MTS of various sizes in their Q/T. They went after them instantly! As far as ramshead snails, those were attacked and eaten within seconds. It was actually quite amazing to watch them.

While a 20L tank has a larger footprint and 9 aren't needed (I mail ordered mine and hadn't expected all 9 to survive), you should be able to handle a group of 5 very easily. They are very social so you must keep them in a group.

Also watch out for ich when you first get them. They are highly susceptible to getting ich. It's very important to use a Q/T for at least 2 weeks to ensure they get over the first challenge of being transported (they were transported to the LFS even if not mail ordered). Should they come down with ich, act immediately using Rid Ich + at FULL strength. They tolerate it very well and it works nicely. Their Q/T should be bare bottom so you can do thorough vacuuming if you have to battle ich, but be sure they have plenty of hiding places at the same time (I used pvc tubes). Mine did get ich, but I acted immediately, and between all 9 fish, I saw only a handful of spots. I also have a uv sterilizer on the Q/T which may have helped a little.

Since I've put these little, but hugely entertaining, loaches in my 20L, my snail problem is well under control. I still see a few snails here and there, but I can now count them on one hand instead of the hundreds I used to have. Control is what I wanted, not total eradication since I do like having the MTS to help keep the substrate stirred up a bit.

Drs Foster & Smith wanted around $20 per fish which was just too much for me. I found them at That Fish Place for $10 a fish. I also (kicking myself now) found them at a LFS for just $9 per fish.

I very highly recommend these little loaches even if they aren't needed for snail control. They are extremely entertaining! Unlike most loaches, they swim in mid-water, sometimes to the other fish's chagrin! I have some guppies in that tank, and a group will be merrily swimming along before they realize they have an added friend swimming with them! They then turn on the loach, telling it to go away, to which the loach swims away as if to say, "who said I was swimming with YOU guys?" Humph! :icon_lol:

You can get some info about these cute little loaches here:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/yasuhikotakia-sidthimunki

I make no guarantees that these loaches will control everyone's snails. Why they control mine, I do not know. I did a lot of research before getting them, and it seems to be a hit or miss with some people having good luck with others not. I can only hope should you get some that you'll have the good results I've had.

Whoops! Forgot to mention that I have 6 amano shrimps in the tank with the loaches with out a problem. However, amano shrimps are larger than RCS so I don't know how the loaches would affect RCS. My gut feeling is that as long as the RCS are willing to move should a loach decide to check them out, they should be okay. The loaches are extremely curious, checking out every tiny bit of the tank and all inhabitants, but I've seen no signs of aggression.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

I keep a dwarf puffer with cherry shrimp and my puffer ignores the shrimps, doesn't even nip at them or track them down. Although I did notice him "hunt" a small male but the shrimp got away easily. 

I had a massive snail infestation from plant hitchhikers and got the puffer to take care of the problem. He cleaned the tank within a week and now I have to keep a snail farm just so I can feed him. He's in a 10 gal tank with cherries and amanos. The cherry population hasn't grown so it's safe to say that the puffer eats the shrimplets, which I expected. I intend on moving the cherries to another tank soon so they can build a colony. 

Although my particular puffer is safe with my cherries, YMMV. Each puffer has a unique personality and some will be more peaceful than others. My little guy seems to be pretty peaceful and doesn't go after anything other than snails as far as i can tell. I'm still having trouble trying to get him onto frozen bloodworms though. 

I've never tried loaches, but imo puffers are the best. They're small and cheap ($2 at petsmart). Stick one in the tank, let him clean it up and take it back to petsmart within 14 days and return him saying he was too aggressive toward your other fish and they'll refund your money, or use him as an excuse to set up a nano tank just for him! I can vouche for the fact that they are extremely interesting fish due to their intelligence, curiousity and snail controlling abilities (which is very fun to watch).


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## EricSilver (Feb 23, 2004)

moogoo said:


> they are extremely interesting fish due to their intelligence, curiousity and snail controlling abilities (which is very fun to watch).


This is very true. 

Puffers are pure predators, and I could sit for hours watching them hunt. Their focused eye movements are most fascinating, as they scan every plant leaf for snails.


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## loachlady5 (Dec 9, 2007)

I have so many loaches, I can't tell whose eating what:tongue:!!!


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## ovenmit331 (Mar 27, 2007)

moogoo said:


> I keep a dwarf puffer with cherry shrimp and my puffer ignores the shrimps, doesn't even nip at them or track them down. Although I did notice him "hunt" a small male but the shrimp got away easily.
> 
> I had a massive snail infestation from plant hitchhikers and got the puffer to take care of the problem. He cleaned the tank within a week and now I have to keep a snail farm just so I can feed him. He's in a 10 gal tank with cherries and amanos. The cherry population hasn't grown so it's safe to say that the puffer eats the shrimplets, which I expected. I intend on moving the cherries to another tank soon so they can build a colony.
> 
> ...


dwarf puffer... here i come.


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

I wouldn't suggest adding any fish to control the snails. IME, I have never had much luck using that method. What has worked much better for me over the years is mechanical removal. Reduce feeding of your fish and suck the the snails out with a hose during your WC's. You will soon notice a sharp decline in their numbers. My two cents.


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

I tried to use the mechanical method, but they could multiply faster than I could remove them. So I decided to put them to use.

I had a piece of driftwood that I had taken extreme measures to sterilize (long story), and I wanted to know if it was safe to put in the tank. So I decided to use the snails as a first test.

I put the snails and driftwood in a bucket of conditioned water. Not only did the snails survive, they multiplied! Like rabbits! :eek5: I wasn't feeding them at all!

About 2 months later (while the first set of snails continued to multiple), I decided to run another test. This time with rocks. Same kind of bucket. Same water. But this time with rocks that had also gone through an extreme sterilization process. Sure enough, the snails survived. And they even multiplied! They're still growing and multiplying in that bucket after a couple of months with nothing more than water and rocks!  

However, one thing I did find out. The snails with the rocks did not multiply as quickly as the ones with the wood. So it appears the snails are eating the wood. I keep waiting to see if the snails with the rocks will eventually die out, but so far they just keep on going.

After seeing how long the snails could hold out, I decided I had no other choice but to get loaches. So I did my best to pick loaches that would fit my tank; hence, why I got dwarf loaches. It turns out, they're one of my favorite fish now.

Oh, and you'll love this. How did my tank get infested with MTS? I put them there! :icon_lol: Yup. The people in the store in which I asked for them thought I was absolutely nuts, but I wanted them to keep the substrate stirred up. However, I learned my lesson very quickly. A little of something is fine, but too much is not a good thing.


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