# small snail eating freshwater fish



## plusewolf

hey I need a peaceful small snail eating freshwater fish for my 20 glason long tank. 

current fish:
5 ghost/glass catfish
4 glofish
3 platys
2 albino Cory cats
1 fancy Molly 
1 chinese agle eater
1 small Molly(at least a think it's a Molly). it only an inch and it's named duckie cause it of way it swims. it so funny and one of fav fish in tank.

now I know ottos will eat snail, but not sure if I can mix them with my glass cats. please help


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## iKine

I read this as in you need a snail to eat your fish.


it took me a second..


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## plusewolf

no I need a fish to eat the dam snails in my tank


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## OverStocked

ottos will not eat snails.... Ottos are like an inch long... There are really no fish that will eat snails that are a good mix for your tanks. 

Assassin snails are your best bet.


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## Plant keeper

OverStocked said:


> ottos will not eat snails.... Ottos are like an inch long... There are really no fish that will eat snails that are a good mix for your tanks.
> 
> Assassin snails are your best bet.


I hear they can be a pest too...


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## OverStocked

Plant keeper said:


> I hear they can be a pest too...


They are easy to pick out and sell if you ever get to that problem. It isn't likely though. Of all the people i've heard have assassins i've maybe heard of 1 or 2 having "too many".


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## plusewolf

well then how do I get rid of my snails. I have been picking any I find out the tank, every day, for the the past 4 weeks and it's not working, I want them gone


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## OverStocked

assassin snails, feed MUCH less, buy a snail trap.


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## plusewolf

what a snail trap?


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## plusewolf

I have heard that clown lochs eat snails, but I hear they need to kept in schools and can need a big tank


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## OverStocked

plusewolf said:


> I have that clown lochs eat snails, but I hear they need to kept in schools and can need a big tank


They do. And thus why I said none of the fish that eat snails would be appropriate for your tank size/inhabitants. 

A snail trap is a... trap for snails. 

Google will give you info.


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## garfieldnfish

I am raising assassin snails and have been selling them for a while. Mine do very well but many people can not get theirs to reproduce at all. I have not had any problems selling my extra ones. But if you only get 2 or 3 of them the likelyhood of them mating and reproducing is not that great. And they only lay a single egg each time that takes weeks before you see a baby assassin snail out in the open. But if they breed and they run out of pest snails they are supposed to stop breeding until pest snails are available again. I cannot confirm that as I never have run out of pest snails so far. Most LFSs will also gladly take any extras off your hand if you do not want to mess with selling and shipping them, providing they breed for you in the first place.
Or you could buy "Had a Snail".

The only small fish that comes to my mind that eats snails would be a dwarf puffer but they can get sort of nippy and I would not subject my fish to one of them.


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## plusewolf

will yoyo loach be good for my tank. cause I looked them up online and it said they can be kept in a 20 gallon tank, just wondering if this is true


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## plusewolf

sorry I take that back, was visiting more sites and they said no


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## Mr. Appleton

Dwar pea puffers will eat snails, though it's not the a completely peaceful fish. We had 2 pea puffers with otos and amano shrimps in a 5 gallon and never saw them being bothered, but it might depend on the temperament of each puffer. They are pretty small at ~1-1.5".


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## Plant keeper

plusewolf said:


> sorry I take that back, was visiting more sites and they said no


U can do botia sidthimunki...


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## plusewolf

qustion when I bought my Chinese algea eater, the people there said it may get more meaner when it get older, I thought they would crazy and bought one anyway. just wondering if it true in any way


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## Coursair

plusewolf said:


> qustion when I bought my Chinese algea eater, the people there said it may get more meaner when it get older, I thought they would crazy and bought one anyway. just wondering if it true in any way


CAEs like to eat the slime coat off other fish. They get large and aggressive and aren't very good at eating Algae. I always recommended Otos or Pitbull Plecos instead. 


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## Coursair

You can blanch a piece of Zucchini, Spinach or Romaine weight it down with a zip tie or rock. Turn the lights out. Wait an hour. Turn lights on scoop up a ton of snails. 
If the tank is big enough lay the net on the bottom and place the bait food on the net. Even easier to scoop up. 


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## Coursair

Also if you have a major snail outbreak you are probably overfeeding. JMHO. 


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## garfieldnfish

I have 2 CAEs, one got aggressive and is responsible for a goldfish death. The other one never attacked anyone. But the fish you have in your tank should be fine. CAEs are only threats to larger flat bodied, slow fish, like fancy goldfish, silver dollars, kissing gouramis, discus etc. But I have had my non-aggressive one with a large silver dollar for several years and no problem. My aggressive one is with corys, plecos and glowlight tetras and has behaved with those for years as well.


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## moonshinetheslacker

Pea puffers are a bit less aggressive then a lot of people think. I would honestly try one, and if it doesn't work out, bring it back to your pet store. I've kept mine with ghost shrimp, amano shrimp, guppies, and cherries. The only agression was toward the cherrys (all became food) and the snail population was kept WELL under control.

YMMV


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## lauraleellbp

+1 for Assassin snails.

And YES, CAE will grow quite large (can grow to 12" plus), and typically stop eating algae and become increasingly agressive once they exceed 4-6". I had one kill an entire 46gal community at one point, only a single Red Tail Black Shark survived it.


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## OverStocked

garfieldnfish said:


> I have 2 CAEs, one got aggressive and is responsible for a goldfish death. The other one never attacked anyone. But the fish you have in your tank should be fine. CAEs are only threats to larger flat bodied, slow fish, like fancy goldfish, silver dollars, kissing gouramis, discus etc. But I have had my non-aggressive one with a large silver dollar for several years and no problem. My aggressive one is with corys, plecos and glowlight tetras and has behaved with those for years as well.


but CAE's will not touch the snail population so it won't fix the problem. 

Assassins. Assassin. Assassin.


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## garfieldnfish

He already has one and wanted to know if they become aggressive. I know they won't eat snails but that was not the question in regards to the CAE.


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## wetworks

Loaches- Clown Loaches, Chain Loaches, YoYo Loaches, Dojo Loaches, Angelica Loaches all work'
Dwarf Puffers (but once the snails are gone they may eat your fishes)
Cherry Barbs- they will eat pond/bladder snails, but they are not so quick about it.
Assassin Snails are great, and they reproduce VERY slowly (I read somewhere that they only lay one egg per month). If your tank is over-fed, they will just scavenge, so make sure you feed lightly and keep them motivated. Good luck!


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## Jericho199

I'll have to agree on assassin snails. I purchased 4 and they rid my 35g of pest snails within a month. 

As far as reproducing goes, it's totally manageable. In the 5 months I've had my assassins, they've only produced 2 additional snails. Hardly an outbreak.


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## Abrium

Assassin snails will be your best bet here especially with your current bioload. I know you are scared of snail infestations right now because of the issues you are having with your current common pond snail infestation BUT I assure that this will not happen with Clea Helena. There is almost no way for you to infest yourself if you inspect your tank for even 5 minutes a day. 

If you take a look at your tank once a day and remove any assassin snails you find (after they have eaten all of your problem snails) they will all be gone in about a week and IF they mated you will see babies in about 6 to 10 weeks. Remove them and you are done. 

+1 for assassins


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## AshleyMac

Along the lines of what Coursair said, I used a piece of lettuce and I would leave it for a few hours. At first the snails would eventually weigh it down to the bottom and I could just fish it out...no nets needed. And the end of my infestation the lettuce stayed at the top (less snails) and I just picked it off the surface.


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## plusewolf

u be surpised, my fish get feed once every three days, but the ones from my the 10 gallon are still fat as what, which don't I don't understand


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## AirstoND

*2 words*

Turkey baister!


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## plusewolf

garfieldnfish said:


> I have 2 CAEs, one got aggressive and is responsible for a goldfish death. The other one never attacked anyone. But the fish you have in your tank should be fine. CAEs are only threats to larger flat bodied, slow fish, like fancy goldfish, silver dollars, kissing gouramis, discus etc. But I have had my non-aggressive one with a large silver dollar for several years and no problem. My aggressive one is with corys, plecos and glowlight tetras and has behaved with those for years as well.


well u said flat body fish when get attacked by the cae, then what bout my ghost cats and dg, they both flat body fish


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## Guest

Don't get dwarf pea puffers for your tank they may be small but they are extremely powerful with jaws that are like small parrot fish and a very short fuse for a temperament


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## seove

iKine said:


> I read this as in you need a snail to eat your fish.
> 
> 
> it took me a second..


He should have written "snail-eating..."


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## utilities21

Yo yo loaches do eat snails but....if you’ve got aquasoil...be prepared for a muddy tank all the time...since they even dig deep to catch snails...and often you’d find them resting under soil layer 😖


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## splattered

The only thing in your tank I'd worry about with yoyo's would be the glass cats. Not aggression so much as yoyo's like to swim thru obstacles at top speed all in a row and might hip-check a glass cat unintentionally. The tank itself is a wee bit small for 5 yoyo's and I wouldn't recommend keeping less than that tho it's conceivable. +1 on the dwarf chain loaches but again keep at least 5 for optimal behavior. A friend of mine has a great solution which is "like snails". Problem solved. They only eat the dead plants and help with breaking down solids. I don't have a problem with them in the tank. They're a good indicator of overfeeding or plant die off which is useful. I do see them as an untapped food source which is why I have puffers and loaches myself. Easiest way to feed live foods. The culture's right there in the tank. Easy peasy. There's smaller botia other than clowns/yoyo's these days - different zebras, Pakistani varieties, etc but check to see which prefer calmer waters. Most of these are similar to hillstreams and really prefer a good current. I have sidthimunkis and SAP together in a rapids tank - no snails to be found in there! 

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