# Snail eating, plant-friendly community fish



## Oso Polar (Apr 22, 2015)

Clowns don't eat plants. However, sometimes they make holes in their leaves. This is about "regular size" clowns, I don't have experience with adult 15" monsters.

There are many smaller peaceful loaches that eat snails very well, for example, Botia almorhae (yoyo loach), Botia striata (zebra loach). They still can occasionally make holes in plant leaves and may be incompatible with some fish.

Check www.loaches.com for lots of info on different loaches.


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Clown Loaches get too big for that tank. 
Yoyo Loaches are not friendly to small tank mates. They can (and did) eat Neon Tetras. 
I would highly recommend Zebra Loaches. I had them in a tank with breeding Endlers Livebearers and even the fry were safe. Zebra Loaches do eat shrimp. They are social, but are small enough that half a dozen would be fine in a 75 gallon tank. 
Smaller Loaches (Kuhlies, Chain Loaches) have mouths that are too small to really cope with snails. Some of these will eat snail babies, so keep the population way down, but they cannot handle the adult snails. 
If it is a cool water tank, the Weather Loach is an interesting fish. Gets a bit large, but is possible in this tank size. I have had spotty results as far as snail eating goes- some do a good job, others seem not too interested in snails. 

Platies can be trained to eat snails. Skip feeding for a day, then crush a few snails. The platies can learn to eat snails once they know there is food inside the shell. Same concept can work with other species of fish- try it, see if it works with whatever fish you currently have.


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## AlecFish (Nov 26, 2011)

I'm glad you did a little research on clowns as they can get absolutely massive. 

In my experience I've naturally brought down pest snail populations through smaller amounts of feeding. Pest snails are usually a good indicator of overall tank health. If you're starting to see more than you usually see, chances are that your're overfeeding.

However, I have found success with assassin snails. Throw a few assassin snails in there and slowly you'll see that pond snail population diminish. They have almost no bioload and have a very interesting way of capturing their prey, and I believe they are shrimp safe as well. 

If snails aren't your thing, I'd recommend dwarf chain loaches. They stay much smaller getting to be about 2" while others such as zebras and yoyos get 4-6". They do a pretty good job at wiping out snail populations. Although, just as any other botia, they can be quite rambunctious and require friends to be happy (6+ imo); in the end a shoal of 8 or more individuals can be striking.


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## AKnickolai (Nov 30, 2012)

My apistogramma actually does an an awesome job of eating snails. Not sure if this is a common trait of theirs or not, but they are very cool fish.


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## xev11 (Jan 19, 2010)

Puffers are also amazing fish that will eat snails. They prefer live foood in my experience


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## Clear Water (Sep 20, 2014)

There was a great article in TFH how to get rid of snails in your tank. The best way to get rid them without fish is to put a lid or small plate with food on it before tank goes dark and wait couple hours and the plate will be full of snails. He also told how some snails can live for weeks seal inside of there shell. He recommended baking them in oven for half hour to make sure there dead.


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## sohankpatel (Jul 10, 2015)

I bought some plants from someone on this forum and got a few snails with them, my kribensis ate them all, they were small though. He does really well in a tank with neons, pristella tetras, otos, flagfish, and a dwarf gourami, he hasnt bothered any other fish except the gourami because the gourami attacks him


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

If you add a fish to the tank that eats snails, what are you going to feed him when all the snails are gone?


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

tuffgong said:


> If you add a fish to the tank that eats snails, what are you going to feed him when all the snails are gone?


The voice of reason.

Snail explosions are a symptom of a problem you have to solve. Not an issue unto themselves. With some patience, the population will simply reflect the available food supply. Eliminate the snails and then you'll ask yourself why there's so much food laying around all the time. And eventually you'll ask yourself why you got that pea puffer in the first place if you have to ask for snails to feed them. Bring new fish to the tank because you enjoy them, not because they'll eat snails.


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## n25philly (Dec 12, 2013)

Put in some CPO's. More personality than any fish, too small to cause any trouble, yet tough enough to hold their own against anything that isn't going to be able to eat them whole and they'll turn your tank into a snail graveyard.


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

tuffgong said:


> If you add a fish to the tank that eats snails, what are you going to feed him when all the snails are gone?


Snails from the filter that are too hard to get rid of.
I don't see the problem with getting fish to eat snails. Honestly all the cool fish do it.


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## n25philly (Dec 12, 2013)

Fish Em said:


> Snails from the filter that are too hard to get rid of.
> I don't see the problem with getting fish to eat snails. *Honestly all the cool fish do it.*


Oh, now we're going to start with the peer pressure


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

If you want foreground plants, forget loaches. They'll unroot all those.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Bushkill said:


> The voice of reason.
> 
> Snail explosions are a symptom of a problem you have to solve. Not an issue unto themselves. With some patience, the population will simply reflect the available food supply. Eliminate the snails and then you'll ask yourself why there's so much food laying around all the time. And eventually you'll ask yourself why you got that pea puffer in the first place if you have to ask for snails to feed them. Bring new fish to the tank because you enjoy them, not because they'll eat snails.


this^
Note that snails can eat uneaten fish food but also algae (mostly diatoms), dead/dieing plant matter, and I've seen some of mine eat the fungus that grows on newly submerged driftwood. Figure out which of these (can be multiple option) they are feeding plentifully from and resolve it. If fish food reduce the amount of food given, consider 1/2ing the portion and feeding 2x a day instead of 1 large portion a day if that is what you do. If dead plant matter, remove dead plant bits and figure out the imbalance causing them to die. Diatoms- easy enough to wipe off of plants, decor, and glass. Driftwood fungus: remove and scrub, rinse then consider boiling wood if possible to remove the semi translucent film from it.

Also dwarf puffers are not community fish. Though some have successfully kept them in communities there are a lot more people reporting the puffers harassing and most specifically fin nipping the [censor] out of other fish in the tank (big and small). They are mean little [censor]s and imo should be kept in species only tanks or only with otos (dunno why but puffers ignore otos).


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## Fish Em (Jul 3, 2015)

n25philly said:


> Oh, now we're going to start with the peer pressure


I just used very obvious terminology straight out of D.A.R.E. otherwise maybe no one would have recognized.


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## Mr. Limpet (Dec 26, 2010)

Laetacara curviceps are great snail eaters, leave plants alone & will even breed in a community tank. But for an infestation of MTS nothing beats assassin snails.


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## TookyFL (Sep 16, 2014)

Thanks for all the great information and questions back... so as I continue to think through what might be the best solution for me... here's a little more information... I introduced the snails by adding new plants to my aquarium.

I have a mix of platties, neon tetras, red fin tetras, cory cats, otocinclus, white cloud mountain minnows, rosy tetras, and lamp eye tetras. So, very peaceful fish. I see mixed information about Zebra Loach (Botia striata) being semi-aggressive but also peaceful. Can anyone speak to this out of experience?


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## DavidZ (Nov 17, 2009)

+1 for assassin snail


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