Loaches As Snail Control

[Rynoah]

Hello! Within the next couple of months, I will be rehousing my three-spot gourami in a 20-29 gallon tank (shooting for the 20 gallon, but will go with 29 gallons if need be). I will be receiving snails as algae-control for his current five gallon tank and will be manually removing them to keep the population in check. However, when I rehouse him, I want to keep other fish as snail control. I've heard that some species of loaches will happily feed on snails, so I was considering some of those (I also think they're cute and would be a nice addition). I'm not sure what kind I could safely put in such a tank, though. That's why I need your help. What kinds of loaches are effective at controlling snails that I can keep in 20-29 gallons with a three-spot gourami? Or should I not transfer the snails at all and just get a good algae-eating fish?

 

[The-Wolf]

botia rostrata or botia striata will be suitable for that size tank.
remember loaches are gregarious and need to be in groups of at least 3

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Sidthimunkis are a great small loach and will get the snails at small size.

 

[Rynoah]

Thank you very much for the feedback! Would any of these species prefer a certain kind of substrate?

 

[The-Wolf]

gravel of no more than 10mm is ok
sand is better

 

[Rynoah]

How deep would the sand need to be? I'm thinking I'd prefer sand, since it has a nicer look than gravel.

 

[Talz]

How deep would the sand need to be? I'm thinking I'd prefer sand, since it has a nicer look than gravel.

Personally I would make the sand a little bit deeper than the width of the largest loach provided they wouldent get mutch bigger... but im also functioning on zero sleep today so who knows

 

[TammyLiz]

You don't want to go too deep with sand because you can get pockets of anaerobic bacteria that build up below the surface of it. You can either stock the tank with Malasian Trumpet Snails to dig around in and aerate the sand, or you can poke something down into it on a regular basis to make sure you break up any nasty pockets before they get too bad. The deeper the sand, the more trouble you may have with this.

I have rostrata in a tank with fine clay based substrate, and I think they would greatly appreciate some sand. They are adorable and dig around with their pointy little noses quite a bit, flicking pieces of substrate around. The sand would be easier for them to dig in.

EDIT: Keep in mind that I'm just repeating what I've been told! I haven't actually had these problems myself.

 

[Talz]

You don't want to go too deep with sand because you can get pockets of anaerobic bacteria that build up below the surface of it. You can either stock the tank with Malasian Trumpet Snails to dig around in and aerate the sand, or you can poke something down into it on a regular basis to make sure you break up any nasty pockets before they get too bad. The deeper the sand, the more trouble you may have with this.

I have rostrata in a tank with fine clay based substrate, and I think they would greatly appreciate some sand. They are adorable and dig around with their pointy little noses quite a bit, flicking pieces of substrate around. The sand would be easier for them to dig in.

EDIT: Keep in mind that I'm just repeating what I've been told! I haven't actually had these problems myself.

It sorta makes sence though

 

[Rynoah]

Well, it's me again. After looking around a bit, I decided not to transfer the snails and instead get an American flag fish to help control the algae, but I'm still interested in loaches. I've been looking at khuli loaches. Would a handful of khulis be happy with the above specifications? (29 gallons filtered with sand substrate, American flag fish and male three-spot gourami as tankmates.) The tank would, of course, have a lot of plants and hiding places, since the gourami loves tall plants.