Looking For A Community Fish That Eats Snails

[Vancar]

Can anyone recommend a community fish that eats snails. At the moment I have neon tetras, galaxy rasboras, otos and shrimp in a 80x60x40 tank.

 

[Carlovel1]

You could buy Loaches but I doubt these will get on with your current inhabitants. The best thing to d would be to get a SINGLE Assassin Snail. They will eat your snails very effectively but if you get more than 1, they will start to invade your tank too.
Carl

 

[KittyKat]

Loaches will eat snails, as said above, but a more effective solution would be to remove the cause of the problem. Usually, with snails, the cause is overfeeding or need for better maintenance.

 

[helterskelter]

I've for 4 Assassin Snail's in my tank now and have them for several months! All snails are now gone and I don't find then invasive at all.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Dwarf Chain Loach?

 

[KittyKat]

I've for 4 Assassin Snail's in my tank now and have them for several months! All snails are now gone and I don't find then invasive at all.

I hear that the problem with that is that the assassins breed out of control very quickly!

 

[helterskelter]

I've for 4 Assassin Snail's in my tank now and have them for several months! All snails are now gone and I don't find then invasive at all.

I hear that the problem with that is that the assassins breed out of control very quickly!

LOL I wish they would for me
You need both male and females to breed these, as their not hermaphrodite like most snails.

 

[the_lock_man]

I've for 4 Assassin Snail's in my tank now and have them for several months! All snails are now gone and I don't find then invasive at all.

I hear that the problem with that is that the assassins breed out of control very quickly!

Only talking from my experience of them, but they don't breed as quickly as ponds snails. I bought 6 assassins to get rid of my pond snails, which they've done very efficiently, and I do have loads of babies now. The babies don't grow quickly at all - I first noticed babies about 2/3 months ago, and they're still quite a long way from the size I bought the parents at.

Having re-read that, it sounds really negative, which I don't mean it to be. I think they're quite attractive in their own way, they also help keep the substrate clean (now they've run out of snails to feed on), and the babies have a certain monetary value when they're about 6-8 months old.

 

[Vancar]

thanks for the advice, think I will pop and get some assasin snails then

 

[AstonN24vantage]

are they big snails or little ones? is your tank dimension in cm or inches? if its inches, you could probably fit a clown loach in there, because they grow huge.

 

[helterskelter]

are they big snails or little ones? is your tank dimension in cm or inches? if its inches, you could probably fit a clown loach in there, because they grow huge.

Clown loach are a social fish and prefer to live in groups of 4-6 fish minimum.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

true. i didnt think of that.

 

[Vancar]

are they big snails or little ones? is your tank dimension in cm or inches? if its inches, you could probably fit a clown loach in there, because they grow huge.

size is cm and the snails are no bigger than 1/2 a cm long

 

[L4byr1nth]

I hate this - every time I buy plants from my LFS (Fishy Business indeed <_<), I get an infestation of small snails!

Normally, I pick them off with the gravel vac and then get the algae scraper out for the ones on the glass, but it's such a pain.

You could re-home the shrimp for a couple of weeks and dose the tank? But that's probably not the best option.

Ben.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

you could give me the snails . i need something to clean up my algae now. are they eating your plants?