Small snail eater

[morgan]

Hi, I know this subject has been talked about a lot but here goes. I have a lot of unwanted snails in my tank. I control them by squashing and a snail trap(not very successful). I am worried that when I go on holiday for a fortnight I am going to come back to a tank literally stuffed with snails! I have a 20UKgal tank and I am almost up to the max on stocking level. The water quality is fine. I would like to get a small snail-eating loach. I have read that Botia Striata are good for this but you need 2 or 3 to keep them happy. I could manage 2 as they do not grow very big but in their profile it also says that they can be aggressive to other bottom dwellers and I have a Common Pleco. The pleco is 6-7 inches at the moment(don't worry I am getting a bigger tank soon). I would be grateful for any advice. My other fish are Mollies, Fancy Guppies, a Hillstream Loach and I also have a Golden Apple Snail - hence no use of snail killing chemicals.

 

[WILDER]

Only thing you can really do is remove them yourself, or as a last resort you could buy a snail killer med.

 

[morgan]

Thanks Wilder. I really posted in this section as I would like to make sure that a pair of Botia Striata and my Common Pleco wouldn't fight as they are both bottom dwellers. At the moment the pleco has this area of the tank pretty much to itself as Mollies and Guppies are top feeders. I have got a timer for the lights and have just bought an automatic feeder so everything is sorted for when I go away except for the pesky snails ! If I am not here to squash a few twice a day I dread to think how out of control they would get. Also with having an internal filter the small ones get in there and clog the sponges.

 

[morgan]

Update. I went to lfs today and bought 2 Botia something or other. (Will try to identify them later).They didn't have Botia Striata.I hope they start eating the snails as soon as they settle in! They grow to 5 - 6 inches eventually but I will have a bigger tank by then. P.S. they are Botia Lohachata otherwise known as Yoyo or Pakistani loaches.