loaches

Hiya folks, I want to get some type of loach to deal with snail problems in my planted tanks, these fish will be kept in a community tank with other fish and just introduced into the planted tanks when needed. Can you give me some recommendations for fish I should look out for, Im looking for a small type of loach, I see there are many different types, can anyone give me some pointers, is Botia loach best for this type of scenario, how many should I get for them to be happy in a group, what type etc, are they easy to get in LFS in Dublin, how much do they cost, are they easy to keep any special requirements, any info really would be appreciated, but any recommendations must be easy enough to obtain.

Thankyou

clown or yo yo do i would go more with the yo yo six or seven inches size wise min group three. they will deal with snails but you must ensure that there is not an easier sourse of food clowns the problem is size ten plus inches. just be warned they love to play dead and give you heart failure plenty of hiding and the smaller the sub strate the better will dig but not excevly make sure what ever type you decide on are doubled bagged when you are buying them. incase they punture one

Personally I would go for a puffer (one of the South Americans since they don't need brackish water) and your snail problems will be solved in short order.

My YoYo loaches didn't seem to be too interested in eating the snails. I now have clown loaches and hope they will be greedier !
Regards,
Valerie

Zebra Loach (Botia Striata) should be ok.

Stay away from Orange finned Loach (Botia Modesta), they will get the job done but are aggressive and will eat anything that fits in their mouth.

I don't have snail problem since my water is so soft and hasn't enough calcium in it for snails to built a shell. But a friend of mine keeps (actually used to keep)clown loaches for exactly that purpose. 'Bl**dy useless' to quote him. They much more preferred the food meant for his angels. I have no doubt that they will eat snails if given nothing else but I guess you don't want to starve the other tank inhabitants. He is using a Scobiancisrus aureatus (L014) now and seems to be doing much better.
I'd still go for the puffer. Colomesus asellus comes highly recommended by the old man. You can keep them in small groups since they are not as aggressive as many of the Asian species

@ Apistodiscus,
Colomesus asellus (Amazon Pufferfish): do you really have to clip their teeth every so often ? apparently, they go quite fast and are a problem if you don't.

@ all,
Has anyone seen them here?

Thanks - Valerie

@Valerie,
you only need to clip their teeth if they don't get the chance to grind them off on something hard, i.e. snail shells. They don't take flake and will eat your snails rather than the food meant for your other fish. The only minor issue you might get is that they will try to get at a snail from underneath a plant leaf and eat through the leaf. That's why you might end up with sword plants with holes in them. They are a great fish though and not nocturnal. Haven't seen them for a while but I am sure they can be ordered in for you.
Do you want me to keep an eye out for one or two?
Holger

Peter OB wrote:

Zebra Loach (Botia Striata) should be ok.

Stay away from Orange finned Loach (Botia Modesta), they will get the job done but are aggressive and will eat anything that fits in their mouth.

This is probably what I am looking for, I looked these up on the web, these only grow to about 3-4 inches, some of my tanks are small so putting 7 inch fish in there even for short periods would not really be a realistic option for me I dont think, they might wreck the tank!!

@apistodiscus, would a puffer be able to go in a comunity tank, can they live happily on their own or need a group, what size do they get? if they rip plants though not sure about that either.

My water is soft as well, plenty of snails though.

@zig,
softwater is no problem for the Amazonian puffers. They only grow to about 8 cm. They are often confuseed with C.psittacus which grows up to 30cm and is a brackish water species They are not very aggressive towards other species. What size is your community tank and what other species are in it? Generally no problem if you give them enough food.

If you are looking for something for the nano tank try Carinotetraodon travancoric, comes from India, is a pure freshwater species and only grows to just under 1 inch

Holger Im going to build a tank just to keep small shoaling type fish that I will then use in the planted tanks when they are finished, most of the time they wil be in the main holding tank, I mostly see rasbora's perhaps some tetra's and maybe Danio type fish species in that tank, the tank will only be about 200l, so not that big really, but I dont want big fish either.

I will look up any fish you recommend for the snail problem, snails and my tanks are unavoidable really with the amount of plants I use, unless i go to a lot of hassle each time I buy some.

@ Apistodiscus,
Yes please, can you please keep an eye out for two Amazonian puffers? Thanks
Valerie

@Valerie,
will do, calling into Glen over the weekend.See if he can get them.

@zig,

soak all your plants in alum for 3 days and all snails and their eggs will be dead.

nice but not to my taste

badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile93.html

are puffers not notorious fin nippers ?
i bought one a while back and he loved my silver dollars fins.
I hd to give him back + any tank I have ever seen them in is full of fin nipped tails

at the moment i am laughing! and no disrespect to anyone but i have been trying to get some snails in to my 36 x 15. the unter gravel is just a pure bio and i do have to regularly remove it becase to much uneaten food gets in but my clowns have twarted all my attempt. to day is prawn day for them but do they get them NO!! the golden plec is standing sentry over one while \"the big fella\" munches another, the G. danio are swooping down and lifting one slowly tearing it up while the cave fish are generally pushing everyone and getting most of them. it shall be fun when they get above the five inch mark. but at the same time it will be time to move them. (i also have an bubble box filter in there)

@Damian,
a lot of species are fin nippers hence my question what other fish are in the tank. The Amazonian puffer are not reknown for it

apistodiscus wrote:

@Valerie,
will do, calling into Glen over the weekend.See if he can get them.

@zig,

soak all your plants in alum for 3 days and all snails and their eggs will be dead.

Holger the snails are in the tanks already soaking the plants won't do much at this stage.

Its not a major problem more of a nuisance, funny thing is some of these tanks have no fish in them so no fish to feed or leftover food, no algae either, snails survive quite happily though, I often wonder on what.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

apistodiscus wrote:

Personally I would go for a puffer (one of the South Americans since they don't need brackish water) and your snail problems will be solved in short order.

I wouldn't add puffers to a community tank. Great for eating snails, but will also tackle anything else in there. Some people have done it, but it's very hit and miss and generally not recommended.

@Ken
African and Asian puffers tend to be aggressive and fin nippers. South Americans are quite peaceful. Ok, I'm not saying they wouldn't have a go at a Siamese fighter but you can keep them with tetras, corydoras, etc.
I was a member in an fishkeeping society while I was still living in Germany and we sort of had a club puffer. Whoever had too many snails and passed it on once the snail problem was dealt with. One fat puffer if I may say so

apistodiscus wrote:

@Ken
African and Asian puffers tend to be aggressive and fin nippers. South Americans are quite peaceful. Ok, I'm not saying they wouldn't have a go at a Siamese fighter but you can keep them with tetras, corydoras, etc.
I was a member in an fishkeeping society while I was still living in Germany and we sort of had a club puffer. Whoever had too many snails and passed it on once the snail problem was dealt with. One fat puffer if I may say so

that would be a good idea and a useful service to have here. it would give everyone if only on temp bases experence and interduce others to the wider vartity of fish which would lead to more people taking up the hobby a win win for everyone

'The obese puffer club?'

We could call it that but to have one that could be lent out would be useful puffers are not everyone cup of tea likewise with loaches thus people could experience these beautiful creatures either have a useful job done or convert them. plus opening another avenue for people to share their experiences.

Hi Zig,

In my planted tank I keep 3 clown loaches (small) 2-3 inches any bigger they like to dig up the plants especially the likes of cabomba which hasn't got strong roots for anchorage they are fine in with the likes of sword plants that are well established but over all in a planted tank i would not recommend putting in loaches unless you plan to redo the tank after a few months as they are very hard to get back out. Also i have a kuhli loach who is also good for snails and uneaten food which gets into places hard to reach for other fish. I would be tempted to use Flubenol in the tank if there is a low fish load, as flubenol as well as killing flukes etc in discus is highly toxic to most snails and will not damage your plants. only problem then is the high ammonia levels from the dead snails to the fish load but if you are setting up a planted tank it is a good idea to dose a couple of times before introducing your fish stock also will help mature your filter , this method seemed to work for me and i have snails at a controlable level just about now for the loaches to keep on top of , but i also use a 5 % bleech mix on the plants before planting which then i soak the plants with dechloronator mix with water after a good rinse before planting . I believe deal with the snails before adding the fish. If its an established tank then its a harder chore to deal with the snails once it is stocked. In my experience snails are hard to eliminate completely but to keep the under control from the start seems to be the best method also i have noticed that the algae shrimp will eat snails i have seen the shrimp with the small nippers pulling snails out of their shell , so alot of these guys can help aswell as do the job on algae.

Zoom good advice on the Flubenol, don't know why I didn't think of this before, this is probably what I will do. Loaches are a good idea but probably easier for me to do it this way atm, any fish can be transferred to other tanks when I carry out any treatment, fish loads are very low anyway.

cheers Zoom

Flubernol is not designed to kill snails, but apparently it will. The larger the snail the quicker they die, someone said apple snails will die with 24 nrs and the smallest guy within 4 weeks, however I have snails in one tank, not a lot but enough to annoy me, they a flay spirals about 1/4 inch diameter. The tank has been dosed twice with Flubel over the last three months and the snails are still there! Just my look to get a flubernol resistant variety.

Daragh Owens wrote:

Flubernol is not designed to kill snails, but apparently it will. The larger the snail the quicker they die, someone said apple snails will die with 24 nrs and the smallest guy within 4 weeks, however I have snails in one tank, not a lot but enough to annoy me, they a flay spirals about 1/4 inch diameter. The tank has been dosed twice with Flubel over the last three months and the snails are still there! Just my look to get a flubernol resistant variety.

Well they sound like the verity I have as well Daragh, very ANNOYING:(

I think I will give the Flubenol a go anyway, nothing to lose and it might do the job, it might not work but its worth a go I suppose.

I have zebra loaches (Botia striata) in both of my community tanks and I have never seen a snail so they certainly do the job. They only grow to 8cm max. and are very entertaining to watch. Just be aware that they do best in groups of three. Glen usually has a good supply and he had plenty when I was there two weeks ago...but of course, there might've been a run on them since then!

Trillian wrote:

I have zebra loaches (Botia striata) in both of my community tanks and I have never seen a snail so they certainly do the job. They only grow to 8cm max. and are very entertaining to watch. Just be aware that they do best in groups of three. Glen usually has a good supply and he had plenty when I was there two weeks ago...but of course, there might've been a run on them since then!

no snail would dare turn up in one of trillians tanks if they knew her:silly:

no snail would dare turn up in one of trillians tanks if they knew her:silly:

Well, I'll just send them your way if they do...