newcomer greeting u and asking abt clown loaches

[shoeman]

Greetings from the islands of Trinidad and tobago. so nice to be on ur forum guys. I've just discovered loaches after being in the fish hobby for years. I've now realised how cute these guys are and very interesting. I've just purchased three juve clown loaches about 1 inch long. I put them in a 120 gallon tub with algae growing on the sides and dumped in about 150 snails and feeding them fish flakes and brine shrimp. This is the second day since they are here at their new home and they are still hiding. would they eat the flakes And do they eat the snail eggs I have one more question what is this BBcode.what

[Diana]

Hi shoeman, welcome to Loaches.
(3) 1" Loaches will not eat very much in the way of food, no matter what sort.
Sounds like there is plenty there for them to eat, though. They should grow fast.
Live plants (including algae) also have all sorts of microorganisms among the leaves that very small fish will eat.

Loaches will eat flakes. I would make sure it is a very good quality flake with whole fish and shellfish, and spirulina algae. Avoid fish meal and grains.

Loaches tend to be bottom feeders, given the choice, so once these guys are big enough to handle small sinking foods I would switch over to something like New Life Spectrum. They make very small sinking pellets for fry.

I have not directly seen Loaches (any species) eating snail eggs. Indirect evidence: In a tank with Chain Loaches (sidthemunki) I have adult snails, but no eggs, and very few baby snails.
In tanks with Kuhlie Loaches I have seen the same thing: No eggs. No snail babies.
I have another tank with Vaillantella maasi, and there are a lot of snails of all ages, and eggs in this tank.

[PASoracco]

I've definitely seen my clowns slurp up pond snail and ramshorn eggs; yoyos, darios and kubs as well. I'm sure they would go crazy-nuts for an apple/mystery snail egg sack if they got the chance.

[shoeman]

I've definitely seen my clowns slurp up pond snail and ramshorn eggs; yoyos, darios and kubs as well. I'm sure they would go crazy-nuts for an apple/mystery snail egg sack if they got the chance.

I'm seeing a lot of eggs on the sponge filter which the snails are depositing and all of the loaches are up and down on the sponge. My guess is they are eating the eggs. Thanks a lot . Bye for now.

[shoeman]

Hi shoeman, welcome to Loaches.
(3) 1" Loaches will not eat very much in the way of food, no matter what sort.
Sounds like there is plenty there for them to eat, though. They should grow fast.
Live plants (including algae) also have all sorts of microorganisms among the leaves that very small fish will eat.

Loaches will eat flakes. I would make sure it is a very good quality flake with whole fish and shellfish, and spirulina algae. Avoid fish meal and grains.

Loaches tend to be bottom feeders, given the choice, so once these guys are big enough to handle small sinking foods I would switch over to something like New Life Spectrum. They make very small sinking pellets for fry.

I have not directly seen Loaches (any species) eating snail eggs. Indirect evidence: In a tank with Chain Loaches (sidthemunki) I have adult snails, but no eggs, and very few baby snails.
In tanks with Kuhlie Loaches I have seen the same thing: No eggs. No snail babies.
I have another tank with Vaillantella maasi, and there are a lot of snails of all ages, and eggs in this tank.

. Thank you so much Diana for replying. My guess is you couldn't be married and have kids, and have 26 tanks clean. I have three kids one on the way and have trouble keeping (1) 60 gallon clean Thanks a lot