Loaches Online Forum

Does anyone know where I can get snails for my clown loaches. If my local store has some in their tanks they let me have them. But i was wondering if anyone knew of a way to raise them myself or a supplier.
My loaches go crazy for them and I'd love to treat them every now and then.

THanks
J-Rod

J-Rod wrote:Does anyone know where I can get snails for my clown loaches. If my local store has some in their tanks they let me have them. But i was wondering if anyone knew of a way to raise them myself or a supplier.
My loaches go crazy for them and I'd love to treat them every now and then. THanks J-Rod

My loaches and puffers go wild for snails, so I breed my own snails in all my loach/puffer free tanks. My Betta doesn't bother the snails in his tank. So he shares space with the snails.

The pond snails and MTS are easy to raise, even if you don't have extra tanks. I have continers outside for growing insuforia, and I throw extra snails in there, and even in below zero temps (still not super cold, it is Florida) and above 100 in summer, they seem to do fine.

I give them algae wafers and any plant parts that don't survive the loaches. They grow well, and they keep the tanks clean where they reside. Yestderday I threw about 60 from my shrimp tank into my four loach/puffer tanks. And I also have Banded Leparinus who power their way through MTS shells.

You can also buy deshelled snails in a can in the reptile section of many pet stores. All my fish go wild for those even the Cories and other fish who show no interest in shelled snails. They are super stinky, and I am sure that is part of the appeal.

I'm going to have to try these canned snails from the pet store. UNfortunetly I have two fishtanks....one hase about 15-20 loaches and the other has puffers. So i can't raise snails in either of them.

thanks

Yeah, snails are easy to raise. Id just start with a handful of pond snails or ramshorn and put em in a smaller tank you might have, especially a planted tank, as long as it is loach & puffer free. Or you can just use any old container really. I also have a half whiskey barrel outside that I fill with water in the summer and have pond plants growing in it, always tons of snails in there.

edit - If you have both loaches and puffers you definitely want to start up a snail tank. Not only are the good food for your fish, but puffers need shellfish to keep their beaks worn down.

If you live near me, I could help you out.

I have a snails everywhere; in my tanks, filters, hoses, ect.

I had a ton of ramshorn snails living in my overflow hose going from my sump to a drain pipe. A month ago, I cleaned out the hose by running high pressure water through it. I collected all the snails coming out the hose with a strainer. There are already a bunch more snails in there again. Talk about an easy way to breed snails.

Sorry I live in New York...about a 15 hour drive from you. Thanks for the offer. Maybe I will look up what I need to raise snails. Right now I get them from my pet stores.
I'm having trouble with my loaches eating. I think I was under feeding them. They're part of a comunity tank and the fish were eating all the food before hte loaches could. so they started wasting away. I've plumped them up a bit in the last couple days. But one is still looking like Paris Hilton, and doesn't try to get food when I feed. I'm going to seperate him tonight and give him his own food.
I'll get some snails tomorrow as a treat for them.

thanks for the advice. I'm new to this site but i fell in love with the clown loaches the first time I saw them. Lots of info on this board

LOL J-Rod. Raising snails is easy- just get a few, put them in a tank with some fish that won't eat them (neon tetras and the like work nicely) and occasionally put a small slice of cucumber, apple, or melon into the tank so that they have a food source other than the leftover flakes you're feeding the fish. You'll have more snails than you know what to do with in no time

PS- it's easy to transfer the mass of snails gathered on the veggies or fruit right into your clown tank. Double treat for the loaches!

Kate

I've also heard of folks buying shrimp, mussels, etc from the grocery store and chopping them up, etc, that might be an easier alternative to setting up another tank and raising snails.

Just sure you dont have clowns with the skinny diseases (chronic wasting syndrome) as this seems to be very common, they get very thin behind the head to were it looks 'pinched in' and you can see the spine, etc. In that case you might have to treat with something like levamisole. Many do this just for precaution anyhow.

I keep an invert only tank (shrimps & snails) where I feed the snails to the loaches.

I'm paranoid with giving the loaches parasites. Some Parasites need a cycle of fish & inverts to survive so If you raise the inverts by themselves, hopefully they're parasite free.

ps.. you can get snails from the fish store.. They're more than happy to give you these nuisance for free.

I was thinking skinny disease at first since they did have the pinched look. But I've gotten a few of them to fatten up, except for one. I'm thinking he might have it. I just seperated him and I'm going to try feedeing him alone and see what happens

if it is skinny disease, try levamisole.. works like a charm...
http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/l ... chloride-1

mistergreen wrote: I'm paranoid with giving the loaches parasites. Some Parasites need a cycle of fish & inverts to survive so If you raise the inverts by themselves, hopefully they're parasite free..

I would second this.
If you do get snails from a LFS etc...I would use a q-tank for at least one month.

I'm in New York and have plenty of pond snails. You're welcome to as many as you want.

God, I have tons of them. They're in my mollie tank and my corie/guppy 33L and somehow they got into the planted ten gallon where I'm keeping my three new c. weitzmani. Ramshorns and pond snails. I also have two huge goldfish (5+"), so whenever they get really obnoxious, I throw down an algae wafer and catch some and put them in with the goldfish, who snarf them down. They do the same with excess duckweed-regular fishy garbage disposals, bless their hearts!

Have Malaysian trumpet snails in one of the 55 gallons (they came in on my nice piece of bogwood), and I try very hard to keep them from going anywhere else. Cool looking, but no one wants to eat them. I've heard that puffers will, but I don't think a puffer would do well in that tank-no salt.