Loaches Online Forum

Hello,

I have a snail problem in my new 250 L tank. It is cycled, but has no fish in it yet. I also have a 600 L tank with nine clown loaches. So I was wondering if I could put some of my clowns into the new tank for a while to take care of the snail problem or should I buy new ones and move them with the other ones after they have eaten all the snails.

- Anne

How bout adding some assassin snails?

I have recently had a snail problem myself, and it's slowly on its way to being resolved. I was given some good advice from people here, some of it being:

Buy yourself a couple of assassin snails; they eat other snails.

Cut down on feeding.., But if you don't have fish in there, that might not be the problem.

Bait the snails with a piece of cucumber on a saucer or stuck into the gravel with a chopstick. After a day or so, you can lift the whole thing out, snails and all.

I'm not really sure about the Clown Loaches. I definitely wouldn't reccommend buying new Clowns or any other fish, just to take care of the problem, but with ones you already have, I'm not so sure. You could definitely move some of the snails in with your Clowns, though..., I'm sure they'll enjoy the treat.

There are lots of people here who are experts on the subject of Clown Loaches, but not having kept Clowns myself (and I wish I could, but my tanks are too small ), I'm not one of them. Someone should be along later to help you on this one.

One thing I would definitely say, though, is, not having any fish in the tank, you probably have a lot more options, another one of them being a chemical snail treatment you can buy at your LFS.

Good Luck..,
soul-hugger

No Clowns or chemicals. Assassin snails is what you need.

Scoop up snails (on cucumber or otherwise) and toss 'em into the CL tank.

How did you cycle the new tank?

I got four assassin snails today. I'll try them first. There are not that many snails yet and I have been picking up all that I have seen. The snails that I have are Acroloxus lacustris, Gyraulus sp and probably Physa fontinalis. Mostly those tiny ones. Hope the assassin snails will like then too.

I cycled the tank using my 600L tank. I had two filters running in it for about two months, which I put in my 250L tank. I also took about one bucket of sand from it and put t on top of the new sand. And I also used Bio Digest ampouels.