Loaches Online Forum

since i added live plants i am having my first experience with snails
now i would like to add good snails eventually

one of the plants i bought had this egg sack on it


so for fun i put the plant by itself in a little tank and a few day later i saw this little guy now my question is is this a good snail or a pest snail will my clown loaches eat him or leave him alone.

Tadpole Snail, a delicacy as far as loaches are concerned

Pest or not depends on your perception. I think it is a common pond snail. They breed prolifically and yes, loaches that eat snails will eat them.

It's a Physa sp., aka tadpole snail, bladder snail, or pouch snail. It's the most common nuisance snail in aquaria. It is a harmless algae/detritus/fishfood eater which doesn't eat plants, but reproduces at an alarming rate. It is, as you've presumably noticed, easy pickings for loaches.
Also malaysian tower snails will exterminate these by eating their eggs.

Only snails I've ever considered pests were ones I actually paid for. The shop neglected to mention that they were giant apple snails, not just normal apple snails. Ate every damn plant in my tank including the java moss!

I have hundreds of tiny MTS in my 125gal with clowns. Though I never see mature snails. Is it possible my clowns only eat them when they get a certain size? My clowns are 4-7 inches

cweg71 wrote:I have hundreds of tiny MTS in my 125gal with clowns. Though I never see mature snails. Is it possible my clowns only eat them when they get a certain size? My clowns are 4-7 inches

Maybe they grow then harvest them when they get to a certain size

In my experience, they go for the size that best fits their mouth. Small clowns eat the smaller ones, large clowns prefer the large size. Medium clowns go for the mid size.