Loaches Online Forum

I added a plant to my Sewellia tank and it must have had snail eggs on it because now I'm squishing several tiny snails every few days. My questions:
- Are snails are bad for Sewellia tanks? They eat algae so there is less aufwuchs available for the Sewellia, correct?
- How can I get rid of these snails? Add another type of loach? I'm already overstocked so it would have to be a single small loach. Or add salt? Or add something else?
Thanks for any help.

I had snails in mine hillstream loach tank too. I moved mine fish to another tank and tried to kill them with Gastropex. It didn't help. Only solution for me was fish: black paradaise fish for biger snails and dwarf botia for small snails. After snails were gone, I moved this fish away. Black paradaise fish don't like strong current and dwarf botia must be kept in bigger number.

I've controlled my snails by siphoning them out at water change time.

I ruled out purchasing fish to eat snails or using chemical control.

I found trapping ineffective.

I only have this problem in one of my five aquaria.

I consider my efforts worthwhile.

Handpicking snails is by far the best way of getting rid of snails, or better put, buying fish to eat snails does not work, as the fish will still need them after the last one is eaten. Chemicals is never a solution for a tank problem.

However, it could well be a sufficient current is enough to keep the snails from growing or reproducing. In such a case, handpicking is not required either

If you don't overfeed there will be fewer snails, I don't mind some. I remove jelly-like egg masses if I see them & sometimes squish them or remove them with plant trimming.

It also depends on the type of snails. Trumpet snails are livebearers, they live in the substrate mostly, are mostly nocturnal, & are too hard to squish; pick them out if you have a lot. Ramshorns are my favorites but my water is too soft for them to reproduce too much. Pond or bladder snails are my worst, they are easy to crush.

Snail "slime" & poo can be a source of infusoria, microscopic food that some fish eat. It can be a part of "auf wuchs" that hillstreams graze on, the biofilm of algae & micro foods. It's not just algae that hillstream loaches eat, it the whole little biosphere of all the organisms.

The fish inhabits mainly in depthless plenties with the quick flow and upstream extremely saturated with oxygen, Essay Help little tributaries of floods and streams; zones restricted with combs and sometimes with falls.