Buying Dwarf Loaches

[ChemGuy]

Hello everyone,
I was wanting to purchase some dwarf loaches to combat my pond snail infestation but I cannot seem to find any in my local area. Does anyone know of a place to buy them in the KC, Mo area? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mark in Vancouver]

I can't help you locate them, but the snails in my dwarf loach tank are doing just fine - ramshorn snails and the ones with pointier, conical shells have not suffered from the presence of these loaches as far as I can tell.

If you have the room, I'd recommend a slightly larger fish - B. kubotai or B. almorhae. But you'd need substantial room and you'd want to keep the fish in a small group of five or more.

[Jayhawk]

The most common smaller loach I've seen in KC is the skunk loach. I've kept them in groups of three (please don't stone me) in the past and that worked out well...but it was a 36" tank. They're rather high on the aggression scale, so they'd need rowdier tankmates.

Eric

[Mark in Vancouver]

Definitely for the aggressive fish tank. And actually, I think there isn't really an ideal number for these little thugs. 3 seems fine.

[Jayhawk]

Thanks for letting me off the hook Mark! They're really rather charming...in a Chicago mobster sort of way.

Seriously, I like them...and with lots of hiding space think they do fine with hardier gouramis, sturdy SA cichlids, and even many Central American cichlids.

Eric

[Tinman]

Hello everyone,
I was wanting to purchase some dwarf loaches to combat my pond snail infestation but I cannot seem to find any in my local area. Does anyone know of a place to buy them in the KC, Mo area? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Loaches are hard to find here. I must assume your pond is in your basement ? These prefer very high temps as compared to pond fish. I am here in town also. I can point you to some but you must prove your worthy of the info and are looking out for these fish long term

Why mini's for a pond ? cooler temps leads to overfeeding in the winter here and therefore snail infestation btw but we need details of your situation.

[janma]

There also another option than loaches for getting rid of snail and that is another snail, Anentome Helene. Will get some at the end of the month. They have this trunk they sniff out other snail and start feasting on them.

OT: I actually found out about these the day after I got me some Sid's. Sid's 12€/tail and and snail ~2€/shell, could have saved over 100€ there Well the Sid's are getting a new tank today, so more on that at another topic.

Here a link for the killer-snail, its in german but good pics
http://crusta.de/schnecken/anentome-helena-2_1390

[ChemGuy]

Thanks for the info guys here's the particulars of whats going on...(sorry so long for a repost--i have a pregnant wife and she was feeling ill after i posted)

My tank
55 gallon with approximately 12 adult guppies, several fry, 3 otto cats, 3 cory cats. We bought some plants from walmart and now we have many many snails(I think they're pond snails). I was wanting a dwarf loach because I was hoping they wouldn't bother my fry but get rid of the snails. If they won't eat the snails maybe I'll have to get something else. as far as taking care of them (tinman) I was planning on keeping them if there were no problems, if there were problems, a teacher at the high school i teach at has a 50 gallon tank with nothing but a siklid (sp?) that I though I would relocate them to so they'll have a good home no matter what

[leokiss]

Hello chemguy i've got dwarf loaches in my tank i have about 15 endlers fry n the DL's don't bother them.I had two adult pond snails in my tank before i added the DL's and they are too big for them to bother them,however they breed constantly i can always see there eggs in tank somewhere and ive yet to see any more snails so something is eating them while they are tiny my guess is the DLs are eating them.So if u do get some DLs just remove as many snails as you can physically leave a couple of adult ones to produce some free loach food and leave them to do the rest.

[san-ho-zay]

Cherry barbs are reputed to (i.e. someone on some forum somewhere in the dim and distant past said they might ) eat snail's eggs, thereby controlling the population.

I added some plants recently and I have a handful of snails in my tank. If they proliferate, I'll come back and say the above is a load of rubbish. If not, it could be true.