do weathers eat snails?

[sophie]

because, anecdotally, I would say yes - or at least small snails. I have a tank with four weather loaches and three ancient MTS. but no baby MTS, no medium sized MTS, nothing - and when the last weathers were in the Q tank, which has many snails, they reduced the snail population from ridiculous to nothing. But I've never actually seen them eat one; and as I understood it it was mostly the botiines that were snail eaters...

just curious.

[shari2]

for the brief period I had a couple of weather's I saw them carrying them around, chasing each other...

[Diana]

I had one Dojo that was not a snail eater, but mostly they do eat snails.

[PASoracco]

a few nights ago my largest yoyo pulled a medium sized ramshell snail out of its shell, and one of my gold dojos spent the next few hours carrying it around the tank and eating it. kinda gross, but he was one happy loach! I think I've seen all my loaches, except the horsefaces, go after pond snails or small ramshells.

[andyroo]

Sophie,
Just checked out your website. Very nice work, very cute pieces. My wife did her first degree in Jewelry and Metalwork at U-Dundee (Duncan of Jordanstone).
And yes. Someone last year talked about Pagio eating snails. Weathers are similar body plan with better developed lips.

[sophie]

I would love to see a pangio eat a snail!

my yoyos line up empty, very small snail shells along the pieces of wood I have, then rearrange them.
no, I don't know, either. Makes no sense.

I am going to have to set up cctv in the cold tank!

(andy, thank you, btw.)

[soul-hugger]

I have three Weather Loaches in a 55 Gallon tank. When I first got them, they were in a 20 gallon, but they soon outgrew it, and I moved them into the larger tank. Almost as soon as they were gone, particularly after I had gone away for a few days, there was a snail explosion! There are also snails in the 55 but they never seem to get out of control.

I had never actually seen the Weathers eat the snails, though I had seen them catching the larger snails and "sizing them up." There seemed to be a connection between them and snail-control. I came here for advice on the snail overpopulation, and someone told me the Loaches just might not know how to "get into" the larger ones. After getting up the nerve, because I rather like snails, I crushed a few from the smaller tank and dropped them in for the Weathers. There was an immediate feeding frenzy! There are also three Oblonga Kuhlis in this tank, and they were in there feeding alongside the Weathers. Stranger yet was that sometimes my other fish would catch a snail on the way down, and they went through a process of taking it into their mouths and spitting it out until the shell was gone. My other fish are little Barbs and Tetras.

I think most of the time, the Weathers stick to eating the very small snails. Although I have seen eggs in the large tank, I have never seen a single baby snail. They just need help to get into some of the ones that are a little too large for their mouths.

soul-hugger

[Blue]

I mixed my dojo and kuhlis with canas of all ages from hatchlings to adults. None were eaten at all.

[Sixwing]

I have seen my dojo eat snails, but only the little ones - he seems to really enjoy juvenile pond snails, will pick them up, suck them out, and then play with the empty shell, turning it over and over in his mouth, spitting it, catching it, etc. He pesters larger pond snails, will knock them off the glass and nose them around, but doesn't seem to be able to eat them. When I placed an apple snail in with him, he checked her out, pestered her for about an hour, then left her alone.

I usually crush the larger snails for him (edit: not the apple snail!). That makes for a happy loach.