Loaches Online Forum

I have had 2 clown loaches for about 4 weeks now to help with my "common" snail problem but there doesnt seem to have been any effect and the clowns never seem interested in the snails. They just "sniff" them and carry on.
I understand that I may have maybe overfed them at first making them less interested and now feed much less but I wondered if anyone knew anything about it?

I have begun trying to "ween" them on to snails by puting them into a seperate zone and scattering different sized snails around to get them interested.

Help anyone?
Cheers

Break a few snail shells and drop them back into the tank. This may show the Loaches that there is good food hiding in those packages, and it is worth the effort to break open the shells.

Strange. When I clean out my external filters I collect all the snails from inside the filters and drop them in the tank, they last about 30 seconds. That's usually about two good sized handfuls per filter!

Pond snails are easy for Loaches to eat. The shells break pretty easily. Pond snails are slightly lopsided sphere shaped. They are usually brown to dark brown and may have some faint markings.
Ramshorns are also pretty easy for Loaches to eat. The shells form a flat spiral. Some seem to have very red bodies, others are brown shelled with white stripes. I think the white stripes are shell damage from poor calcium supply or acidic water.
Malaysian Trumpet Snails have a very tough shell, and any fish that eat them have usually figured out how to suck the snail out of the shell. MTS have a sharp point at one end, and are narrow and conical. They may be any of several shades of black, brown or tan.

All three will live in fresh and in low end brackish tanks.

I was surprised that my Syncrossus hymenophysa ignore snails. But all other botia-like ones get the snails (and their eggs).

Well that shocks me that is one of their favorite foods.