Loaches Online Forum

Hey Everyone:

I have a 20-gallon tank with some guppies and tetras, along with an African dwarf frog. Snails have started to breed in it, so I figured I would get a clown loach to keep the population under control. Unfortunately, I've read that clown loaches can get too big for that size tank.

What type of loach would be best for my situation? I'd like something that won't get more than maybe 3-4 inches in length and which will keep the snails under control. I don't need the snails wiped out, since I don't mind having some in there doing some cleaning.

Thanks.

- Brad

Remove them by hand. Bait them overnight - remove in morning.
Gravel vac more, feed less food to the fish. Starve the excess snails and you can easily keep the population under control.

Don't buy a fish (especially gregarious and social fish that need swimming room etc etc) to do a job that you yourself can do with little effort and fuss.

Most loaches need to be in a group of 5 or more, and there aren't any that are suitable for a 20 gallon. It is just too small for loaches. Since we are all loach lovers, we never recommend getting loaches for snail control. Get loaches, because you love loaches.

However, there are ways to get rid of your snails.

#1 Find out why the snails are reproducing. The usual reason is overfeeding. If you cut down how much you are feeding, there isn't enough for the snails to eat and reproduce.

#2 Scrape the eggs off the glass.

#3 Put a lettuce leaf in at night. Lift the leaf with the snails attached, out of your tank.

I have ten tanks. I have tanks where my fish love snails, and others where the snails breed like crazy. I remove the snails and put them in the tank with the snail loving fish. But I never bought a fish to eat the snails. I love snails. They eat algae and keep the glass clean and they eat all the junk in the tank. They are the best clean up crew. I breed snails for the benefit of my loaches. Not the other way around.

I wish you good luck. Thank you from every Clown Loach for not buying one for snail clean up. Not to mention every clown doesn't like snails.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the first-hand info.

Do the eggs look like little clear drops? I haven't seen anything like that on the glass, but one plant in particular (they're all plastic) has lots of little clear dots on the undersides of its leaves.

We wound up with snails because a pair of them hitchhiked the last time we bought fish. I suppose I should have just disposed of them right away. I figured they would be a little clean-up crew, but I didn't realize how quickly they would reproduce. Like I said, I don't mind a few in the tank, but I don't want to be overrun with them.

Those clear jelly packs are the eggs. The snails do make great clean up crews. Just feed less and you won't get overrun.

Pond snails lay eggs in a gel-like mass. If you look closely you may see little specks in the mass; these are the developing snails.

Ditto the other answers: Feed less. Skip one day of feeding.
Bait with all sorts of fruits and vegies, and remove the snails each morning.

More ideas: Pinch a snail just enough to break the shell and drop it back into the tank. Some fish figure out that escargots are tasty, but need some help opening the package.

Loaches for a 20 would be some of the smaller ones, such as Kuhlie Loaches. But as noted above get Loaches because you like Loaches, not just because you need snail control. The Loaches that are small enough to fit in this small a tank often have special needs, and are not really community fish, or else they are so small they cannot deal with snails.

i would get an assain snail they eat snails

You guys are all fucking retards. Why the hell cant someone buy a loach to get rid of snails? Saying that he can't is plain ignorant and retarded. They eat snails in the wild, so why the hell shouldn't he get one to eat snails? Get off your high horses. Loaches are fishes just like every other dam fish in your aquarium. His aquarium is too small for them so that alone should be the factor for him NOT getting them. But saying that he shouldn't get loaches just because he wants them to eat his snail is stupid and anyone who says so should get their heads checked.

This is mostly aimed towards diana and doc. If someone wants loaches to eat snails, why the hell not? It's not like the fish is being abused by it eating snails.


PS: no need to reply as I wont be reading the shit spewing from your mouths. I registered to post how retarded your views are.

Freddy, I understand where you are coming from I originally bought a loach for snail control and than I fell in love with loaches. However, I'm sure everyone would appreciate it if you would back off on the cursing.

freddy wrote: PS: no need to reply as I wont be reading the shit spewing from your mouths. I registered to post how retarded your views are.

Translation: I'm refreshing the screen every 10 minutes to see if someone responded to my flame.

Holdstrong wrote:

freddy wrote: PS: no need to reply as I wont be reading the shit spewing from your mouths. I registered to post how retarded your views are.

Translation: I'm refreshing the screen every 10 minutes to see if someone responded to my flame.

ROFLMAO..... so true.

Wow if you read some of my early posts i praised the people here for always being so nice even when it might have been easy to bash someone.
I am sorry i must have psychickly (spelling ) brought them here.

And to you freddy must be nice and easy to not care for a gosh darn thing.

You can do things the easy way or the hard way. The hardest way is to buy a loach that eats the snails. You'll probably still have to pick out all the empty snail shells after the loach eats them. So it's not really saving you any work.

Keeping Loaches or any fish for the long-term is just not that easy anyway. If you just add fish and plants to your main tank whenever you feel like it, you'll eventually have some major problems. You need to start quarantining new fish and plants before adding them to the main tank. This will help keep those undesirables out of the main tank. If it's not snails, maybe it's going to be something much worse, like a tough strain of Ich.


It's much easier to put some bait in a container, like a small glass jar, then wait a few hours for most of the snails to enter the jar. Remove the jar, put the lid on it, and then throw it in the trash.

well gold barbs stay small and eat small snails,, that could help you out removing the itty bitty ones

One Way, what species are you talking about?
My 'Gold Barbs' are over 2", and too active for a 20 gallon tank, and do not eat snails.

Barbus semifaciolatus, AKA B. schuberti