Loaches Online Forum

Hey -

I'm a new aquariast, learning as I go. Background, 100 gallon planted tank, a pair of discus, five Boseman Rainbow, ten Siamese algae eaters, and four Amano (I think) shrimp.

The mail order plant merchant also thoughtfully provided me with what has become a critical snail infestation! Everything I've read points to Loaches as the cure. Specifically, I'm focusing on either Zebra or Yoyo - not Clown because of the potential size.

So my question is will either or both of these choices leave my shrimp alone? I think they are Amano because of the coloration, but they are pretty good size if they are; they are all 2 - 2-1/2 inches long and I really do not want to lose them. But I *have* to get rid of the snails.

Thoughts and recommendations???

Stuart

as much as people do say buy a loach for snails its not really a cure. yes loaches eat snails as and when they feel like it but so do puffers...... your best bet would be place in a couple of slices of cucumber (weighted) leave it for a while then pick it out covered in snails then do what you like with them but dont buy some loaches just for snail removal.. i'm not a discus keeper but i think you will find the requirementsa for discus are very very different then the requirements of loaches in general.

but im sure someone with more discus knowledge and such will post a better reply with more info

rave

Reduction in feeding will also reduce your snail population. A snail explosion is a symptom of overfeeding a tank. I keep snails in all my snails to keep the tanks clean. I have loaches, and sometimes they eat them and often they don't. But shrimp last about 10 sec. in the tank with loaches.

I have had a ghost shrimp last over a month in a heavily planted tank. The others were not that lucky
my loaches love snails!
loaches need groups and lotsa water movement...discus like calm water.

Thanks for the replies.

My tank is 8' long and I have a Hydor Koralia circulation pump on one end to move the water and create currents. I have it mounted about 1/3 from the top and the discus will swim all over underneath it; while the algae eaters will occastionally school up to it and play in the current. So I think if I add loaches it would be sufficient.

I hate to sacrifice my shrimp as they are really growning and becoming very, very active and fun to watch. I have a magnetic two-piece glass scraper, and one of them is sitting on it every morning when I get up.

I was looking at the pest trap on the Foster and Smith website and I can make one of those out of some acrylic sheet that I have. I will try that first and see how successful that is. Only issue is I'm leaving for vacation next week and I'm running out of time to build it and then set it and empty it for very many iterations before leaving.

I double-checked the aperture settings on my two automatic feeders and discovered that one was nearly wide open - so the comments about overfeeding probably have some merit; I choked it way down.

Thanks again for the replies - any more thoughts, please add them.

Stuart

You should post some pictures. I bet it is a beautiful tank.

Could you catch the shrimp, put them in a planted ten and then put in 10 B. striata? They are good snail eaters, usually won't bother other fish. All of the snail eatinging loaches eat shrimp as far as I know. I only have shrimp with Kuhlies. But my Kuhlies live in my snail factory for the rest of my fish.

Thanks for the comment. I think it is pretty nice. It is 8' long, 2' tall, and 1' wide - it is sitting on the railing to my stairway that goes downstairs. Unfortunately, that makes cleaning algae off the back side very difficult.

I built it myself using 1/2" sheet acrylic; I started in January and finally began adding fish (beginning with the shrimp and algae eaters) in May. I added the five Rainbow in early June, and four discus in late June - two young/small, and two mid-size adolescents. The young ones died about two weeks ago, within a week of each other, but the large ones are doing great. Don't know what happened

I'll post up some pix when I get back from vacation. Ironically, I'm going camping and fishing in the North Cascades! Rainbow and Cutthroat trout.

Stuart

I have Discus in tanks with the Koralia 4 pump and they are fine. I have Loaches with them, too. Yes, the Loaches are all over the tank, and do spend some time near the Koralia, but the Discus have no problems, either. They can get pretty close to it but only if they get right in front of it are they pushed around a bit.

The 2 tanks have well over 10x the volume of the tank in water movement:
The 125 gallon tank has a sump with about 300 gph, and a Fluval 404 with just under that, and 2 powerheads, the Koralia 4 (1200 gph) and an Aquaclear powerhead. The Loaches surf in the flow from the Aquaclear.
The other tank is 72 gallons, and has a sump with 100 gph, and an Aquaclear 110 filter with about 500 gph, plus a Koralia 4 (1200 gph).

I would add the Loaches (Kubotais or Yoyos) but I think they would eat the shrimp. I prefer Loaches to shrimp, but I have shrimp in smaller tanks. Loaches ate them in the one tank where they were together.