snails for clown food

[cider]

hi, got another question ,hope you can help me with. If I decide to buy snails for clown loaches, do I need to quarrantine the snails first? Also, any specific preference snail or will clowns be happy with any type?

hope someone has some ideas, thanks

[Diana]

Pond snails and Ramshorns have soft enough shells that most Loaches can crunch them. Malaysian Trumpet Snails have much harder shells and the fish need to learn how to suck the meat out of the shell. Apple Snails are too big for most Laoches to eat, but Loaches will pester these snails to the point that the snails will not come out of their shells. They are harder to breed, too. I would not get Apple Snails just as Laoch food.

Raise snails in a separate tank or else the Loaches will eat all your breeding stock. Snails eat just about all types of fish food, as well as cooked vegetables, and fresh fruit. They tend not to eat aquarium plants unless the plants are doing poorly, and have softer leaves. Once the cells start breaking down the snails can eat them.

If the snails come from a poor quality store where ANY fish in ANY tank is sick (Ich, anything else) then quarantine the snails. Set them up in their own 10 gallon or so tank, and do not feed them to the fish for at least a month, doing lots of gravel vacuuming and water changes during that month, also feeding and breeding them to get a good starter colony going.

[cider]

Thanks for the advice/info. I can't ditch the common cuz he is my first and I am attached to everyone in the tank. I've noticed the clowns are coming out more and one is used to the normal lighting already, so when I see them , I toss in the shrimp pellets and some flake.

Also, thanks for the advice on the snails. I am almost finished cycling my q-tank , so I'll hold off on the snails till then. Thanks , Cider