Loaches Online Forum

First and foremost I should say that I don't really know what type of snails these are, but my best guess is MTS. I think I have one arbitrary ramshorn in there, but whatever.

I have several and they have begun breeding, which is good. But my loaches haven't figured out how to eat them yet. I know that they like them, because I smashed some of the snails up and put them in the tank in an effort to teach them to eat the snails. They went crazy!

So they know they CAN eat them, but don't know HOW. Suggestions?

How old/how large are your yoyo loaches ?

The yoyos have to learn how to sneak up on the snail and suck it out of its shell before it closes up.
They might also have to learn how to poke into the substrate with their long faces to retrieve the burrowing snails.

Reducing the amount of food, or fasting the loaches for a couple of days may encourage them to hunt and eat those snails

although they might get a few of the mts, i doubt if they'll decrease the numbers by many, your ramshorn will get the chop though i'm sure of that and any pond snails in the tank.

mick

Let 'em get a little hungry, or move towards veggies for a while so they're looking for meat.
If you're feeling a little cruel, bust the snail's shell at the opening, to shorten the "safe" length and expose a little foot even when retracted. The loaches will get the hang of it from there. Once they get going it gets to be a game/entertainment, so you can go back to regular food. I'll disagree with Mick (first and probably only time:) in that no snail will be safe. They're like yard cats- no matter how well fed they are they'll still eat (all of your) snails.

The loaches are all still quite small. The largest is just over 2.5 inches.

Perhaps I will let them remain ignorant for a little while longer so the new snails can grow and the population isn't immediately devastated.

Thanks for your help!

I had a rampant mts colony in my sand bottom tank when I added some clowns. they ignored them at first.

I wanted them to help knock down the population so I slightly squashed a couple of the mid sized ones and dropped them near their favorite lair. Shortly thereafter a cemetery of empty shells developed in the front corner of the tank. Within a couple of months I had to resort to pulling snails from another tank if I wanted to give them a treat.

If you have a gravel substrate they may be able to hide away well enough to keep breeding, but in a sand tank the little pigs just plowed through and got them all.

StrangeSavant, Did they start eating them yet? If so soon you'll find yourself buying them from Aquabid by the hundreds!