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I have a 55gal aquarium with 5 angels and 5 cories and a flying fox. I have driftwood that is rotting away due to a nasty over growth of snails. I cant get rid of them! Any other fish besides Clown Loaches to rid me of these pests???

I believe Zebra (Botia Striata) and Yoyo/Pakastani Loaches eat them.

yeah almost any loach (other than khulie, dojo, and a few others) will eat snails and/or their eggs. skunk botia, yoyo loach, queen botia, and a few others are good choices (although i am no loach expert so you might want to check out their profiles first...) also if you want to get rid of some of them, bag them up and give them or sell them away... there are alot of people that will pay for snails... i myself had to buy ramshorns over the net via aquabid, so if you sell some of them you might be able to make yourself a bit of cash...
what type of snails are we talking about? i am assuming they are rams horns or pond snails as those are the most prolific...
also take out the drift wood and run it under boiling water, it will kill some bacteria, but also will do in a few snails too. you can also try the letuce/cucumber method and leave a piece of vegetation in there and remove it i the morning with all the snails and squash them and let the ish eat the remains or toss them into the garbage...

there are alot of options for snails removal...

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Is there any special reason why you do not want a Clown Loach as they do a fantastic job. I had a small CL in my 45lt tank and I have never seen a snail since. The CL went into the 5ft tank as soon as he was big enough.

With the DW I would remove it scrape of as much as you can then boil it ( Keith is actually saying boil DW) but in the case it requires it after boiling drop it into cold water immediately (this stops the cooking process) then scrub it with a strong stiff brush to loosen of all the soft wood that is on the surface of the wood.

One more thing the FF are they compatible with Angels? My reason for saying this is the SAE will clean the natural slime off of the Angles I was wondering if the FF does the same thing.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
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Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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I always recommend the Dwarf Chain Loach when I see this kind of question. They stay small, are very playful (always put me in mind of a bunch of puppies) and do a great job of keeping my aquarium clear of snails. You could probably get a good group of them in that tank as well.

Keep in mind that most of the loaches commonly available in stores are shoaling fish, and do best when kept in groups of at least several individuals. There's been a recent trend here for people to recommend just getting a loach instead of a group, which I believe is not in the fishes' best interests.

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