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 L# Invertebrates
  L# Controling snails...
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SubscribeControling snails...
manborg
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Hobbyist
Posts: 142
Kudos: 125
Votes: 16
Registered: 04-Apr-2005
male usa
What is the best fish to put into my tank to control my booming snail population? The only moderately agressive fish I have is a Kribensis. Would dwarf puffers stand a chance in my tank? Or a figure 8? Or some other type of fish that I don't know about...
Post InfoPosted 17-Aug-2006 19:06Profile PM Edit Report 
T/A
 
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Mega Fish
Posts: 942
Kudos: 1796
Registered: 20-Feb-2004
male usa
I'm sure others will be able to help you with what fish to get. But I'd just like to suggest what I've been doing to control snails. During every water change I just siphon out as many snails as I can find. During one 2 gallon water change I siphoned out over 20 snails. With a larger water change you could really knock the snail population down to almost nothing.
Post InfoPosted 18-Aug-2006 06:01Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
bulrush
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Small Fry
Posts: 2
Kudos: 2
Votes: 0
Registered: 15-Aug-2006
usa
A dwarf puffer is the only freshwater puffer, and they only eat snails the size of their eye (very small). But I've heard loaches love to eat snails, and I think the best one I read was a clown loach. However, a 4" loach here costs $8.
Post InfoPosted 18-Aug-2006 14:39Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
manborg
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Hobbyist
Posts: 142
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Votes: 16
Registered: 04-Apr-2005
male usa
Thanks guys. I have been trying to pull small ones out and feed them to my dwarf puffers, but there are just so many...I will look into the loaches. My tank is 40 gallons and not big enough for clowns, so I will look into others.
Post InfoPosted 18-Aug-2006 19:09Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
baz
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Fingerling
Posts: 34
Kudos: 21
Votes: 133
Registered: 22-Dec-2004
male usa
If you put muliple pieces of cucumber or somethimg similar in your tank overnight, they will be covered in snails in the morning and you just remove the cucumbers with the snails. Repeat as necessary.
Post InfoPosted 18-Aug-2006 19:54Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
sham
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Ultimate Fish Guru
Posts: 3369
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Registered: 21-Apr-2004
female usa
Dwarf puffers will eat much larger snails. They do not have beaks that need worn down like other puffers so they tend to suck the snails out of the shells. I've actually heard of puffers that injured themselves trying to crack open smaller snails but they quite enjoy sucking out the larger snails. However dwarf puffers are a fish for a species tank only. They almost always resort to fin nipping or even kill off their tank mates without warning. They also are very slow to feed and just slow in general so other fish out compete them and if at all agressive pick on them.

There are tons of smaller loaches than clowns that are still great snail eaters. Yoyos are my favorite and will fit in tanks as small as 29g quite well. Look for loaches in the botia group since pretty much all of these will eat snails. Non botias like kuhli or dojo loaches usually don't make very good snail eaters. You can find a huge list of loach species with pictures on http://loaches.com
Post InfoPosted 19-Aug-2006 01:19Profile PM Edit Delete Report 
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