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What kind of fish eat snails?

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Clown loaches. (Easy one, wasn't it )
Ive seen a snail infested tank cleared out within a day by half a dozen small blue loaches as well!
Puffers love snails too.

All botia loaches(there are dozens of species), puffers, most cichlids, and most gouramis. Botias would be the best and can get along in community tanks if that's your aim. This would include yoyos, skunk, blue, zebra, dwarf, and clown just to name a few common species. Clown loaches however get very large and are social so either borrow one and return it or have a big tank ready for the future. Preferably something around 100g or more. There are plenty of smaller loaches that can fit long term in a tank around 29g or larger and eat snails just as well as the clown. Puffers are never good community tank fish and should be kept in a species tank.

Thank you sham
and mughal113

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

You say that Cichlids will eat snails?

Interesting.

Care to list some of the efficient species in this regard? Only if cichlids will indeed eat snails, then I will have no problem whatsoever keeping them happy with live food in one of my aquaria.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Most cichlids will pick at snails and eat the ones they can. Generally they won't destroy the population though since they don't usually go on a search and destroy like loaches or puffers. Angelfish are horrible snail tankmates if you actually want to keep the snails and are great at keeping snails hiding out of sight. My poor applesnails got nearly wiped out by 1 angel and I had over 100 in the tank. My rams frequently grab my ramshorns and crush the shells for a treat. My johanni would smash open snails on the rocks or glass and eat just about any species he found. They are pretty much equivalent to labyrinth fish in their desire and ability to kill and eat snails. They aren't going to hunt them down as efficiently as loaches or puffers but they will most deifinitley put a dent in the population.

I had a pardise fish that ate snails and kept the population under control, he would stock and wait for the snails the come out in the open and out of its shell enough and grab the snail right out of it shell I had alot of empty shells

I had an oscar one time in one tank & unwanted snails in another. Occasionally I would grab a couple snails out of the one tank & drop them into the oscar tank. He would catch them when they hit the water & you could hear them crunch. Also when a june bug would get into the house, my husband would catch it & feed it to the oscar.

Oscars eat Snails? wow, I never knew that lol

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions