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I have a TON of pond snails in my 10 gallon tank. I was thinking maybe I could buy a clown loach and let it eat the snails for a week or 2 and then take it back? Would this work out? Are there any other smaller snail eating species that wouldn't interfere too much with my other current inhabitants?

YOU could but i bet you would get attached to him. They are such awsome fish. maybe you could get a yoyo and put him in there and then put him in a bigger tank such as a 29 ( if you have one ). Or some kind of dwarf loach. Live Aquaria.com has a couple species for sale. http://www.liveaquaria.com Or if you want to get really interested go to loaches.com. Sorry i don't know the address. Ask on bottom feeders. And you will get an answer

Well you could get a Zebra loach, these loaches do not grow large and are very entertaining in groups. However you will need to take care of the adult snails yourself by picking them out. The Zebra loaches will munch all of the baby snails VERY efficiently!!!!

10g is too small for a clown. Getting a single specimen may be counter-productive anyway as it won't be happy alone and may not feed. Plus, knowing you will be returning it in such a short space of time seems harsh on the fish. The stress you are subjecting it to just seems unreasonable.

I concur with Amilner, plus clown loaches are very susceptible to ick.

Also, a 29 gallon is no where near big enough for clowns. In fact, I'm working on an indoor 150 gallon pond (rubbermaid tub) for my 3 clowns at the present time. I have it in, just haven't figured out how I am going to filter it yet.

so then are there any other fish that eat snails that are smaller and would be less stressful for it?

i think in general buying a fish to solve a snail problem is a poor solution. there are plenty of other options. try removing any egg masses you see. you can crush the snails if you're not squeamish. alternatively, you can try putting a piece of lettuce in the tank, hold it down with a rock or something, and removing it a couple hours after lights out. if you do a google search, you'll find many tricks to get rid of snails that don't involve introducing other fish or chemicals. they're all better methods IMO.

botia loaches will eat snails.

Botia loaches fish1? Botia is the genus for most loaches. Thats like saying corydoras cories.

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

Hahaha... That reminds me of a story last week.

I was doing water changes at the LFS, and a couple came in looking for some large loaches for their 120 gallon tank (they had a snail problem).

The assistant manager approached me and asked me if we still had those 8" clown loaches.

"No, I sold them a few days ago." I replied.

"Do we have any botia loaches?" he asked.

"You mean the large clowns?"

"The botia loaches... Do we have any?"

"Botia loaches? What kind of Botia?"

"You know, the botias."

"There are lots of different kinds of Botia loaches. Botia is a genus, not a species. We have a 5" yoyo loach that they can have."

"But we don't have any Botia loaches?"


And it went on like that for another two minutes. I eventually sold them the large yoyo loach we had.



Anyway, Peruvian puffers would be good. They stay small and they love to eat snails. Plus, since they come from the Amazon river, they are entirely freshwater. They are also one of the most peaceful puffers as well (and they are cute).

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory Addict 2004-08-09 03:44][/span]

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Your LFS had 8" Clowns?!?!? Im jealous!

Yeah we had three of them. They were still growing, too.

We also have a 4' redtail cat (not for sale), a foot-long royal knife, and an 18" blue arowana.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Before buying a fish, try floating a piece of lettuce in the tank overnight. With some species of snails, they will all attach to the lettuce. Just pull it out and throw it away. I dont't know if it'll work with yours, but hey, its worth a try..