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Does anyones Dwarf Chain Loaches eat snails


bli

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My planted tank is starting to be overtaken by those really annoying little snails with the circly spiral shell. I do my best to remove as many as I can see when doing w/c's but they are cunning little things that come out to haunt me as soon as my maintenance is over.

I have 2 x Young Dwarf Chain Loaches in the tank, as some literature and the LFS recommended. I dont really like the clown loaches (although everyone else I seem to talk to loves them) and thought the DCL were a small playful option. However I havent noticed them decimating the snail population... can anyone give me some assurance that they are (or at least maybe oneday) helping my cause.

p.s Tried the iceberg lettuce overnight trick and not a single snail took the bait.

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Not quite sure of what the lil buggers are called but they seem to be quite common, brown, tiny and a circle shell. Not the cone like ones!

Yeah I think both the snails and the loaches are getting it pretty sweet in this tank with all the constant feeding for the growing out discus.

They have made it into the external filter so reproducing up a constant storm!

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HI gatito.descarado

Theres a business idea for you, maybe you could rent your clowns out. Charge by the hour!!

It's a great idea... but i'd miss them too much :(

One of the 5 is tiny in comparison, poor thing gets pushed around, but he's happy enough. He played dead the other day, and i'm so protective i went nuts before realising he was being silly..... They still get me every time...

Somehow my clown loaches don't know how to eat snails. They have the snail in their mouth but don't seems to know how to suck them out. Maybe they are young and small and don't have much servival skill.

Anyone have this problem?

Lol, i'd love to see mine carrying them around - cute!! But they gobble them too fast. How big are yours slimNZ? Maybe they're just not snail fans...

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They love snail alright. When I crush some, they go crazy on them. They just don't know how to do it themself. Having the snail in the mouth and trying hard to get it out and at the end give up and swim away.

Maybe they are too young. They are baby by loaches standard. Have 2 about 4cm (in water) long and another is about 5cm. Hardly see the larger loach as it stay in the cave when the light is on. The 2 smaller loaches is the one we see the most.

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Clean the tank this morning and there lots of small snail in the gravel so from the look of it, they did not eat them. Anyway, saw a cool crown loaches in the LFS that moving pebbles by lifting them with his mouth. Since we have not come across a fish that do this we decided to buy it and he is now in our tank. Will see if he will eat the snails. Oh yes! we call him pebble. :D

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