Looking for help with snails

I have heard that loaches like to eat snails... I recently bought plants off someone from a craigs list ad & suddenly have an abundance of snails. Before I bought three Yo-yo Loaches for my 55 gallon, I'd gotten some Black Neon Tetras from the PetCo in Lakewood, which turned into a disaster when one had an infection that spread throughout my tank. Not only did the infection kill the neons I'd bought, but six of regular neons, three pre-breeder Angelfish & all of the loaches I'd bought. Unfortunately, this disease didn't affect the stupid snails & I'm still pulling 50 at a time every time I hunt manually.

What I'm asking is if anyone has any loaches to loan me until I can afford to buy more since they are so expensive. The loaches I'd gotten didn't even touch the snails in my tank before kicking the bucket & now that the disease has run it's course & fish death is finally stopped, I'm in dire need of snail killing fish that can help me in my hunting trips. Frankly, I just can't afford loaches of any type due to the high prices for them at the local chain stores & private stores are even more expensive. Chemicals used to control snails will kill my live plants, so I can't use that. Is there anyone out there with an abundance of loaches that can loan me a few for my tanks... I have snails in my 55 gallon, 18 tall & soon 37 gallon.

I am thinking the snails burry themselves in the rocks to have their babies & as they grow up, they crawl out of the rocks & into plants & on the glass. I'm desperate & even contemplating ripping out all plants & rocks and starting over. I'm totally sick of snails!!!!! Help!!!!!

I can sell you some assassin snails, they will wipe out your population.

As far as I know, clown loaches are the only ones that eat snails, but I could be wrong.

Hey Jackie. Sorry to hear about your loss. It is highly recommended that you have a separate quarantine tank to make sure fish are not infected before putting them in your display tank. You will want to treat your tank and do a major water change too before introducing any more fish to it.

I would get the assasin snails.

Jackie, put a piece of vegetable (cucumber, zucchini, broccoli, etc.) in a small bowl of water in the microwave for about a minute. Let it cool, and place the bowl in your tank. In a few hours you will notice it is full of snails. Carefully remove the bowl. Depending on the condition of the vegetable, you can toss the whole thing and start over, or just remove the snails and replace the vegetable and bowl back in the tank. If you really hate snails, add some salt to the bowl after you remove it from the tank and watch the water instantly turn red. Then rinse off the vegetable and repeat.

If you don't cook the vegetable enough it will float. If you leave it in too long it may foul the tank, or allow fully fed snails to leave the bowl and go lay eggs. But you can catch and eliminate a lot of snails very easily this way. Good luck hunting.

Killing snails with more snails sounds like adding to my snail population.... and how fast do Assassin Snails populate?

The veggie thing sounds like an excellent idea. I'll give it a try! Thanks Vic.

If the veggie thing doesn't work, I'll try the Assassins.... Thanks dkpate

lilfishie wrote:Hey Jackie. Sorry to hear about your loss. It is highly recommended that you have a separate quarantine tank to make sure fish are not infected before putting them in your display tank. You will want to treat your tank and do a major water change too before introducing any more fish to it.

I would get the assasin snails.

I did a major change, added salt & Stress Coat to the water, and allowed all deaths to stop before adding or taking away any more fish, but didn't have another tank to put fish into before adding them to my tank. I just have been dealing with too much lately, losing several adults to tail rot, then getting some babies to replace the adults, and having only one adult left from the original four I'd had breeding, added her to the 55 gallon after all was changed out, only to have her pair up with my standard Koi male & start laying eggs again. I have since started asking if there have been any problems with a certain breed before buying them at that store, and luckily haven't had any more problems.

I'll consider putting together my 10 gallon and having it ready before having anymore fish added to any of my tanks. I also have a 20 gallon I was using as a breeding/hospital tank that I had to close down too. I am all alone taking care of three bigger tanks & one small Betta tank. My cleaning schedule is one tank every other day as I have energy to handle it... and right now I'm sick with a cold, so I don't have a lot of energy beyond cleaning one tank at a time. I just cleaned the 18 gallon tall & hunted snails all night after stirring them up in the rocks. sigh