Snails love Squash

Originally this was going to be about the crazy amount of snails I have attacking this big piece of butternut squash, but then my longfin albino bristlenose decided to come out. I managed to snap this picture with my phone while it was staying still, and it's not half bad!

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I don't know why in the world my rubber lip pleco doesn't realize this is food, I have seen literally everything else in the tank have a go at it, even the 2 new plecos (this one and a clown panaque) who are normally really shy. But, the rubber lip just doesn't get it. I even soaked the squash in water with a bunch of garlic, and still he won't even try it. He seems to like wood and then just to try and eat algae off the glass that isn't really there.

Anyway, here are the snails and the squash, it's a good lure if you ever want to get a bunch of snails out of your tank.
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Here's my recipe:

1/2 butternut squash
5-6 cloves garlic
water

Bring water to boil; slice squash into 1/2"-thick rounds. When water is at a rolling boil, place squash in and boil for 1-2 minutes (depending on how hard or ripe the squash is). Immediately drain and replace boiling water with cold water to stop cooking, although if you have a hard squash like mine it probably isn't necessary.

Peel and crush garlic, then mince into small pieces. I first put it on top of the squash and used the flat of a knife blade to crush the garlic into the squash, and let it sit for 1/2 hour. Then I took the garlic off and put it on a plate, and covered it with just a bit of water. Then I laid the squash on the garlic in the water (on the non-garlic'd side) so that it soaked up even more garlic. I let this sit for another hour or 2 two, and then put it in a bag to freeze it.

I cut it in half and put it in the tank yesterday, and today this is what it looks like. Also, the other half of the squash is super tasty, I fried it up in some butter and garlic, yum!

- Ryan

P.S. I don't know why the pleco's eye looks all messed up, it's just the lighting because it looks normal in person? It freaked me out for a second, I thought it had some kind of eye tumor

That's a lot of snails  My plecos don't seem to like squash but they love cucumber!

Indeed; cucumber is what I've used to attract snails in the past.

LuminousAphid wrote:Here's my recipe:

1/2 butternut squash
5-6 cloves garlic
water

That sounds like something I'd eat myself! YUM!

Those are some happy looking snails... ummmm, that is if there was a "happy" snail look, lol

Lamental Jester wrote:

LuminousAphid wrote:Here's my recipe:

1/2 butternut squash
5-6 cloves garlic
water

That sounds like something I'd eat myself! YUM!

Me too, except hold the squash.  

That's a beautiful bristlenose.

Yeah thanks, I really like it, it's been very active since I moved it to this tank. I think it's female because I don't see any bristles, but its fins are sooooo long, its tail fin alone is the same length as the rest of its body! They also look like fine silk curtains or something, so transparent

That's awesome! Now I need to set up my other 10 gallon for snails and shrimp

Beautiful pleco! I used to have a rubber lip and it seemed to prefer a meatier diet. Mine would eat earthworm sticks and nls pellets, but I never saw it on veggies.

Escargot and butternut squash...yum!!!