Clown Loaches and snails?.....

I have a lot of plants in my fishroom tanks and quite a variety..... I want to start my 5ft display on plants, but the fishroom plants are infested with snails.....

I do have 5 Clown loaches in the display..... will they control the snails (as I have heard) .... or should I rather get snail-free plants from the lfs?.... There are trumpets as well and I have a problem getting rid of them..... any suggestions?....

 

Problem is trumpets burrow into the substrate so they wont control them. Also lfs plants isnt snail free. Just make the plants snail free with bleech water silution

 

howzit clowns get big right? 20 odd cms. as they get bigger they`ll start digging up your plants. put you plant in qt while you kill the snails.

 

I have seen a brown coloured dip at the lfs that they dip the plants into before they put it in the tanks..... I think it might be for snail control?.... anyone have the recipe?...

 

Hi, @Ryno's got it right. Use your existing plants. But first soak them in an unscented bleach solution for 10 - 15 minutes, rinsing very well befor adding to the tank. The loaches are good snail eaters but they will never ensure that the tank is permanently snail free.

 

My single Skunk Loach cleared my old 2ft tank from small pinhead snails, be warned though, these guys think they own everything and eveyone owns them something, they have lots of character but can be overwhelming at times. They dont get big, 100mm if I'm not mistaken

 

The problem us trumpets burrow into the substrate. So loaches cant eat the then.

 

rough translation of the above: they are highly agressive and will kill your other fish.

i've been there with skunk loaches, i'd never recommend anyone to ever get these aggressive fish. the only other possibly suitable tankmates might be the red-tail loach (blue botia) which is equally aggressive but grows much larger than the skunk loach.

these 2 species of loach are known to stand up to and win even against malawis.

 

So far I'm lucky, the Skunk couldn't bother with the Neon, but for some reason if its not head deep into the substrate is looking for a fight agains the Hillstream or my Congo. If it keeps doing this he will be up for adoption soon.