# Small fish that eat snails?



## stefant (Jan 7, 2018)

Hi, do you know any small species of fish that will eat snails? I don't want to get rid of all snails in my 25G tank but it would be good if there were a fish that would eat some of the smaller ones.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

One of the small loach species would probably do it, or assassin snails.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I found that Zebra loaches, Botia striata, are very effective at virtualy eliminating snails in the tank. And, they are very beautiful fish, that are not always hiding.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Not sure loaches are best for a 25G tank. Best to just manually remove snails.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

The small loaches like Zebra loaches and Yoyo loaches seem to do fine in relatively small tanks - 60 gallon and smaller. Of course Clown loaches need a lot more room.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Zebra & yoyo still get pretty big, 4-5 inches. I'd say a 75G is good.

There are small loaches like rosy & khuli but I don't think they eat snails


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## stefant (Jan 7, 2018)

The Rosy loach (_Petruichthys_ sp. "Rosy") seems interesting and perhaps it will eat small snails. Hopefully it would not occupy the same space as my Harlequin rasboras? A problem with loaches is that you need many of them for them to be happy, at least seven of the Rosy loaches from what I read.


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Oh, there's another small loach Ambastaia sidthimunki, Dwarf Chain Loach. They're definitely bottom dwellers.


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

one of the smaller puffers will destroy the population, but they can be nippy.


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