# What fish eat snails for planted tank



## gsander (Dec 18, 2004)

Need advice on what fish would be best for eating snails in a planted tank. Have heard that some loaches will do the trick. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I know that Clown loaches & Yo-Yo loaches eat snails. Some loaches get quite big so knowing the size of your tank will help.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Dwarf puffer fish - $1.99 at any Petco. Cute little fish with a thug personality.

They are somewhat aggressive to each other. Not much, only to the point of killing each other if you bought too many and leaving only the partners they like. Once established in the tank the puffers are very hardy and the only downside to them is that they will nip the tail and dorsal fins of other (slow moving only) fish if you don't feed them enough.

--Nikolay


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Arent those dwarf puffers brackish fish? Ive always thought of getting some. I have three yo-yo loaches in my 75. They ate snails when young, but dont seem too interested anymore.


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## pineapple (May 4, 2004)

I think Mr Amano uses dwarf puffers to eat snails, when the need arises. The puffers are moved on when the job is completed. If you have storage accomodation for the sometimes pugalistic puffer, so be it.

Sometimes a simpler method to eradicate snails is, for instance, to put a small leaf of lettuce into the aquarium overnight and remove it along with the snails it has attracted the next morning.

Or, use a narrow-ended siphon tube and reduce numbers at every water change.

Andrew Cribb


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## ddaquaria (Nov 12, 2004)

If have used the indian dwarf puffer in a plant holding tank. Although the puffer did well, they do make holes in the leaves when going after a snail.

Here is a link:
http://puffernet.tripod.com/travancoricus.html

I saved this for myself in case someone ever asked.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Where did my post go?

I was saying that fighting snails with puffers or anything else is ok but the real reason for a snail population explosion has to be addressed too.

Look in the AquariumDesignGroup forum for Jeff's answer to my question "Why snails take over?"

--Nikolay


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## kmurphy (Dec 15, 2004)

I have tried the lettuce trick, only I used cucumbers. It actually works really well as suppression tool but won't completely fix the problem. You also have to be carfull if you have beneficial snails. The trumpeter snails I think are good for tanks because the burrow into the soil and help to aerate it and they don't eat plants.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

niko said:


> Where did my post go?


Mine is gone too, and I'm too tired to make any sense now.....


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