# New Snail Problem



## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Well as many of yal know I recently moved my 4 Clown Loaches out of my 75 gallon tank to my 150 gallon tank and now I got a problem lol.


In my 75 gallon tank there are snail egg sacks all over the glass and alot of snails prob 10-15. It does not sound like alot but I would never see more then 2 snails in my tank when I had the Clown Loaches there.

What do yal recommend on getting rid of the snails? I know not to use any chemicals because of the bad side effects.

I was planning on purchasing 3 more Clown Loaches for my 150 gallon but I would hate to place them into my 75 gallon and I would also hate to purchase more Clown Loaches just for that purpose because I would not have the adequate room for them in down the road.


Any suggestions?


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## Delthane (Sep 2, 2008)

Many things ya can try Squish the egg sacks before they hatch. Lettuce over night then remove in the morning is a popular one. There is also a breed of snail that eats other snails. There is a guy on Aquabid that sells em. Personally since you have clowns in the 150 id say use the lettuce trick and dump them in there. Why waste perfectly good reproducing live fish food?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Suess00 said:


> In my 75 gallon tank there are snail egg sacks all over the glass and alot of snails prob 10-15. It does not sound like alot but I would never see more then 2 snails in my tank when I had the Clown Loaches there.


Chris 

You probably have like a thousand in your tank.

Many are hiding and the remainder are to small to be observed.

You have been overfeeding, as I do, and despite the words of Internet Parrots you will not achieve eradication of the snails by going to "right size" feeding.




Suess00 said:


> What do yal recommend on getting rid of the snails?Any suggestions?


Chris:

You are into the "Land of Loaches" here.

I know that Yoyo's, Polka Dot's and Striata will work.

The distinctive colors and markings of Yoyo's decrease significantly as they age.

Striata hide a bunch.

That leaves Polka Dot's.

I purchased my Polka Dot's from PetSmart.

TR


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Hmmm. I dont know any information on Polka Dots, let me do some research. There are not like Kuhli Loaches though are they? People told me at first to buy kuhli Loaches and that they will take care of my Snail problem and that completely false.

Is there anyway you can give me any tips for Polka Dots?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Suess00 said:


> Hmmm. I dont know any information on Polka Dots, let me do some research. There are not like Kuhli Loaches though are they? People told me at first to buy kuhli Loaches and that they will take care of my Snail problem and that completely false.


Chris: It is my understanding that all loaches are "snail busters" but I have very limited experience with Kuhli's and hence did not mention them in my post.




Suess00 said:


> Is there anyway you can give me any tips for Polka Dots?


Chris Yes:

Drop six 1" PetSmart *Polka Dot's* into your 75G tank at 78F and in two months you will observe virtually no snails, no egg sacks on the walls, and you will have six 2.5" Polka Dot's.

TR


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Thanks, I never seen them at our Petsmart or I never really paid attention to it so I will look more closley next time. I will keep you posted


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

I don't know how to correctly spell this fish, but you're looking for Sid the munkey or Sid te munkey, or sid demunkey. guaranteed to eat snails. my friend has em.


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

I tried searching all the names you gave me and I could not find anything.


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

correct spelling of sidthemonkey is in my signature, sails (snail destroyer)

I've got 2 in my tank, and I on occasion see 1 or 2 snails putzing around. I do see alot of snail shells on and in my substrate, so they are doing thier job =) I've been lucky enough to watch em do it to once. they pick at the snail till it falls off of the glass, then they pick at em till they get em on thier backs, then they just grab and rip em out of the shell. One thing my friend heard was that sometimes they might mistaken cory eyes for snails. So far all my corys' have thier eyes. Nice part about Botia Sidthimunki is they are supposed to stay fairly small.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

sidthmunki loaches are awesome..they love to eat snails..... don't get any bigger than 2-2 1/2 inches... are really cute... and are very peaceful...
my only other choiuces would be lohachata loaches.. and kubotai loaches..
i have some young DD black angels that go crazy when i crush snails in their tank..


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Chris: Long time & no see: you must have been busy handing out speeding tickets!

How is the substrate and the filtration for the 150 going?

You may have had difficulty finding information for the sidthimunki loaches as the botia sidthimunki identification of the these loaches is now archaic and the current identification is *Dwarf Loach (Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki)*.

Apparently you have not found the Polka Dots at PetSmart.

If you cannot find the Dwarf Loaches PetSmart also occasionally has *Zebra Loach (Botia striata)*. The older mine become the more they "come out" and forage for groceries.

TR


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Well Jones I am out of the State Trooper Business as of right now and took a Job as Sergeant of Corrections in a Maximum Security Facility with over 2,200 inmates.

I am the youngest to do so and am in charge of over 180 Officers. It is a cool change and my retirement from DPS just transfered over. 

Yes I have not found any Polka Dot loaches anywhere. I checked all my LFS and Petsmart and Petco. All that they would try to sell me was Clown Loaches which I did not want. 

The substrate is doing awsome in my 150 gallon tank there is a little algae when you look on the side of the tanks below the sand line which I will get rid of the next tank cleaning. 

Also the tank levels are awsome right now also. 

ON a good note also I think one of my chinese algae eaters is pregneant. She looks really really really fat but still healthy. When she gives birth I think my Clown Loaches or my Angles will eat the fry most likely. Yal agree?

I am going to do some research on the suggested Snail killers. I will be back more often now


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Suess00 said:


> Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. Well Jones I am out of the State Trooper Business as of right now and took a Job as Sergeant of Corrections in a Maximum Security Facility with over 2,200 inmates.
> 
> I am the youngest to do so and am in charge of over 180 Officers. It is a cool change and my retirement from DPS just transfered over.


Chris:

I am very proud for you!




Suess00 said:


> Yes I have not found any Polka Dot loaches anywhere.


The next time you anticipate a road trip to Austin you can call Matt at Amazonia a couple of weeks ahead as he will order "whatever" fish you want with his weekly order and you will not be out the typical shipping costs.




Suess00 said:


> When she gives birth I think my Clown Loaches or my Angles will eat the fry most likely. Yal agree?


The Clown Loaches probably not but the Angels absolutely.

TR


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## Suess00 (Sep 5, 2008)

Hey Jones its been a while again lol, I am in the Sergeant Academy in Huntsville right now so i have been really busy,

Today I finally found some Botia striata loaches and I bought 5 of them so they should be coming in a couple of days and they are all around 2 inches in size. My snail problem is getting out of control fast and my wife almost messed up and put some snail killing liquid into the tank that the smart people at Petsmart gave her, but thank God she called me in Huntsville and I told her to return it or throw it away.

I also placed my Peacock Eel in my 150 gallon tank today (well my wife did cause I was over here lol) and she is saying that the Spotted African Leaf Fish is ''sizing'' him up and the Eel is just swimming back and forth really fast and the Spotted African Leaf fish is like curling up like it is going to strike.

Is the Leaf Fish just being very territorial? What kind of behavior is that?

Also are 5 Botia striata loaches enough in your opinion?


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## jones57742 (Sep 8, 2007)

Suess00 said:


> Is the Leaf Fish just being very territorial? What kind of behavior is that?


Chris:

I am not familiar with these fish and hopefully someone else can help here.




Suess00 said:


> Also are 5 Botia striata loaches enough in your opinion?


Yes.

Although Striata's are slow growers in approximately six weeks you should have no visible snails and five 3" Striata's.

TR


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## sonnyrg (May 9, 2009)

Suess00 said:


> Well as many of yal know I recently moved my 4 Clown Loaches out of my 75 gallon tank to my 150 gallon tank and now I got a problem lol.
> 
> 
> In my 75 gallon tank there are snail egg sacks all over the glass and alot of snails prob 10-15. It does not sound like alot but I would never see more then 2 snails in my tank when I had the Clown Loaches there.
> ...


i wish i had a snail problem i went out and bought alot of snails and they still wont breed you should send some snail over to me so i can get a snail problem


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## N0z (Jun 3, 2009)

just think if you did get more clown loaches then the snails wont ever be able to come back


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