are chain loaches any good at eating snails?

[rwel4809]

I'm just wondering if I should get some chain loaches to eat the snails that have hitched a ride into my new tank.. I know clowns are supposed to be the most effective, but realise they get too big and boisterous to keep with discus...

Anyone got any chain loaches that eat snails??

Robert

[scott bowler]

hey rob i know they do eat snails and that they stay small , they can put up with the ph of around 6 to 6.5 , but i dont know how good they would go with the temp that discus like 30 to 34deg, you could give them a go and see how you go, i have clown loaches in my tank so you can only try, good luck mate keep us posted scott

[ILLUSN]

they do fine at a temp of 32C and a ph of 5.8-6.0. I've got 6 in my tank. they only eat small snails.

they wont touch malaysian live bearing snails, and you need a fair few of them to make a diffrence to your snail population.

[rwel4809]

I think i'll get some and see what happens.. The snails I have are only small so I reckon they would make good loach food :smile:

R

[vyberman]

Probably a little late to reply to this thread, but i will anyway just in case its still useful to anyone.

I had a problem in one tank with a tiny kind of ramshorn snail.
5x chain loaches one week, no rams horns.

As far as other snails are concerned. Anything without a trapdoor to hide behind will get eaten. Although size does matter. If they are small though then the shell will get crunched, if they are big enough then the loach can get its head inside and get the whole thing out.
Its the ones that are too big to break but too small to get into that can be a prob as they remain half eaten. So you need to fish em out before they foul the water.

And as i say, the kind with trapdoors. Such as the livebearing snails that live in your substrate (as mentioned above) they just cant get into them so are completly ineffective.