# Snail eater for a 60 Litre



## Cro (24 Aug 2009)

Can someone suggest a snail eater for me please. They just keep appearing in my daughters tank and I can't get rid, I don't have the problem in mine but that may be to do with my Loaches? 

My daughters tank is 60L and houses 5 Glow Light Tetra's, 6 Guppies, a Frog and some Cherry Shrimp.

I realise that the Cherry Shrimp fry may well get eaten by the snail eater, but they they do have quite a few places to hide and some already manage to dodge the tetra's.


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## SunnyP (24 Aug 2009)

Loaches are the best in removal of snails naturally but the baby cherry shrimps will more than like be eaten but the adults will have a greater chance of surviving. I have amano shrimps in my 60lt with bengal loaches and they are fine but get the loaches get the urge to try their luck on the shrimps but fail all the time. Depends what is more important.


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## Nick16 (24 Aug 2009)

i had a really bad snail problem in my 240L and i got ONE yes ONE assasain snail. It has done the job so well, in a month (and im not joking) i now have none at all. If you get more than one then they will breed and you will replace one problem with another

Unfortunately loaches like to be in groups of 4+ and your tank isnt large enough for a group of them (unless you already had minimal stocking) but once they eat all the snails, you will then have to feed them   
i dont know why people keep one loach on its own, you wouldnt keep one neon....


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## Cro (24 Aug 2009)

I have Loaches in my 240L (4 of them) but I wouldn't split them to sort a snail problem, let alone put them in a 60L. I'll go with the assassin snail though, what would it need to eat once it's got shot of the other snails? Not the plants I hope.


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## baron von bubba (24 Aug 2009)

hi, i bought some chain/dwarf loaches to deal with my snails, gorgeous little fish and only get to a couple of inches fully grown.
Also had a dwarf puffer in my old tank, some have problems with aggression with thiers tho, mine however was fine and caused no problems at all, great to watch trackin and attacking snails too!


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## Themuleous (25 Aug 2009)

Botia striata all the way, got 4 in my 60lt and they do a great job  dont get to big either.

Sam


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## Cro (25 Aug 2009)

How much of a threat would the Zebra and Dwarf Loaches pose to the Cherry Shrimp?


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## baron von bubba (25 Aug 2009)

Cro said:
			
		

> How much of a threat would the Zebra and Dwarf Loaches pose to the Cherry Shrimp?



i cant say for sure as i dont have cherries,but i'm guessing they would enjoy the babies if they could. they dont bother the amano shrimp in my tank at all, but they are pretty much the same size.

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ya ... idthimunki
info on the dwarf loach.


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## ulster exile (25 Aug 2009)

Assassin snails (anentome helena) are great for pest snails and MTS if you feel that way about them (and faster than you'd think) though when the snails run out I suspect that they eat the cherry shrimp.  I ran out of snails in my little tank a while ago and now also have no cherries!  The assassins don't breed fast either.


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## Cro (25 Aug 2009)

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm going to go the Dwarf Chain Loach route as I think they will fit best, plus my daughter likes them from the pics I have shown her.


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## mattyc (26 Aug 2009)

i wouldnt keep these loachs they are quote, ''Y. sidthimunki is now considered as Critically Endangered in it's native Thailand, and is on the IUCN Red List for protection. Formerly numerous in the Kwai Yai, Kwai Noi and Mae Klong Rivers, no recent confirmed catches have been made.''


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## baron von bubba (26 Aug 2009)

mattyc said:
			
		

> i wouldnt keep these loachs they are quote, ''Y. sidthimunki is now considered as Critically Endangered in it's native Thailand, and is on the IUCN Red List for protection. Formerly numerous in the Kwai Yai, Kwai Noi and Mae Klong Rivers, no recent confirmed catches have been made.''



dude.
you missed this bit.

"Breeding: This species is spawned on a large scale via hormone treatment, details of which appear to be a highly guarded trade secret. This is to help take pressure off of the already steep decline in wild stocks."


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## Cro (26 Aug 2009)

mattyc said:
			
		

> i wouldnt keep these loachs they are quote, ''Y. sidthimunki is now considered as Critically Endangered in it's native Thailand, and is on the IUCN Red List for protection. Formerly numerous in the Kwai Yai, Kwai Noi and Mae Klong Rivers, no recent confirmed catches have been made.''


It is critically endangered in it's native waters but is wide spread in the aquarists world. I don't condone the situation but it's where we are, the ones in LFS now are captive bred ones.

To quote the same page as you;



			
				Loaches.com said:
			
		

> *Breeding:* This species is spawned on a large scale via hormone treatment, details of which appear to be a highly guarded trade secret. This is to help take pressure off of the already steep decline in wild stocks.


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## Cro (26 Aug 2009)

baron von bubba said:
			
		

> dude.
> you missed this bit.
> 
> "Breeding: This species is spawned on a large scale via hormone treatment, details of which appear to be a highly guarded trade secret. This is to help take pressure off of the already steep decline in wild stocks."


Looks like we were typing at the same time lol.


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## Nick16 (26 Aug 2009)

please tell me this? how would an assasain snail eat cherry shrimp?

there is NO WAY it would be able to catch them   , i think something else is eating your shrimp   
an assasain would sort your problem and not have an effect upon your stocking.


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## Cro (15 Sep 2009)

So I went ahead with the Chain Loach, they are lovely fish and seemed to fit in well.

But....Yesterday I find a dead Guppy, it's tail was virtually gone too. I watch the tank for a few mins and see 2 other Guppies with badly damaged tails then, Chain Loach come out from behind rock and start going at one of the Guppies tails.   

That was it, they were fished out and put in my 240ltr, they are one of the smallest fish in there so if they start anything I'm sure they'll be put in their place.   

So looks like it's time to try an Assassin Snail, wish me luck.


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## Nick16 (16 Sep 2009)

good luck, hate to say i told you so....   :? 

1 Assain will do the job perfectly.


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## Cro (16 Sep 2009)

Nick16 said:
			
		

> good luck, hate to say i told you so....   :?
> 
> 1 Assain will do the job perfectly.


What you should say is

I TOLD YOU SO    

 

It's weird as I saw some tanks with Assassin snails in at the weekend and my daughter commented on how nice they looked. The on Monday she was upset when she saw what happened to her Guppies, more upset when she realised that the Chain Loach had to come out of her tank, but then happy when she heard she'd be getting an Assassin Snail and that she could watch it hunt.


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## Nick16 (16 Sep 2009)

yeah, thats the problem with many of these snail remedies. You eradicate one problem and give yourself another. (like with the loaches)
when my rio 240 was infested i bought 1 assasain snail (cheaper than a group of loaches!). I let it hunt and also hand picked any snails that i saw that were within reach. When i came to empty my tank (around 1 month later) they had ALL gone. neat eh? 

since then, the assasain has gone into my 120L where i have no snails at all, and i have had to go to my lfs and get some free pest snails to feed him. i keep them in my fry tank where they can breed as much as they like, (its only 30L) not only do they keep the tank clean but also, if the tank does become crammed with them i can easily take ALL of them out (it has not substrate only a tiny bit of plastic decor and one rock) All i do now is put the assasain in there every now and again (for 2 days or so every 1-2 weeks) and let him eat some.  If you had more than one assasain they will likely breed and then you will have a problem of having loads of assasains!


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## ulster exile (16 Sep 2009)

TBH I don't think they necessarily breed at a very fast rate and IME they're much slower than MTS.  I can still only count about 7 in my little 35l from an original buy of 2 - last year.


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