# Snail eating fish?



## Mishi (May 28, 2014)

When I set up my 45 gallon at the beginning of September, the plants had some snails attached. For a month and a half I managed to keep the problem under control by picking them out when seen as the tank cycled with just my betta in it, but after going home for Thanksgiving I returned to find that there'd been a population explosion, and now the little pest snails are everywhere.

The 45g will be a community tank. Just two days ago I added 12 neon tetras, but they and Nami will remain alone for a while as I sort out exactly what I want in my tank. I'm thinking 7 or so Otos, for sure, and after that... I'm not certain. My priority at the moment is to figure out this snail issue. Of course Nami shows no interest in eating/bothering the snails (or the neon tetras, actually). For all of the angry flaring he does at anything outside of his ocean, he seems entirely unconcerned by intruders within it. I figured that asking directly here would be the best solution, because Petsmart suggested goldfish (because the sales person was entirely certain they're betta compatible and eat snails :roll, a google search is full of inconsistent answers, and the only person I've spoken so far to at the much more knowledgable Petland was a new employee, and the amazing fish manager there wasn't working to give me a more reliable answer. I trust the opinions here more overall.

I've tried the lettuce method, by the way. Nothing happened. Literally. Not a single snail was caught that way. Maybe my tank is too spread out for it to attract attention (though I did try two at once)? Or maybe the snails are just too happy surfing the glass and hiding in the plants to bother with a strange new object. I'm not sure, but I'd prefer to get this problem sorted. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


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## andakin (Aug 10, 2009)

That title was a bit deceiving. It should've been called snail-eating fish.

Pest snails are unsightly (imo) and is nearly impossible to irradiate. Forget snail traps entirely because they are not efficient. There are much better alternatives in combating snails in a 45 gallon tank.

Many will tell you to introduce loaches or assassin snails. They do a good job of eating pest snails. I would also manually remove any visible snails whenever I have some free time.

I had a real bad infestation a while back. Now, the only snails I find are the ones living inside my filter.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Assassin snails eradicated a huge population of pest snails in a very short period. When the snails run ou they will eat most anything but really like frozen bloodworms, Mysis and brine shrimp.


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## hestersu (Sep 28, 2014)

Clown loach! I had a terrible infestation in my 10 gallon. I bought a single clown loach and the snails were gone in 2 days. Clown loaches are slow growing and mine needs to be rehomed at some point. He's fun to watch. I feed him algae wafers every other day. He snags the fish food on the off days. He does need a hideout so I got him a ZooMed log. He hangs out with my 2 balloon mollies. 

My Olive Nerite was initially in my 10g. The loach tried to eat him. That's why the Nerite lives in the betta tank now.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

(Clown Loaches do not grow that slow if they are in a proper sized tank. Just like every other creature, they can go through growth spurts and some growth plateaus but they still get huge, some over 13 inches)

I'd suggest Yoyo loaches which do stay small around 3-4 inches and like softer water, Dwarf Chain loaches work as well but like more river streamed tanks and harder water. I second the assassin snails as well.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

+3 on a single assassin snail (getting multiple assassins will replace one snail population explosion with another, and they turn cannibal). Dwarf puffers love snails BUT they are typically NOT community friendly fish. They are very aggressive little things and will peck at other fish no matter size and speed. Your betta would likely have shredded fins from a dwarf puffer so I'd advise against it. I don't know much about loaches except the most common one used for snail clean up tends to get very big, too big for most tanks people want to use them in.


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