# Assassin snail, yo yo loach or kuhli loach?



## nunuchan (Nov 6, 2010)

Hey everybody, I'm going to try and move into my apartment today and bring the tank with me either today or tomorrow. I was away from my tank for a month and left my sick betta in the care of my boyfriend and my tank with my brothers.

Well, my betta died and my family did NO water changes for my 14G and the little hitchhiker snails that came with the plants I bought multiplied to about 150. I came back and the tank was cycled (good, I guess?) but now I have to re-do it for when i move today.

To maintain the existing hitchhiker snail population I would like to by a snail eater such as the assassin snail, yo yo loach or kuhli loach. Now, I could only buy one or two depending on the price. 

In addition I will also be buying a betta to put in the tank in about a week or so.

CURRENT TANKMATES:

Albino cory
Spotted cory
Green mystery snail
Son of green mystery snail (about same size)
FUTURE TANKMATES:

Betta
Snail eater
I'm also going to invest in buying many more live plants and maybe some driftwood for the tank this week as well. The substrate is gravel and I'd like to keep it that way for a while.


Any suggestions?


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Loaches need to be in groups and I'm pretty sure Yo-Yo loaches will get too big for a 14g. You could fit maybe 2-3 kuhli loaches in there. And uh, what's an assassin snail? 

Other option is just scoop out as many pond snails as possible and start squishing.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

I think assassins would probably kill your mystery snails as well

I've heard of putting something like a piece of lettuce in your tank at night, and then in the morning there should be bunches eating away at it and you just pull it out and squish


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Also heard you can pull them out of their shells, chop up and feed to your betta. Again,


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

or squish and then pull the shell off. I know Robin found the one I squished for him to be very tasty


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Uhm . . . nummy? 

Yo-Yo Loach. 5", minimum tank size 40 gallons according to my fish book.


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## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

Which fish book is it? And if you got assasin snails, you need about five to deal with that, but they'd kill you mysteries, too


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Assassin snail, 100%. Great with fish, small bioload and they kill other snails perfectly. Fish do good jobs but only for a short time. Trust me... get Assassins.

I'd personally set up a small tank for your mystery snails and move them out until your pest snails are gone. Assassins are easy to find new homes for.

I gag at the thought of squishing snails and pulling them out to feed.. yuck yuck yuck! I also see snails as living creatures too  Some are just colder than me! I have a tank full of Malaysian Trumpets, I don't mind at all.


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## dsgems (Jul 14, 2011)

OK What are these different snails? I heard it is good to have 1 or 2 snails in a tank. Where can I find info on a mystery snail? Is he the good kind?


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## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

It depends on which kind you want. Mystery, or Apple, snails get pretty big, imagine a ping pong ball, and smaller ones, like pond snails, breed with themselves, so if you get one you could easily get thousands.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

Pitluvs said:


> Assassin snail, 100%. Great with fish, small bioload and they kill other snails perfectly. Fish do good jobs but only for a short time. Trust me... get Assassins.
> 
> I'd personally set up a small tank for your mystery snails and move them out until your pest snails are gone. Assassins are easy to find new homes for.
> 
> I gag at the thought of squishing snails and pulling them out to feed.. yuck yuck yuck! I also see snails as living creatures too  Some are just colder than me! I have a tank full of Malaysian Trumpets, I don't mind at all.


I'm not sure why doing it personally would be considered any colder than getting something else to do it for you, the results are dead snails either way. personally I think it seems colder to bring in a new creature and then just get rid of it when it's served its purpose


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Mystery or Apple Snails are good. I have Malaysian Trumpets because I need them to dig in the sand. I also have Pond Snails, they got in on a plant, my first snail. I also have a Ramshorn snail with Nixon. 

I'd love to have Assassins but they don't sell them here.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Tisia said:


> I'm not sure why doing it personally would be considered any colder than getting something else to do it for you, the results are dead snails either way. personally I think it seems colder to bring in a new creature and then just get rid of it when it's served its purpose


Ok, so killing snails is puppy dogs and rainbows compared to buying a few snails to naturally do the job and then re-homing them to someone who wants them? Your logic baffles me. PERSONALLY, if I had Assassins, I'd keep them. This person wants to keep Mystery Snails, so the only option would be to re-home them.

Don't even... you want to get snippy with me, I can get snippy right back. Let's just stop this before it starts.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

I'm not being snippy, I'm just saying that it makes more sense to me to just deal with them myself if they're bothering me. if I brought in a house plant that was full of bugs that started taking over my house, I wouldn't buy a bird, I'd grab a fly swatter and a can of bug spray


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## BETTA DET (Jul 29, 2011)

Khuli loaches dont kill or eat snails so I wouldn't consider them as "snail assasins". They do clean up your substrate nicely, but as snail control they are useless. I love khulis, Ill definately be picking up 3 for my tank soon. Much more active at night in most cases. Ive always had a few in my tanks since I was a kid.


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## Shimizoki (Jul 8, 2011)

I have a few assassin snails in my tank... they will kill the other snails... Circle of life, its no different than feeding bloodworms to your bettas, or you eating a burger... You also dont have to do anything yourself.

You also don't have to rehome them... they will clean up any fish food if you over feed a tad. Any new plants you add that have snails will be cleaned up by them. low bioload means your filter wont even notice they are there.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Tisia said:


> I'm not being snippy, I'm just saying that it makes more sense to me to just deal with them myself if they're bothering me. if I brought in a house plant that was full of bugs that started taking over my house, I wouldn't buy a bird, I'd grab a fly swatter and a can of bug spray


So you're new puppy comes home with fleas, do you remove them one by one or do you get flea treatment from your vet? 



Shimizoki said:


> I have a few assassin snails in my tank... they will kill the other snails... Circle of life, its no different than feeding bloodworms to your bettas, or you eating a burger... You also dont have to do anything yourself.
> 
> *You also don't have to rehome them... *they will clean up any fish food if you over feed a tad. Any new plants you add that have snails will be cleaned up by them. low bioload means your filter wont even notice they are there.


She has mystery snails she'd like to keep  That's the only reason I suggest re-homing them. Or if she has two tanks, she could keep them separate.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

Pitluvs said:


> So you're new puppy comes home with fleas, do you remove them one by one or do you get flea treatment from your vet?


I'd probably use some kind of flea medication to get rid of the majority, but if I found stragglers I would have no issues with squishing them instead of waiting for them to die off on their own


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## Shimizoki (Jul 8, 2011)

I would think that Mystery snails are far too large to be attacked my assassins. They will get to be twice the size, maybe more.

I am no expert in this though... I could very easily be wrong.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

Shimizoki said:


> I would think that Mystery snails are far too large to be attacked my assassins. They will get to be twice the size, maybe more.
> 
> I am no expert in this though... I could very easily be wrong.


apparently they'll gang up to take them down  TFK thread


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## Shimizoki (Jul 8, 2011)

I stand corrected... you could always just buy snail killer. its a solution that kills invertebrates. then you do a full water change and let some time pass. Then you can drop in mystery snails. Just QT the mysteries if you have them already.


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## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

I'd buy assasin snails just to freak people out.... " Hey, dude, that black snail is cool, what's it called?" " oh, him? He's an Assasin snail!" " um, why's he called that?" " why don't you stick your hand in and find out....." lol


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## dsgems (Jul 14, 2011)

Should I have a snail in a 2.5 gallon tank and if so what kind? I don't know the difference. I never heard of an apple snail. I sure don't want a lot of them. I just want to have a healthy, balanced, and clean tank.


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## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

I believe Apple Snails are too big for a 2.5g tank unless that's all you're going to have in there. If you have a Betta, then no you won't fit a snail in that sized tank  I _*think*_ Apple/Mystery snails are the only snail people really want, the others are pest snails.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

How did this turn into a conversation/argument/debate about snails? Anyhooo, Diablo, the book is Tropical Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Species by PocketExpert Guides. 

And I still think it's easier to just put out the leaf of lettuce, gather the buggers and squish 'em. Snails are living creatures but, uhm, so are ants and I'm pretty sure most of us have killed an ant or 500 in our time. 

Also, they gang up on Mystery snails to take them down?  I never knew snails could be vicious.


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## Comet1993 (Jul 28, 2011)

I feel bad for the snails.. =/... Maybe you could just remove them and...uh... Sell them? =] Or give them away? A pet snail would be cute!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

If you can find someone who will buy a pond snail, I salute you. It means you're a great salesperson. I mean, yeah, I feel bad too. When I do have to squish a snail, I make sure to do it fast and hard so it dies instantly and doesn't suffer. I gave one to my dad last night to squish because it was bigger than I was comfortable squishing and what does he do? Puts it outdoors. I'm not so sure aquatic snails live well on the ground.


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## vaygirl (Sep 10, 2009)

Anyone who has Dwarf puffers would want pond snails! They love em. I keep a pond snail population in all my tanks for my puffer. But the bettas eat them too.

Logan sucks them right out of their shells, so you might get a betta who eats em. Logan, Wraith and Tango have all been caught eating pond snails.


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## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

Lol, pond snails are the best for dwarf puffers, no? They're small and have thin shells...... Oh, and VG, my LFS has Neon Dwarf Puffers, these are the same as normal dwarfs, right?


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## vaygirl (Sep 10, 2009)

They're the same. They just have a blue-ish tint. Lucky you! And yes, pond snails have super thin shells. I've had some that are about the size of a dime so they're pretty small. (Sorry fer semi hijack )


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## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

Thanks! Sorry for hijacking!


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