loaches and carpet?

nino

Medium Fish
Apr 28, 2004
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#1
Hi you all,
I'm still quite new here. Been browsing thru this site and find it very interesting. I hardly come across a forum with so many people from different countries*celebrate .

I have a question regarding loaches and carpet plants mainly glosso and dwarf hairgrass. I have a couple planted tanks those covered with those 2 carpet plants (established). I just have some snail problem now and plan to get some loaches. But I heard they tend to uproot carpet plants. Would they be able to uproot my glosso and hairgrass if those plants are rooted strongly already? Any suggestions on what loaches can do the job wonderfully and stay small (not as big as clown)?

Thanks first for any opinions;)
 

Lotus

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Aug 26, 2003
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#2
If the plants are well rooted, it shouldn't be a problem. They may dig in the carpet plants to find food, but aren't usually too destructive once plants are established.

You could get yoyo loaches or botia kubotai (botia angelicus), which both stay around 3-5". They do need to be in groups of at least 3 to be happy, though. Both are good snail eaters, although when they're small they might not be able to eat the larger snails. You don't say what size tank you have, but please make sure you have enough space for additional fish.

There are other ways to get rid of snails, by feeding less and by "baiting" then removing them, if you don't really want more fish. :)
 

nino

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Apr 28, 2004
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#3
Thanks Lotus,
My planted tanks are 55, 20, 10 and 5gl. The 20 and 10 are the ones with carpet plants.

What does feeding less have anything to do with snail population? I thought they feed on algaes and plants. Anyway, those snails I'm having are the ones come accidently with live plants:mad: . They seem to multiply heavily. How do you trap them? I actually prefer not having loaches or taking risk on my hard work planting those carpet;)
 

Luca

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Jun 9, 2003
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#4
There's only as many snails as there is food for them to eat. So if you put in a lot of food, you have a lot of snails. Sure they eat a lot of things, but too much food doesn't help.

You trap them putting a piece of cucumber in there at night, in the morning they should all be stuck to it.
 

Jun 28, 2003
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#7
Cucumber works good, along with lettuce attached to the side of the tank using a Veggie Clamp. I've heard of some people putting small glass jars with veggies in them to trap those little buggers too.

Op, new post when I posted! About the puffers, I think that they would only pose a threat to slower moving fishes. I know a few members of the board have them so hopefully they'll post their input.
 

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Lotus

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#8
As far as I know, puffers shouldn't be kept in a community tank. They are nippers, and pretty territorial (although small, they're mean).

Snails will breed when there is enough food. So, if you are overfeeding your tank, and there is a lot of leftover food, you will get more snails.

I use an algae wafer in a shot glass overnight to trap snails. In one of my 10g fry tanks I pulled out 3/4 of a shotglass full of snails (probably like 50 or more of them).

I don't mind a few snails in my tanks, as they tend to keep things clean. Once they get out of hand, it's time to get rid of some of them. Luckily I have other tanks with hungry snail eaters in them, so the snails still contribute to the circle of life ;)
 

Luca

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Jun 9, 2003
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#9
Most loaches will eat some snails (e.g skunk botias, clown loaches). On that note, you might want to avoid algae wafers or something similar in a shot glass because a clown may potentially get stuck in it.

My 3 clowns don't eat all the snails but it is nice to have some "circle of life" activity going on as Lotus mentioned, it's also nice live food for their diet :)