loaches
Hi Traci, While I don’t know what kind of snails you have, I don’t believe that while Kuhli (”Coolie”) Loaches are in the same Family as Clown Loaches, that they are any better at ridding your tank of snails than are Spotted Weatherfish or Japanese Weather Loaches - both of which are not known to eat snails. Its the members of the Genus Botia of this Family that are notorious for eating snails, and then not all of them are equally inclined to do so.
As Mike points out, Malaysian Trumpet snails are, for the most part, impervious to attack mainly because of their extremely tough shells. If this is what you have, your pet shop guru is correct if she’s referring to them. On the other hand, from your somewhat vague description, similarly shaped common pond snails are another possibility of what you have, and are fair game for Clown Loaches. Since your Clowns haven’t made a dent in your snails’ population, I’m tending to think you probably do have these Malaysian Trumpets, which will have to be removed manually. You can try sinking (with a small stone) a piece of lettuce overnight to gather as many of them as you can, and repeat this each night until you get rid of them. You’ll still need to kewp an eye out for any stranglers. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
