bichirs,loaches, and snails. OH MY

[crazyduckhunt]

what Loach would be compatible with a full grown senegalus polypterus as well as snails. any info would be great.

[Honda12]

Thats a tuff one, any that I can think of would eat the snails and or the birchir might eat the loach. If you don't care about the snails then your options really open up.

[is300zx]

loaches and snails don't go together very well. loaches feed on snails so your snails will disappear unless it reproduces fast enough. clown loaches are probably the best one to keep with senegals since they grow pretty large. but you have to get large ones around 4" or larger so they don't get eaten by the senegal.

[crazyduckhunt]

ok if I do take out the snails can you give me a list of what loaches you think would be good?

[Honda12]

The hard part is finding a loach of a good size that won't get eaten but, clown loaches would work, orange tail loach, Yoyo loach, um can't really think of anymore off of the top of my head right now. Yoyo's and orange tails can get abot 6in.

[ewurm]

The snails are doomed.

[crazyduckhunt]

most loaches that i am interested in only get to bout 4-5 inches. im lookin for somethin a bit bigger as the polypterus could easily eat little ones. ill look into clowns. i can get em for bout 10 bucks a pop out here so gimme a day and ill come up with somethin

[Oddball]

The only way to keep snails with loaches is to keep malaysian trumpet snails and lots of wide flat rocks. Keep the flat rocks on the gravel's surface. MTS burrow through the substrate and shun light so, most will stay under the flat rocks where the loaches can't get to them. The loaches will eat any snail they cen get to but, the MTS in my clown loach tank are still doing well because not all the snails can be reached by the loaches. MTS are also livebearing snails that will bear their young under the substrate making the youngs chances for survival better than a species that must lay an egg mass above the substrate where fish can get at them. The combination can work provided you set the system up for it.

[KurseD]

i have my ornate birchir in with a trio of clown loaches, they get along fine...for now, birchir is only 3in. and clowns are 2in., hopefully they will grow at almost the same rate.

[is300zx]

i have my ornate birchir in with a trio of clown loaches, they get along fine...for now, birchir is only 3in. and clowns are 2in., hopefully they will grow at almost the same rate.

they definetly won't grow at the same rate. clown loaches grow pretty slow while bichirs grow fairly fast. you're clowns will most likely dissappear in a few months if you keep them in the same tank as the ornate.

[crazyduckhunt]

i understand the clowns will eat the snails. and actually the MTS come above the surface of the substrate when lights are off so then the loaches can get to em. i would rather just skip the whole loach eatin snail thing. with out the snails in there what would u guys recomend? some thingmore oddbally if u get what i am sayin. (different then what others have.)

[is300zx]

how bout a school of these guys http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/leptobotia_elongota.html

[crazyduckhunt]

you got to be kidding me those things are fugly. and for them to be in a school even worse didnt u see the other thread? the just tolerate each other thanks for the effort tho

[is300zx]

hey you said oddbally you can't get anymore oddball than that :)

[crazyduckhunt]

lol oddball is right tho lol eh whatever ill just have to find one then thanks for the help

[guppy]

What kind of snails, I have kept apple snails with 4-5" clowns and while they ate the newly hatched apples they did not bother the adults.

[crazyduckhunt]

they are malaysian trumpets but i dont kno how often the reproduce and the ones i have now are kinda small less than 1 inch. apple snails grow a lot bigger then these. ill just have to wait and see.