Giant Apple Snail Compatibility

[MRE]

So after recently losing my pleco that I had in my tank for years, I came across some giant apple snails at my lfs. I was thinking that it might be a decent way to help keep the tank clean and add an interesting element to my tank. I'm trying to figure out though if my fish will just eat it if I get one. The ones I saw at the store were baseball-sized but I have a clown knife and an arowana that are both in the 2 ft range as well as an 8" pike cichlid. What do you guys think? Will the snail just be a $6 snack for one of my predators or do I have a chance that this thing will be able to make it as a new addition to the tank?

 

[Davidiator]

hi i had a clown loach at 3" and he ended up eating my 5 nirite snails and 1 was as big as a silver dollar
i would say that the snail would be a snack

 

[MRE]

Yeah, thanks for the response. I was kind of leaning that way. I tried one of these snails back when I had an Oscar and he didn't make it but I was hoping somebody might have some experience with a giant snail and some larger predatory fish. I'll probably have to pass unless I just decide that I don't mind risking it for $6 and chalk it up to a nice treat for the fish.

 

[Davidiator]

ya who knows maybe they will be fine... or maybe that's a little fatter fish you will have lol.

 

[Fat Homer]

If you have live plants in your tank i would skip them, they can be verocious eaters...

 

[MRE]

Good point. I don't have live plants anymore but that's definitely good to know.

 

[Mighty Wizard]

Loaches of the Botia family have specifically evolved to be snail eating machines, so a clown loach with snails will never work.

I've had one in my tank for about a week now, and he does fine. My bichirs and red wolf leave it alone, my polli had a couple of goes at it but got bored it seems. They're all just over 6 inches, and the apple snail is about an inch. I also have some nerite snails, and as far as I know they're all there.

Most species of apple snails have impressive armor, and is usually only threatened by specialized killers or very large individuals, unlike for example pond snails and ramshorns, which are frequently snacked upon by my other fish.

You could also consider elephant snails, they look trippy as hell, get big, and their shells are incredibly hard.