Snail eaters for special tanks

[TaratronVaeVictus]

Due to the fact our electric eel seems to have an uber fast metabolism, and despite twice weekly water changes, the snails have come out in full force.

Hence I am looking for a fish that will devour snails, and yet not be aggressive to said Pikachu...or not have the brains to run away when the eel eyes it! Eel has never been fed fish, only worms, and now wafers.

Also, in search of a good snail eater that will do great in a planted discus tank. Any ideas? We had a breakout of NTD (Neon Tetra Disease) that wiped out all of our neons and 99% of our other tetras, which is where I think the excess snails came from.

 

[mikehawk]

Clown loaches will take care of the snails, but, it might be cheaper to chemically treat the tank.

 

[piranha45]

one loach of any specie will completely clear out the tank within a few weeks. but yeah, Rid-Snail sorta stuff at the lfs will do the job too.

 

[DanDanUK]

Yeah i'd say Clown Loaches too as they can grow to a good size of around 6" so when they get that size they won't even look like a meal to the Eel.

You can buy Clown loaches quite large at some LFS's. They definatly not shy fish either if you do buuy them buy 4 or more as they are a shoaling fish plus they look great when there are more than one.

 

[turtall]

All the loach advice is the way to go, plus they are LOTS more fun to watch than poison.

 

[Vince]

Loaches or Botia. To make it less expensive just in case the eel determines that small fish tastes good, might want to get the skunk botia. Very smart, does not get too big, and will fend for itself.

 

[rweedon]

Loaches or Botia. To make it less expensive just in case the eel determines that small fish tastes good, might want to get the skunk botia. Very smart, does not get too big, and will fend for itself.

I was going to go with skunk botia... but you might want to go with the botia lohocata it will get much larger and tends to be just as aggressive when larger they are very cheap as well so if he eats them they will be easy to replace...

 

[bluedempsey]

i'd go with a loach
i won't use rida snail, depending on how many snail there are,
if you add poison and all the snails die at once you might have a spike in ammonia
and hurt your eel.

 

[mauls]

Clown loaches will take care of the snails, but, it might be cheaper to chemically treat the tank.

a clown loach cost like $4.99 for a med size, and a bottle of rid snail is like $6 so i'd go witht the loach, like everyone else said its a good lookin fish also