Will Senegal bichirs eat assassin snails?

[Polyaddict86]

DMD123 magpie i know they have puffers.

 

[Youngmom2013]

I think Assassin snails burrow just like the MTS.
I am not sure that a puffer will eat MTS, they may be too hard.
I have a pair of Kribensis in my 55. My female is only a little more than 2", so she might end up as lunch, but my male is 4", so maybe you could get a male or two? It's a shame, because my female is way more colorful and outgoing than my male, who is skittish and picks on my angels. She is my favorite fish. Before they went in, the tank was covered in MTS. A week later they were almost all gone. There a few in there now, a couple of months later, but only a handful, and never out in the open.

Would a male krib get along with the fish in my tank? I might try if you think they'd be alright.

 

[magpie]

MTS are way too hard for smaller puffers. I had a T. Schouetedeni, much larger than pea puffers, and I had to crush MTS to feed them to him, excepting the smallest of them and there wasn't really any meat to those. Schouetedeni would likely be the only puffer to work well in your tank, but they are expensive. Wet Spot has them for $200 right now. They have really been missing in the hobby for many years so the price will likely come down over time but right now they are spendy.

Mine chomped the tails of 2 of my bichirs but that was the ONLY fish he ever bothered. So you have to be prepared to move the puffer, and if your bichirs are large and the puffer small that could be an EXPENSIVE snack. Pea puffers are too aggressive to tank mates, as are most other puffers outside of I think SAPs. And SAPs also would need the MTS crushed for them except maybe the smallest ones... and I think they stay smaller so would more likely be a poly snack but I am not positive.

The assassin snails should work, you will just need a bunch of them. For my 65 gallon I think I had like 5. They ended up reproducing eventually. I had some with my polys and mine weren't eaten.

I had an explosion of MTS when I was over-feeding so cut your feedings back. Also, they come out with lights off. Put some cucumber or zucchini on a small fork or skewer so it will sink just before / at lights out, and then you can manually pick some out that way. Mine also came out during WCs and I would pick them up manually with a net or crush them.

Basically, the best thing for you to do is cut down feedings and put in more assassins. If your polys are truly eating the assasins, that kind of sucks. :/

I did have some dwarf acaras (laetacara araguaie) that very happily hunted and ate snails but when they spawned they were aggro to everyone. They were WC though. Maybe some CB L. Curviceps? Depending on what size you can get them and what size your polys are.

I have no experience with loaches.

 

[magpie]

Assassins do bury and come out at times to hunt. They won't eat as many MTS if you are overfeeding the tank....

 

[DMD123]

DMD123 magpie i know they have puffers.

I have a hairy puffer which is not a snail eater.

 

[Youngmom2013]

Huh. I cut feedings down to once every other day. The assasins' shells are there, but the actual animal is gone... they're not hiding in the substrate.

Are there cichlids that can be kept singly and with my tank fish?

Senegal bichir 6.5 inches
Peacock eel 6.5 inches
Spotted gourami 4 inches
Madagascar rainbow fish 3 inches
Lake kutubu rainbow fish 3 inches
Bristlenose 4 inches
LOTS of MTS

 

[J. H.]

Would a male krib get along with the fish in my tank? I might try if you think they'd be alright.

A male krib should be fine. If you can get away with those rainbows, maybe even a female, but I wouldn't bet on it. Rainbows sleep at the top and kribs at the bottom. I have rainbows with my kribs, and the kribs will chase them, especially when they have fry, but noone gets hurt.

 

[sevs and sajicas for me]

piggybacking on what magpie said, I had a pair of laetacara dorsigera that demolished my pest snail population in one of my tanks a few years back. not sure if that is typical or an exception of the species. But yes very aggro when spawning.

 

[magpie]

Yeah, so maybe a single laetacara?

I hate MTS explosions... I feel your pain. Every other day is best for fish anyway. Some here do every 3 days.

 

[thefredpit]

well I've had swarms of mts try hanging a large piece of cucumber wait for them to swarm and scoop the entire thing up with a net


however when I go 3 days without feeding I notice my bichirs eating stuff that I finally figured out were mts and ever since their population has been under control