Expert: Chris Robbins - 12/13/2004

Question
Hello.  Thank you for looking at my question.
I have a large snail problem that the clown loaches aren't controlling well enough.  The snails come out at night when the loaches seem to be sleeping.  Also, the majority of the snail population is very small.  

Is there a fish that preys on the eggs of the snails?  

Answer
Hi BP;

One problem you probably haven't considered yet is overfeeding. The little snails are going crazy in the gravel from excess food and/or waste. If the fish get hungry enough they will eat those little fellas up. When I had a snail problem in my 55 gallon, my clown loaches moved the gravel to get at them. I made sure I didn't overfeed and they had to forage or scavenge around to find more food. This made the snails an easy target. I only fed the fish every other day, but they stayed fat.

So, the key is to keep your fish a bit hungry for awhile so they will do what comes naturally. In nature the food doesn't drop from the sky out of some giant hand anyway. (funny mental picture) The fish have to forage and are healthy and well-exercised. It takes effort to forage but it is a healthy activity. Once the adult snails are gone and the babies get eaten up before they reach adulthood the life cycle will be broken......and no more snails!

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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