chickadee

I am in BIG trouble here in little China folks! I have a tank in big trouble with Pond snails and my Sidthimunkis are laying down on the job and will not touch them. It broke my heart to see my little Otos die off one by one because the snails would not let them near their food and the last one this morning trying valiantly to drag the snails off to get to the algae wafer. I have gone to dropping about 6 or 8 algae wafers all over the tank so he can get to one of them for sure to see the little round belly again.

So far I have lost 3 Otos to them and I am afraid I will lose this one too (One of them was my oldest fish, my little Tuck). I have called about and only seem to have 2 options as the loaches that I have seem to just play with the snails and that is. Move the fish (other than the betta) into the other tanks since the other fish have not been added to them yet. (4 loaches and 1 Oto) and Move Blaze (betta) into the q tank and put sand in the tank and get some Kuhli Loaches (If and only if someone will tell me for sure that they WILL eat snails - the people at PetSmart said they would not and I needed a Clown Loach which I KNOW is wrong.) I know I would have to get sand and use a new substrate for them and I am fine with that as long as I can get rid of the snails. NO MORE plants of the real nature for me from anywhere I do not personally know. I can handle them eating the plants but killing the fish NO! I really need some help and am at my wits end. I do go the the doctor in Lincoln on Thursday so if I could get an answer of some kind by then. Another option is to get the clown and get it a good home when it gets bigger but I would need to have a volunteer and know that they had room. (I do not have room for any bigger tanks ..... I do so swear)

Thank you so much for your attention to my calamity.
Rose

Stradius011

What about yoyo loaches? Anyway, I did some research and found out that they rarely eat snails.

Butterfly

So sorry to hear about your troubles Maybe your feeding your little loaches too much? My yoyos eat snails but so should your little sidthimunki Remember the more food you put in the more snails you will have.
CArol
Carol

Tom

Have you tried putting a piece of lettice at the top of the tank overnight and pulling it out with the snails and chucking it out? I heard it is supposed to work.
Tom

Stradius011

What is a sidthimunki? I've never heard of it before.

Tom

Dwarf loaches.
Tom

Stradius011

Oh, thanks.

Tom

Welcome.
Tom

Sam Livingston

Puffers will devour snails very very quickly

0morrokh

That's a good idea. You could also use a small cup or film canister, put some food in it and put it on its side on the bottom and remove it when it's full of snails.

armadillo

I am afraid the lettuce idea will not get rid of all the snails, so it's just delaying another outbreak of adult snails.

I agree with Carol. The overfeeding to make sure the otos get some food is probably making the problem worse. It sounds like you have a huge infestation on your hands, which shouldn't happen if there is no left over food. I know that's tricky with slow eaters like otos.

Sidimunkhis should really eat your snails. At least they keep my snail population under control.

Sam, I don't think adding DP's to a community tank is the best idea. We're keeping ours only with fish that we knew had a good chance of compatibility (otos, kuhli loaches and a pleco). But you never know, it could work for you, Rose. Seen as the fish you have are quite similar to the ones we have in our DP tank.

Sam Livingston

Yeah I know I just like throwing their name in there because there cute and I've never seen anything eat so many snails. I got lucky with mine, he's very peaceful.

Chief_waterchanger

Guys... this thread was 8 months old when it was revived yesterday. A new thread should be started rather than old ones being revived.

0morrokh

Oh thanks for pointing that out CWC, I didn't even notice when I posted! Just like me.