luver_of_fish

I was trying to find out BEFORE I put chemicals in my tank if "Had-A-Snail" is bad for loaches. I have two black kuli loaches and one clown loach. I have a serious snail overpopulation in my tank and I am planing to redo my tank anyways, I hate the substrate I have right now, and so was hoping I could get rid of my snail problem as well. I think my clown loach may be a little too small to eat the snails and with all my other bottom feeders and their food I don't think he is hungry enough to eat too many either. Anyway, the loach hasn't helped too much yet, but I don't want to kill any of my loaches and thought I should double check because the LFS folks said it would be OK, but they don't always know sone of these things.

aquarist48

LuverOfFish good morning. I've never heard of this product so we'll have to wait for a response from someone that has. I assume it is a chemical to get rid of the snails? Personally I don't like adding chemicals to rid my tank of anything unless it's a life or death situation and only then as a last resort. Killing off snails and even algae just doesn't seem safe to me. Hang on for some more responses.
Ken

Butterfly

I checked the cautions on this product and There are alot of them so I personally wouldn't want to use it. It also has copper in it and that is something you don't want to put into your tank except in dire emergency. Here's the info. Loaches are very sensitive to most chemicals. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...fm?pcatid=6649
Snails in moderation are good for your tank. They eat leftover food and keep the substrate loose. But when there is a population explosion that's usually a sign of over feeding( a fishes stomach is the approx the size of one eye), Need for deep substrate vacuuming(food, poo get down in the substrate), and more frequent/larger water changes.
You can also trap the snails by putting lettuse in at lights out and pulling it out covered in snails the next morning(if you can keep the loaches away from it )
Loaches need to be in groups(although I would not recommend more in that size tank) and your clown loach(you do know they get rather large?) just may not have learned to eat snails yet. Kuhlis don't eat snails.
Hope that helped. Welcome to Fishlore
Carol

luver_of_fish

I knew that kulis don't eat snails and I actually tried to get a yo-yo loach because I know they do not get quite as large a the clowns, but they are just so small (the only ones I can get around here) and I don't think it could compete for food with the other bottom feeders I have so he didn't make it. The clown loach is doing great, health-wise that is, but the snails are still there. I can not do a deep gravel vacuum as of right now because I have sand as a substrate. I will be changing that out soon and so will pretty much be redoing my whole tank and was hoping to get rid of this snail population as I was doing this so they would not contiue to be a problem with this tank. I also know loaches like to be in groups ( I originally had 3 black kulis) and I would love to get another clown, but I know the tank wouldn't support another, but it was the only thing I could think of to do to get rid of the little bugggers. I've been able to get rid of a few with cucumber slices, but I haven't tried lettuce. I will see if that helps. Any other suggestions would be quite helpful.
The only other solution I can see is to get rid of all my plants and clean my filter system with a bleach solution and then soaking it in rinse water treated with water conditioner, but I can't but the bio-filter part in there and who knows haw many snails might be in there?!? I would hate to get rid of my plants though as I have quite a few and would have to get rid of all my rock and driftwood as well...quite prcey and I just can't afford to replace it all.

Butterfly

If you have sand as a substrate then no worries about stuff down in it. All it requires as I'm sure you already know is to hover the siphon over it to get debris out of it. the only other thing I can think of is over feeding because snails will definatly breed according to how much food is available.
Doing an extra 25% water change each week for awhile and cutting the food down should help. The Clown loach needs to get hungry enough to eat the snails so maybe feeding the tank one small feeding a day and even skipping a day each week may help( I skip the day I do water changes). I understand wanting to get rid of the snails and the clown is your best bet.
I see you have two plecos. I don't know anything about the clown pleco but the Gibby eats and poos. I have one that started our as a 2inch fish and is now about 5 inches and still growing. Plecs are heavy waste producers. Their digestive tract is so straight and short that some of the food they eat doesn't get digested so there is another food source for the snails.
I wouldn't tear the tank apart yet or get rid of anything (copper based meds will kill some plants also) or dose with chemicals.
Trying these things suggested will take a little time to show results but in my opinion it's the safest way to do the job.
Carol

luver_of_fish

I actually have a Gibby who is now around 12"-13" , but he is in my 55 gallon tank with my African ciclids and although I had a couple snails in there (the 40 gallon tank plants and inhabitants were orignally in there) either he or the cichlids have gotten rid of them. Yippee! The BN pleco is not very big and I don't thing has eaten any snails the clown plecos main diet is wood so no help there...Thanks for the advice.

Butterfly

Plecos gnaw on wood for the Lignan they get out of it. This helps in their digestion of other foods. I imagine he eats other stuff at some time
Which tank are we talking about having snails. Your aquarium info shows your gibby in the 55g with Kuhlis, corys, neons etc.
I still feel more water changes and less food will take care of the snails.
carol