small snail eater?

[Raisin]

I have a snail problem and I would like a fish to eat them. The problem is that I only have a 20gallon tank so I would need the fish to be small.

I don't have fish yet since I'm still cycling the tank, but I plan on a peaceful community tank with fish such as platies and tetras. I also plan on getting one or two african dwarf frogs.

Are there any fish that fit my criteria? I have heard that zebra loaches only get to be 4" or so. Would just one do okay in my tank or are they schooling fish?

Thanks for your help.

 

[jakano]

just a question how do you have a snail problem already when you haven't added any fish yet. do you have live plants in there.

just curious

 

[johnnyh]

you could try dwarf pufferfish, they are reallt really small, and Ive heard they feed on snails. They are also quite cute...



Hope this helps

 

[Roop]

i put four clown loaches in my tank. in two days the snail population dropped from 30-40 to 0. they love snails but they do get big so i'm gonna get a <100Gal for em

 

[Raisin]

The snails came in on the plants.

Pufferfish are cool but they are fin nippers and not so good for a community tank. Clown loaches get 12" or so and I don't plan on upgrading my tank any time soon.

Aren't there any small fish that I could put in a community tank?

 

[Torpedo]

Yeah...forget the puffers...go with the clown loaches. But you're gonna have to finish cycling the tank first. they are not real tolerant of "bad" water.

 

[Raisin]

Of course I'd finish the cycle first.

Clown loaches get big. I only have a 20 gallon.

 

[catfishmike]

ok evreyone stop trying to get people to buy potentaly large fish,because there is a better way.so far the anwser is clown loaches.why no any other commonly avalible loach.most will eat snails and won't grow as big as a clown loach.yes i know that clowns are the best snail eaters but that's bad in a way.see once you have one of the other loaches and it polishes off most the snails but not all, you have a loach friendly regenerating treat.

 

[SoulFish]

a small clown loach would take a long time to outgrow the tank, is more attractive then most loaches (although i like all botias) and at the large size he could sell him off and make some money off him, i also say forget the puffers, but for eating snails i would not go with dwarfs, they are not large enough or powerful enough to eat anything but baby pond snails

 

[Cackett]

i always liek crushing them wityh my fingers and feedign them to the rainbows!

 

[Torpedo]

CL's take so long to grow to any considerable size, I think you have a few years before your have to be concerned. Besides, as you get more into the hobby, you're going to want a larger tank...so just transfer them to the new tank.

Soulfish...you're right...all loaches are pretty neat. Only problem I've had is that the kuhli loaches tended to be jumpers...or else they would bury themselves in the gravel and you could never see them.