Snails making me go mad!!

any chance you could borrow some loaches from someone for a month or two till they sort out your snails and then give them back to the lender? or buy two or three, then sell them on this forum or give away as a freebie, as a fix it might be worth the cost? and as the loaches are small initially, they should not impact too much on the tank capacity. beware tho, clown loaches have personalities that could make you fall in love with them and you may not want to part with them

 

What type of brown snails are they? Do you think you could do something to identify them first? Maybe take some pics for us, or look at some sites online.

I wouldn't recommend Skunk Loaches because they tend to get quite aggressive in comparison to some of the other smaller loaches. And Clown Loaches grow to 15" and live up to 40 years in captivity. Yoyos or zebras or any of the smaller Botiid loaches should help, but they also won't eat all types of snails.

Mine eat ramshorns and pond snails when they're not fed regularly, but arent' interested in Malasian Trumpet snails, those I have to vacuum out or catch. I've never tried lettuce though, I've always used a slice of cucumber weighed down with a fork.

 

I have introduced ramshorn snails on purpose in all my tanks to assist with general tank maintenance, but I have failed to get any population going in my clown loach tank. 6 medium sized loaches and any number of snails last no more than a few days.

A few tips:
1. Clown loaches can work well in a discus tank because they prefer the warm temperture. I kept my clown loach tank at 29 degrees C from the day I bought them and never had any Ich problems
2. They grow slowly, and can live for a very long time
3. They are peaceful and don't disturb the other fish
4. They tend to be aggressive eaters, so keep that in mind when feeding your discus.
5. Do not buy them when they are smaller than 5cm, as these tiny fish are the ones that have a low immune system and get sick really quickly
6. Bigger fish can easily cost you R100 or more per fish, and you need at least 5 to keep them happy, otherwise they get stressed and may also get sick

But, if you do decide to part with the loaches, trust me, you will NOT catch them in a planted tank...

And syphoning of snails do work quite well.

Regards
Lauré