clown loaches eating huge snails??

B

butterflylove

fishie fishie fishie
Dec 17, 2004
118
0
0
38
maryland
hey there every 1!!!!!! well, about a month ago i got 2 small clown loaches(1 in under 2 inches and the other is under 4) to take care of my uncontrolable pond snail growth in the 55 gal. they did the job in less than a week. the whole time i had 2 golfball sized apples snails, and the loaches never even picked on them. then a few days ago i was doing my reg look over the tank to see how everyone was, when i noticed the bigger snail was empty! i picked it up to see if anything was in there, shook it around a little bit, and got out the extra stuff inside. (i guess what they didnt want to eat)
so my question is, did the loaches kill and eat this big snail, or did the snail possibly die for some reason, and they the loaches ate him??

just curious
amber
 
I will be really interested to see how others answer this too. I have 3 clowns and 3 kuhlis and when I first got them they cleaned up my snails pretty well...but now there are several good sized ramshorns and they don't eat them. WHy? Am I feeding them too well?

I would think that the clowns would have a hard time getting a apple smail, becasue they ahve a trap door, but I don't know for sure.
 
It depends on what else they are getting, and how tempting the snail may be, I think. My kuhli loaches killed several mystery snails that had trap doors--they just bide their time and harrass the snail any time it pokes out to feed, until either they are able to kill it, or starve it to death.
 
well, after they cleaned out the whole 55 gal of snails, i decided not to set them loose in the 20 gal, so i still have hundreds of snails in there. about 3 times a week i pick out a handful(30-50) and drop them into the 55 gal for the clowns. i never noticed any pecking either, but im not always on the look out....
 
nursie said:
I would think that the clowns would have a hard time getting a apple smail, becasue they ahve a trap door, but I don't know for sure.
Click to expand...

they will chew right through the trap door
here is a great thread with pic.s
In a 4 hour span the loach had drilled a hole thru her operculum into her foot. It was about the size of a US nickle (3/4" diameter).
Click to expand...
http://www.applesnail.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3105
 
:eek: :eek: :eek: Poor apple snail!!

Well I have a tank of slacker clown and kuhlie loaches!! I finally took a handfull of the snails out tonight. I don't understand why they aren't eating them now.
 
OrionGirl said:
It depends on what else they are getting, and how tempting the snail may be, I think. My kuhli loaches killed several mystery snails that had trap doors--they just bide their time and harrass the snail any time it pokes out to feed, until either they are able to kill it, or starve it to death.
Click to expand...

That has pretty much been my experience too.
 
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