YoYo loaches not eating snails

M

mtber

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Jun 28, 2004
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I have a bunch of snails in my 46 gal bowfront. I got a couple of YoYo loaches about a month ago thinking they would clean them out in no time. Wrong. They don’t seem to be interested in them at all. The snails are small, a size my clown loaches in another tank would feast on. The YoYos are about 2-3” long.

Any thoughts on why they aren’t interested in the snails?
 
Well. it might take a little longer. I mean, mine didn't eat them right away. It took some time to learn that the snails were food. My tank was over run with snails, i mean hundreds upon hundreds. After about a month and a half or so, it seemed like they disappeared very quickly and all at once. Just give them time, they will eventually figure out that they can eat them.
 
I watched mine digging around right next to a snail and not even paying any attention to it.

The way the story goes, I saw one snail farting around in my tank one day. A few days later, there were nine that I could count (of various sizes). The next morning, there were none. Haven't seen any since, and the loaches seem like they search around a lot more. I think they discovered how good snails are. I need to find a way to raise them, because they must have liked them a lot.
 
There's the problem with buying fish to do a job in your aquarium.
Click to expand...

Hey hey hey...I got mine because I wanted yo-yo loaches. But you're right. I wonder how many people bought a pleco-type fish only to find out that they don't always eat all the algae off of the sides of the tank.


Sam
 
Give it time, I'd say. So far, only my smallest clown loach has discovered escargot ;) The rest just swim by snails and pay no attention to them. The little one knows they're a tasty treat. It may take a while for yours to figure it out... and you may have to kinda force it by not feeding them for a day.... let them explore.

As for buying to serve a purpose, most of us buy SOMETHING to serve a purpose. My "purpose" fish have been otos to help clean up a little bit, with the plus side that they're cool looking and seem fairly active.... and a few danios and tetras as dither fish to help coax the loaches out of hiding. Personally though, I've fallen in love with loaches, and I want them to be the centerpiece of my tank. I'd love to add a dojo loach whenever the LFS has some in stock again... and I can't say I'd mind any others that could get along well with my other tankmates.

Oh, and as for plecos and buying them without realizing their algae potential.... I wonder how many people bought a 1" long pleco from Petsmart without realizing/being told that it'll get up to 10" and outgrow their 20gallon tank.
 
It may take th eloaches longer to eat bigger snails but they will eventually get them. Often they will even gang up on the snails that are big.
 
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