[nagukush]

Hi Friends !

With great difficulty and a lot of search, I got these 20 Malaysian Trumpet Snails to add to my Frontosa Tank (to help with the Gravel job) but the problem is that I have 4 little (about 2") Zebra Loaches (http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile65.html) who I'm afraid will kill & eat all my snails.

I'm ready to get rid of the loaches but I cant catch them as they always hide in the tank decor (lots of caves etc for them in the tank)

Just wanted to request you to kindly advice if te MTS will survive along with these Zebra Loaches ? Will they be able to multiply rapidly enough to stay in the tank ? Also are MTS hardy enough to survive the 'loach-attack' ?

Kindly guide me a little here...
Thanks a lot !
Regards
Kush

p.s - Also can these snails survive in salty water (as I add a lot of salt for my Frontosas)

 

[rich815]

Reading the profile you link to and the comments at that profile I'd say your MTS will be eaten in quite short order!

 

[Tex Gal]

I agree with Rich815. Your Zebra loaches will win. If a few survive for a while eventually they will be history. I had a botia, 3 clown, and 1 yoyo loach. They stripped the entire 125g tank of any snails. I finally got rid of my loaches (due to another issue) and had to reintroduce MTS and others into the tank.

 

[bgzbgz]

I have 5 clowns and 1 zebra, and 10000000 mts. They constantly try to eat them but rarely succeed.

 

[nagukush]

Hi Friends !

Is there any way to catch these loaches without disturbing the tank ?

Kindly advice...
Thanks a lot !
Kush

 

[aznb0i]

good luck catching those loaches... I took me a long time just to catch 2 in my 120 gallon tank. maybe you could try making a trap and stick some food in there.

 

[vancat]

Put a piece of PVC in there. They like to hang out in them. After a while close up one end. Then one day put your hand over the open end and you got 'em.

 

[oblongshrimp]

MTS are fine in brackish water conditions so you should be fine adding some salt to the tank. As for the loaches I say go a head and try some MTS and see what happens. They aren't expensive and you can probably find someone willing to send you a bag of them for the cost of shipping. MTS have a trap door that they can close off if they are attacked. Their shell is also very hard so unless they are getting sucked out of the shell they would be tough to eat.

 

[Sunstar]

So MTS are brackish safe? I was wondering as I have a brackish tank I might want a few in.

 

[Qwertus]

Im gonna get a butterfly hillstream loach soon, will those eat MTS?

 

[Laconic]

Nope it won't eat the MTS

 

[rich815]

Im gonna get a butterfly hillstream loach soon, will those eat MTS?

Just make sure you have a TOP to the tank:

 

[nagukush]

Hi Friends !

I finally managed to remove the Loaches ! Now I'm a little worried if the snails would be enough to scavenge for excess or missed food that my Loaches were doing wonderfully well - so now my question is are these snails more important or are the loaches more important ?

Kindly guide me...

 

[Qwertus]

Those snails reproduce fast so most likely they'll get the job done. The question you should ask yourself is which type you like to see more in your tank. The MTS wont be visible during the day.

 

[supersmirky]

But wait...isn't salt bad for the loaches and plants? I wouldn't add salt. My MTS are fine and I have 3 red tail botia's that can not keep up with the multiplication of the MTS. At first I thought the botias took care of all the snails but then as time went, I noticed an increasing population of my MTS.

 

[Sunstar]

depends on the plant. I have a planted brackish tank that seems to be quite happy. I am using marine salt in it.

Hygro, java moss, val, glosso, moneyword, HC(albeit incredibly slow) and a couple others seem to be doing well. Just brackish enough to make my ghost shrimp happy.

 

[rhodophyta]

I would not want to worry much about loaches/botias eating all the MTS. I had half a dozen clown loaches in a planted 150 and it seemed like they ate all the snails. However after a few years, the loaches got so big that they were no longer suitable for a planted tank and I moved them out. Within a day I bagan to see MTS in the tank even though it had been more than two years since seeing a single one.

Now if you decide some day to eliminate the MTS or other snails, the Germans make a hydrogen peroxide doser called an oxydator that will gradually rid the tank of snails. This is better than killing them all at once and having snail meat rotting and polluting the aquarium and re-releasing the poisons that killed them back into the water.