Re: [AGA Member] Malaysian trumpeter snails & eaters of

[Heather J Gladney <hgladney@comcast.net>]

Dear Max:
I do not have direct experience on snail-eating loaches, though I kept 
kuhli loaches for some years.  But I am interested in acquiring some!  
When snails came into my big tank (in spite of bleach dips and 
quarantine, grrr) and got Biblical on me--as in, my advice would be to 
avoid getting them--then I started hunting for info on snail-eating 
fish.  Clown loaches would get entirely too big and rambunctious in my 
tank.  I've seen them in a massive tank at Capitol Aquarium, bigger than 
most sport fish.  As in 5 - 8 pounds, kid you not.
From my homework, Ic ame across a comment by plant guru Karen Randall 
that she preferred Botia striata, striped loach (not tiger loach!) which 
stays small.  Unfortunately, when young, it's easily confused with other 
juvenile loaches (such as tiger loach)..  There's an excellent loach 
website which discusses lots of kinds, and states that the best 
snail-eaters are Botia dario or Queen loach, Botia Lohachata, Clowd 
loaches, and Botia Rostrata.
Lots of good general info, too, such as they're often collected 
seasonally (March) from the wild, and various suggestions for quarantine 
against internal parasites, & etc.
www.loaches.com
I have heard that a store in Albany CA (in the SF Bay area) sells good, 
quarantined, unusual fish, but it's hard for me to get there, and I 
worry about the 2-hour commute to get them home safely when it's already 
90 degrees F as I write.

Max Chang wrote:

> is it possible to use certain kinds of fish to control
> the population of snails? does anyone have experience
> about that?
>
> Max
>
> --- Amit Brucker <amitb@gtek.co.il> wrote:
>  
>
> > Cute little guys...
> > The good thing about them is that they will enter
> > your gravel, thus your
> > gravel can get a bit more aerated. Another good
> > point is that they do help
> > in cleaning some types of algae and helping out in
> > the all overall process
> > of your tank ecological system.
> > The bad thing on them is that one is enough to
> > reproduce itself.... You put
> > up a few in the beginning and after a few weeks you
> > get several hundreds of
> > these guys. They are most active at night.
> > My opinion is that is that if you can do without
> > them.... keep it this way
> > unless you can control their population.
> > HTH
> >
> > Amit Brucker
> > www.plantica.com
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Randy Pullen" <rpullen@waterpik.com>
> > To: <aga-member@thekrib.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 6:00 PM
> > Subject: [AGA Member] Malaysian trumpeter snails
> >
> >
> >    
> >
> > > What is your opinions on Malaysian trumpeter
> > >      
> > snails? Do you like them in
> >    
> >
> > > your planted tanks? I would like to know before I
> > >      
> > add them in to my
> >    
> >
> > > tank. Any considerations?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Randy
> > >
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> 	
> 		
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