# Clown Loach or Assasin Snails??



## t-bore (Apr 21, 2010)

For my 50G planted my clown loach comitted suicid a few months ago by jumping out of the tank over night. Now I am getting a growing population of snails. I have 20 or so amano shrimp in there as well so I would like peoples opinion on wether i should get Assisns or another clown loach to control the snail population? Will the loach leave my shrimp alone?


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## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

i use sumo loaches but i dont have shirmps


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## pdoutaz (May 13, 2010)

I'm not an expert, but I believe the Clown Loach would likely eat your shrimp...


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

normally a population bloom of snails is due to over feeding, try cutting back a bit, and remove the uneaten food. you can also bait the snails out. and get assassin snails too, to keep the pond snails non existent, i think they're one of the coolest snails out there


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## ngo911 (May 19, 2010)

A few assassin snails cleared up my problem in no time at all. And I've heard that it's best to keep clown loaches in a group, so in your situatio , I would get the assassin snails.


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## someguy (Apr 21, 2010)

I had a problem with snails. I try;d the manual method first, taking out about 5 water bottles worth. It was still a problem. I got 5 assassin snails. And the trumpets would RIDE THE ASSASSIN! So i got more assassins. No difference, they still gave out trumpet rides. So i looked into loachs. from what i found looking around, clown loachs are likely the most aggressive snail eaters, BUT, the get BIG, the can be very hard to catch, and and have a habit of disturbing the substrate. Theres a couple/few more loaches that eat snails, i try'd the ZEBRA, worked very well. I also have shrimp, and the zebra's have paid no attention to them. In fact i'm actually having a shrimp population boom right now.

I still have snails, but at least it's manageable now......


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## gimlid (Apr 23, 2010)

Clown loaches should never be kept alone. They are an intelligent and highly socail fish.they suffer depression and anxiety when kept alone. 
IMO Assasin snails wont keep up with the snail population either. unless the ratio is pretty even, Assassin snails are still snails and very slow at eating. Mine never kept up at all, I had 3.
Weather loach maybe. I believe they like snails also.
Likely most loaches will also attack shrimp also.


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## t-bore (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you everyone I guess I'll try some Assassins and see how it goes!


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

My clowns would harass my amanos. I'd stay clear, and you should keep the loaches in groups of 3 at least.

The assassins took care of my problem (5 of them for a 10g though...)

Cheapest solution would be to pull your amanos out and poison the snails with a copper medication.


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## VinnyD (Apr 21, 2010)

i have assassins living among my amanos....so i'd say assassins...but heres a thing...assassins like to hide in the substrate sometimes..and like their name..they eat other snails when u are not looking haha. 

yah...loaches might have a fine meal outta the shrimps. oh...dun put too much food into the tank when u wanna get rid of snails...well..one to decrease the snails population and two...assassins might eat the food instead of the snails.


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## RDonald (Apr 25, 2010)

Dwarf chain loaches are a really good option as well, they don't grow large like the clown loaches do and a small school of them really add to the character of a tank. I love watching mine as they root through the gravel and pull up snails. They are more effective at snail hunting when they are hungry so if you limit the amount of sinking pellets or wafers they will focus on the snail population.

When I do my weekly water changes I can see lots of empty shells in the vacuum!


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