clowns, moss, endlers & cherries??

**toledosun** · 15th Nov 2006, 07:58

Hi all,

My tank currently contains cherry shrimps, moss and endlers (they're like guppies in size). There's also a lot of snails. I'm thinking of adding a few clown loaches to (a) control the snails and (b) because we find them adorable.

Question:

Would those clowns:

1) rip my moss;
2) kill my cherries;
3) terrorize my endlers;
4) all of the above

Thanks.

**bryan** · 15th Nov 2006, 11:11

Clown Loach cannot be trusted.

**toledosun** · 15th Nov 2006, 16:23

thanks Bryan, any alternatives? I understand puffers will nip the tails so they're no good either

**genesis** · 15th Nov 2006, 16:35

when you free. take your time to suck out the snail. i do that when i

**bryan** · 15th Nov 2006, 16:54

Some people use a snail trap of some sort.

Do you have another tank with bigger fish? I usually squash the snails to feed them.Escargot sashimi. Yum. Fusion food at its best.

Many forummers here agree on the same thing, cut awaythe food source and the snails will die out. eg. Excess fish food,algae, rotting plant matter.

You could also try kuhli loach, I hear they eat baby snails, if not they are rather nice fish to keep anyway.

**Quixotic** · 15th Nov 2006, 18:15

Try to use the Search function. You can find loads of snail related threads. Related topic as such has been discussed ad nauseum in AQ.

**toledosun** · 16th Nov 2006, 08:26

I did use the search functions. I guess I was looking more to see if anybody had bad experiences with clown loaches

1) in a moss tank (I don't want them tearing up my moss lawns)
2) killing cherry shrimps; and
3) eating my endlers.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the snails (that's actually a red herring). Let's rephrase my question:

would my tank full of moss, cherry shrimps and endlers be safe if I added clown loaches?

**Quixotic** · 16th Nov 2006, 09:04

Then do a search on shrimp and/or clown loach.

Haha... really, you guys should use the search function a lot more.

1. It's touch and go, they dig up plants.

2. Crustacean is food for most fishes, so you get the idea. But of course, your mileage may vary, depending on the amount of cover for the shrimps. LOTS and LOTS of it may ensure the survival.

3. No, they don't eat fishes but larger size fishes are better tank mates than Endler's Livebearer (ELB). ELB may get stressed.

And one of the most important thing is, what is the size of your tank? Clown loach will grow to a maimum size of 30cm total length (TL), so I would say nothing less than the tank size of 3 ft would do to house them.