Tropical Fish Hobbyist

The skunk loach Yasuhikotakia morleti is a snail-eater that remains at a relatively small size, reaching only about 4 inches when full-grown.

A

Earthworms are an excellent source of nutrition for fish, and provided that you take a few simple precautions, there’s you can’t feed your fish worms that you’ve collected yourself. One of those precautions is to make sure you don’t feed any worms that have been exposed to fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals.

moist shredded newspaper for a day or so before feeding.

no reason

Once they’ve been properly cleaned, you can offer the worms whole to larger fish or chop them into bite-size pieces for smaller fish.

Reducing
Ramshorns

Of course, you can always purchase worms that have been cultured for use in fishing or composting if you’re concerned about chemical exposure.

Q

Also, whether you collect the worms yourself or purchase them, you’ll want to rinse them off and allow them to empty their digestive tracts of soil before feeding them to your fish. This can be accomplished by holding the worms in a small container filled with moist tissue or

I’m concerned that
aquarium is being overrun
s. I actually like having some
snails, because they give the aquarium a
more natural look, but their population
is really exploding! Based on the shape of
their shell, I’m assuming they’re ramshorn
snails. Can you recommend a way to reduce
their numbers?

my

with snail

Beverly Easely via email

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Betta in Vase?

A friend of mine has a betta fish in a glass vase that is suspended by decorative m a wall bracket. The vase is only about 8 or 9 inches long, and the diameter of the opening is only about 3 or 4 inches. some snail-

You have a few good options available to you for controlling those prolific snails. One method is to introduce eating fish to your tank, such as certain loaches. For example, the clown loach Chromobotia macracanthus, yo-yo loach Botia lohachata, and skunk loach Yasuhikotakia morleti each have a solid reputation for munching on snails. Keep in mind, though, that clown loaches can get quite large (over 11 inches), so if your aquarium is on the small side, they wouldn’t be your best option. The skunk and yo-yo loaches stay quite a bit smaller, around 4 inches.

There are many other fishes that are known to eat snails as well, including various African and South American cichlids. I once had a pair of oscars that would consume them with gusto. They’d pick them off the glass, and then I’d hear them crunching up the shells. If you’re not too squeamish, you can crush the snails on the aquarium glass and let your fish pick out the meat for a nice, nutritious meal.

A less macabre method of reducing snail populations is to place a slice of cucumber or a leaf of lettuce in the tank overnight and then remove it, along with all the snails clinging to it, the following morning.

With the large snail population you describe, I would not recommend using any chemicals formulated to kill snails. While this may solve one problem, i.e., destroying all the snails in your tank, it will lead to an even bigger problem, because the presence of all those dead, decaying snails can cause your water quality to crash.

Also, be sure to address the problem that is no doubt making your snail population explosion possible in the first place: the presence of too much decaying matter and algae in the tank. Make sure you’re not feeding to the extent that lots of uneaten food is lying around on the bottom of the tank, and try to siphon out as much detritus as possible when performing water changes. Also, try to keep your tank glass algae-free by cleaning it regularly with a scraper or algae magnet. This is also best done just prior to a water change, so you can siphon out any free-floating algae after you scrape it off the glass.