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
chains fro
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.
A
Q