Woud loaches eat water snails?

[Johnn]

I have a fish tank that has some fish in 17 water snails which have layed 23 batches of eggs!. Anysways my friend want to buy me two loaches for my birthday and i was thinking will they eat my snails?

 

[dainerra]

baby snails, yes. larger snails, no. The snails have to be small enough for the loach to crush the snail.

 

[Stacykins]

I'd suggest getting some assassin snails. They don't reproduce with the same amount of gusto AND they hunt and kill other snails to eat. They're really cool, actually. OR you can get rid of all invertebrates by dosing with some anti parasitic copper sulfate. All snails in the tank will be killed, so that will take care of the infestation. But be sure to clean up the carcasses, as they will foul the water even with a good filtration system.

And don't get loaches if you don't have a very large tank. The clown loach, for instance, grows to a large size and is a schooling fish (must be kept with other clown loaches in order to be healthy), and thus are inappropriate for a tank smaller than 55 gallons. Some silly people say they do fine in a 20 gallon tank. Yea, stuffing a fish that grows to be one foot with a huge, thick body in a 20 gallon is pretty cruel.

 

[Johnn]

I want my snails to live because i have homes for quite alot

 

[Johnn]

26 batches now

 

[andbab]

I tried having snails in my tank but the cichlids pestered them and killed them. So maybe some cichlids would keep the population down.

 

[Johnn]

OMG!, i loved it when the eggs were coming but im mad now!, 31 batches, i am expecting to have 930 snails! i think i will sell some back to the petshope if my fish dont eat some of them

 

[Johnn]

39 batches!

 

[Stacykins]

Aaaand that is why I hate snails in aquariums. Unless they are the aforementioned assassin snails or olive nerites (which can live happily in fresh water but only reproduce in brackish water, win!).

 

[Johnn]

My fish will probableys eat most of them anyways....