L114 and snail infestation control

[jlloydb]

while pond snails continue to overpopulate every other tank within my central system, there is one tank that cannot keep a single one. my tank of 6 L114 red tails. during regular wash-up maintenance a few months back, i noted that this tank's sponge base was the only one free of egg clusters. upon further scrutiny, it also became apparent that no mature snails could be found within that tank either. so it did the obvious: i added a few dozen pond and ramshorns, along with switching sponges for one that was excessively egg bound, in order to keep things copacetic. by next maintenance, only a few ramshorns remained, and not one pond snail could be accounted for. i have continued to add clusters of pond snails to this tank, and while my L114 get larger, my snail census continues to zero out. apparently, i can safely add the L114 pleco to the short list of species capable of controlling pond snails.
incidentally, this tank also has an active, thriving population of cherry shrimp, which appear to be excluded from the L114 diet preferences for now. my L114 are still small, ranging in size from 3"-4". HTH.

[matti2uude]

Sounds like they do as good a job as loaches. My L066s control a
ramshorn population but they don't seem to wipe it out.

[CanadaPleco]

I have spixi snails with my 114's and they arent really eating them. I have baby spixi in another tank with pseuda though and notice empty shells around.

[2wheelsx2]

My L066's juvies ate up my Assassin snail. :( I got the snail for snail control, but the L066 ate my Assassin instead, because it was bigger I think.

[Bwhiskered]

I have never found any plecos to eat snails. Snails can be temporamental at times and die for no reason. I had a good supply of ramshorn and pond snails in my pleco tanks and now have just assassins.

[matti2uude]

I have actually seen my L066s sucking the ramshorn snails right out of their shells. Next time I will try to video it for documentation. I don't see why they wouldn't eat the snails since they are carnivors and they like to eat mussels which are very similar.

[jlloydb]

the reason i hypothesize, that these pleco are eating the snail, is that the glass bottom tank has no shell remains either. i have recently removed a group of L239 from a 40gal. with pond snails. once i gather the few assassins from within, i will move my group of L114 into that tank to help confirm their appetite. all of these tanks are part of a central system, so i can move species about quite easily. thanks to all the feedback regarding this topic.

[Zebrapl3co]

Hmm, that's weird, my L114 didn't really touch the MTS.
As for the L066, one of the cave was taken over by the Assasins snail ?

[CanadaPleco]

My pseudas eat pond snails, ramshorn etc, nothing touches the MTS except my net through the sand every few months. Then several hundred to thousand get put in the garbage.

[Bwhiskered]

I didn't think so at first that assassin snails would eat MTS snails but they do if there are no pond or ramshorn snails available. They too can get to be a bit of a pain as they like to hide in pleco caves. Luckily they do not breed as fast as the real pain in the butt snails. My 100 gallon bottom used to hump with snails but not any more.