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Snails and Botia striata



>How good are they at getting the MTS?  I currently have a tank with a good
>population of the MTS, and am looking at adding some zebra loaches...
>will it be the death of the snails?  (I can tolerate some attrition)
>What about skunk loaches, or yo-yo (aka: pakistani) loaches?  Are these guys
>more or less effective than the zebra loach at murdering my snails?
>
I think some clowns would be the best perhaps for control rather than
eradication. B yo-yo(loachata)/skunk(morleti) are good at it & they will
ignore the MTS's every so often. Thing is......fish are not all exactly the
same(like the SAE thread-every one I had, liked to chew on Rotala wallichii,
but a few folks seem to think otherwise-please send me some of yours<g>).
But this notion is certainly true to some extent. Some fish can get along
with snails without killing them off but most loaches like to eat at least a
few. Some will take out the whole lot but some will remove most but not
quite all of them. MTS's seem to be the most difficult to get rid of for
most snail predators....that trap door and all and they hide in the gravel
better. All the loaches will go after snails to some extent.
I have found the B. striata to be the overall best snail reaper. They are
very active and nice to seen during the day(unlike many loaches), not as
skittish as clowns, stay small in length and width(under 4 inches) as so not
to disturb plants, very nice schooling fish, excellent looks and
personality, being very much an ideal planted tank fish........if you don't
like snails................... any pretty loach that comes to the front of
the glass for most of the day in a planted tank gets my vote.
B. dario is another very nice fish but fight amongst themselves and are
somewhat more aggressive but stay small and hide more. B striata is the best
for me. 
FWIW,
Regards, 
TomBarr