# Snails, Planaria, & Bugs!



## jamezgt (Jun 24, 2008)

My girlfriend loves to overfeed our cherry shrimp tank, and lately I've been seeing movement around the glass. We have a couple types of snails, some planaria (worms) and very very very small bugs that move real fast.

I'm thinking of purchasing 1-2 clown loaches to clean up the snails - would they also eat the planaria and small bugs? Would they harm the cherry shrimp, or possibly even eat the baby shrimp?


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

When ever I add new plants, I notice an increase in snails. Stop over feeding, stop feeding the shrimp, keep tank clean. The snails will go away eventually and then you can go back feeding the shrimp (lightly). Over feeding anything is bad, and will cause unwanted creatures to show up. Snails are not always bad, and neither are the planaria or most other small bugs. Its the over feeding that is causing them to reproduce. No food, no life.


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## No0dles (Dec 16, 2003)

if you get clown loaches make sure you cover up every hole ontop your tank they are great escape artists and will jump out! yes when i had some they ate some cherry shrimp and even my girlfriends neon tetra haha. they will EAT! i'm not sure about the planaria but maybe. also you can get a piece of lettuce and stick it on the glass on the waterline and the next morning you'll have a whole family of snails eating on it and you can just scoop it out flush em' haha

yeah planaria is harmless but it's not necessarily over feeding it could be due to high ammonia and poor water changes.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

If your tank is unplanted, cranking the heat up for a week or so is a great way to reduce/eliminate the problem.
If you do have plants, I wouldn't recommend this, as most plants don't do well with the higher temps.

(By "Cranking the heat" I mean taking it up to the upper 80's.)


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