# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna >  what fish eats hydras and snails?

## Jungle-mania

Right now in Perth, I cannot get my hands on a dwarf puffer and I need some other fish to eat my hydras and snails in my shrimp tank. Sorry for the typo in the title, it is not medusa, but it is hydras. Any advice?

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## deacon

Clown Loach (_Chromobotia macracanthus_) 
But these guys can grow big, depends on your tank size.



Skunk loach, (_Yasuhikotakia morleti_)



"Yoyo" Loach (_Botia almorhae_)



Marble Loach (_Botia kubotai_)

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## Jungle-mania

any other smaller than those guys? My tank is only 1 1/2 footer.

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## deacon

> any other smaller than those guys? My tank is only 1 1/2 footer.


LOL. ok, there's a Dwarf Loach _(Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki_) although I don't know if its effective. 




Here's a flickr user that says they eat snails and came across a forum posting of an aquarium shop called Vebas in Perth that had stocks of dwarf loaches. Might like to call them to check if they still have any. Good luck.

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## NingNing

get helina(spelling) snails also known as assasin snails. they will kill your pond snails. 

a fish that eats hydra fast and effective are known as the 3 spotted gourami. variation of this 3 spot gourami are honey gourami, blue gourami.

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## boxedfish

> get helina(spelling) snails also known as assasin snails. they will kill your pond snails. 
> 
> a fish that eats hydra fast and effective are known as the 3 spotted gourami. variation of this 3 spot gourami are honey gourami, blue gourami.


are these gourami aggressive towards smaller fishes and snails?

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## Jungle-mania

Ah OK, I can get my hands on those fishes easily here. Assassin snails are not available here unfortunately, import laws are ridiculously tough, so much so it stiffles the aquarium trade here.

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## ranmasatome

Buy australian fishes then.

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## bryan

The dwarf loach are great. They don't exactly eat the snails but constantly harass them until they hide or crawl out of the tank. Solved my MTS problem. Only thing is they don't like being alone so you need to get a small shoal. If you can get those sand loach or zipper loach, those will work as well.

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## NingNing

im not sure about snails for gourami but im pretty sure about hydra.

I'm having hydra problems too. 

so im using a gourami to solve my problem.. all i did was starve the fish and rid the tank of all my shrimps. =) hope this helps.

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## Jungle-mania

What about kuhli loach? Aussie fishes are cheap, but I am not a big fan of rainbows. However I have to say their Australian lampeye is absolutely gorgeous. Probably head down to the biggest LFS, Vebas to have a look.

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## bryan

Kuhli loach are useless against snails. Ever seen them starved to death by MTS?

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## Jungle-mania

Nope never, that be the first I have heard or seen.

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