Clown loach fish

[georgia19]

I was doing a bit of research on the internet on how to deal with aquarium snails? It was suggested to buy a couple of clown loach fish as they eat the snails and that the problem would be kept under control. Now i seem to have the problem of the clown loaches bullying my smaller guppies, one of my pretty guppies was attacked quite fiercely during the feeding time and had a chunk taken out of his abdomen. He disappeared after this and now i have the horrible job of trying to find his remains if any? I was advised in the pet shop that they are a suitable community fish and that smaller fish would be ok to mix with the loaches. What is going on?

[mooglet]

Hi georgia19
We have two clown loaches in our tank but we have cichlids and they are bigger than the loaches. My daughter has a snail problem and guppies and we were told by the pet shop that loaches would stop the problem. But after seeing them in our tank and how big they quickly grow we have refrained from putting them in and just squashed the snails as we see them.
If the loaches are that bad I would take them back to the pet shop. Ours will take back problem fish and maybe give you something else in its place, especially if they were the ones that suggested it in the first place.
I think that tiny loaches would be ok and i mean tiny.
Hope this helps X

[mooglet]

Sorry read it wrong, you got the advice from the internet not the pet shop. But still a good pet shop would help you out.

[MYSTERYT]

Hi ive got 4 clown loaches in my tropical tank and they have never ate my small fish and ive loads of neon and cardinals well not that ive seen, i had a real bad problem with snails and now i dont the boys sorted it out , i do know that if you have a dead fish they will eat it though