I am trying to decide on which loach to get; Zebra or Clown? I have kept both at different times in the past but I never had them with snails because I knew they would eat them but I ,accidentally, got ramshorn snails in one of my tanks a year, which wasn’t a problem because I planned on raising them for my tanks especially for my snail eaters, but the snail eaters I have ( goldfish and koi) aren’t eating enough of them and now there are ramshorn snails in every single one of my tanks contains snails and they number in the thousands now! I have one tank setup for a betta which from what I understand will eat small snails and another tank setup for a pea puffer but I feel they are going to need help so I am looking into getting loaches again. I like both clowns and zebras, and the clown loaches large size is not an issue because I can move them with a larger tank once they get a little bigger and they are so adorable and playful their precious! I also like the zebra loaches, they have a really nice pattern and the ones I had before were pretty chill and acted a lot like my clown loaches. I have considered mixing them into a good sized group but I am not sure if they would get along with each other since they are different species? I know I will have to separate them when the clowns get too big to be with the zebras but that won’t be a problem. They will be the only bottom-dwellers in their (grower) tank and they will never run out of snails, the tank that the invasion started in is a tank that I can’t put snail eating fish in for fear that they will eat my shrimp and I don’t care for assassin snails and would rather not have them. So if I could get a little help with making a final decision on this it would be great since I am making my stocking lists now. Thank you!
