Dojo Loaches and Nerite Snails: Can they Coexist?

[Hannah Parker]

Hello everyone!

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience keeping dojo loaches and nerite snails in the same tank?

For context, I am setting up a 60gal goldfish tank this weekend. Currently, I have 1 fancy goldfish, 5 white cloud minnows, 2 olive and 2 zebra nerite snails in my 20gal that are going to be moved to this 60gal. I have fallen in love with my nerite snails 🐌 they are so active and keep the tank pristine. But when I started planning for this 60gal, it was always my intention to get 1 or 2 dojo loaches. I just can't have a tank without some bottom feeders! But I quickly realized my mistake in buying these nerites, I'm not sure I want to risk them! I've seen some people online say they've kept them and the dojos leave their snails alone, but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience keeping the two species together. I'm debating just getting the dojos and chancing it, or buying a bunch more snails for a little army. Thank you in advance for any advice! 

[Zenzo]

If you love your snails, you may not want to risk it. Many people will say that dojo loaches don't eat snails, but mine does (smaller pond snails). You may be okay with larger nerite snails, but just like anything, it depends on the individual fish. Most likely it would ignore the larger nerite snails, but you never know. You may have a larger dojo loach that gets hungry one night....

Just remember that anything is possible. As an example, it is pretty much common knowledge that large puffers will eat and destroy snails. However, you will see that Ladybird (a very large mbu puffer) leaves the nerite snails in Cory's 800 gallon tank alone.

[Hannah Parker]

On 5/12/2022 at 1:14 PM, Zenzo said:

If you love your snails, you may not want to risk it. Many people will say that dojo loaches don't eat snails, but mine does (smaller pond snails). You may be okay with larger nerite snails, but just like anything, it depends on the individual fish. Most likely it would ignore the larger nerite snails, but you never know. You may have a larger dojo loach that gets hungry one night....

Just remember that anything is possible. As an example, it is pretty much common knowledge that large puffers will eat and destroy snails. However, you will see that Ladybird (a very large mbu puffer) leaves the nerite snails in Cory's 800 gallon tank alone.

Thank you so much! I will definitely keep thinking about it. I'm leaning towards giving it a shot because my LFS sells the dojos so small, they will be tiny for a bit I'm sure, and the nerites are so big. We will see! I mainly wanted to ask because I've never owned a dojo loach before, but I have some yoyos and they are voracious snail eaters. Glad to know that it sounds like the temperament differs enough to where it might be able to work 🙂