Author: Mark Valderrama

The dojo loach — also known as the weather loach or pond loach — is one of the most underrated fish in the freshwater hobby. After 25 years in this hobby I’ve developed a real appreciation for them. They’re called “weather fish” because they genuinely become more active before storms, sensing changes in barometric pressure — one of the most interesting behaviors you’ll see in a home aquarium. But there are also some things to know before buying: dojo loaches get larger than most people expect (up to 12 inches), they’re legendary escape artists that will find any gap in your lid, and they prefer cooler water than most tropical species. This guide covers everything you need to keep them thriving.

The Dojo Loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus), is an awesome freshwater fish that makes a really great addition to freshwater aquariums. These eel-shaped fish have loads of personality and can be very entertaining to watch as they explore the bottom of the fish tank.

Species Overview

Origins and Habitat

The Dojo Loach is a fish species with a pretty wide distribution. They are native to the countries of:

• Russia
• China
• Japan
• Korea
• Vietnam        

Today, the Dojo Loach has an even wider distribution because it has been introduced to many countries outside of its natural range. Sometimes these fish escape when kept in ponds, and sometimes people release them into local waterways.

As a result, you can find these fish swimming wild in parts of Europe, The USA, and Australia. Their natural habitat is ponds, swamps, and shallow streams with a soft, muddy substrate.  

What Do They Look Like?

The Dojo Loach is a long, eel-like fish. They have a small, rounded tail and a similar-sized dorsal fin that is set quite far back.

Like other loaches, the Weatherfish has 1o little whiskers around its mouth. These structures are actually called barbels and they help the fish to find food.

Varieties

Their color varies a lot and they can be plain, striped, or marked in spots and blotches. In the aquarium hobby, interesting albino and golden color morphs are also available.

• Golden Dojo Loach

Gold Dojo Loaches are a really cool color morph that has a plain, golden yellow body color, usually with dark eyes.

• Albino Dojo Loach

Albino Dojo Loaches can be a little lighter in color than the gold dojos and have red eyes.

Size

Dojo Loaches are medium-sized fish that usually grow to about 6 inches long in the home aquarium. They can grow to double this size in the wild, however. If you can provide them with a nice big aquarium and great water quality, you might just be surprised at how big they grow!  

Dojo Loach Care Guide

One of the reasons that Dojo Loaches are so popular is that they are friendly fish with great personalities. In case you’ve been wondering about why the Dojo Loach is also known as a Weather loach, this next fact will amaze you.

These fascinating fish can predict changes in weather. They don’t use satellite imagery or any fancy technology for this, rather the barometric pressure changes that happen before a storm causes their activity levels to spike.

So if you see your Weatherfish spring into action and start getting restless, it might be time to shut the windows and get ready for some rain. Apart from this, Dojo Loaches can be pretty inactive fish.

They love hanging out at the bottom of the tank and hiding in caves or under rocks and driftwood. They also enjoy digging through the substrate and you’ll often find just their little faces sticking up out of the sand.    

What Are Good Tank Mates?

The first tank mate to get for your Weather Loach is definitely a few more Weather Loaches! These fish are most comfortable in groups and will be more bold and active with a few friends around. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep them in a community tank other species as well though.

Before we get onto a few specific ideas, here are a few general pointers for choosing Dojo Loach tank mates:

• These fish require cooler water, so it’s important that you select tankmates that enjoy lower water temperatures
• Choose similar fish that are not known for aggression or fin nipping
• Avoid large predatory fish
• Try to choose some mid and topwater tank mates to avoid overcrowding the bottom of the tank  

Best Tank Mates for Them

Now that you know what to look out for, here are a couple of great species that I would recommend:

• Leopard Danios
• Zebra Danios
• White Cloud Minnows
• Kuhli Loach
• Rosy Barb 

Least Compatible Fish for Them

Unfortunately, warm-water tropical fish will not be good tankmates, unless they are comfortable in temperatures of below about 77°F. Here are a few examples of fish that are not recommended:

• Oscars and other large cichlids
• Larger catfish
• Warm water fish like Discus

Goldfish

There are too many reports of Dojo Loaches attacking Goldfish to ignore. While keeping them together with Common Goldfish is probably perfectly safe, less agile fancy Goldfish should probably be avoided.

Invertebrates

These bottom dwellers feed on invertebrates like snails, crustaceans, and insect larvae. This means that they are not good tank mates for shrimp and snails.

In fact, Weather Loaches can be very handy for controlling pest snail populations in freshwater aquariums. Although larger shrimps like Amanos will probably hold their own against Weather Loaches, I wouldn’t recommend taking the risk.

Let’s take a look at how to provide them with a healthy diet:

Prepared Foods

As far as processed foods are concerned, bottom feeder tablets or sinking pellets are the best options for these fish. They will eat flake food but they don’t usually feed from the water surface.

It’s really fun to watch these fish feed. Once the tablet has reached the bottom of the tank (or sometimes even before), they will smell the food and begin searching the bottom of the tank. Once found, the feeding frenzy begins as they playfully wrestle each other, taking turns feeding on the shrinking pellet.

Another reason that this fish species can be so fun to keep is that, with a little patience, they will happily eat right out of your hand if they like the food you are providing.

Live & Frozen Foods

Feeding frozen and live foods is a great way to provide your Dojo Loaches with a natural food source. If you have other schooling fish in the tank like minnows or danios, your loaches might not get much before it’s all eaten though.

One way to limit this competition is to feed enough for all of your fish to get a good helping. Alternatively, you can add your live/frozen foods just after your other fish have had their fill of the pellets or tropical flakes they usually feed on.

Some great live/frozen foods that you can feed your Dojo Loaches include:

• Blood Worms
• Brine Shrimp
• Tubifex Worms

How Much and How Often to Feed Them

If feeding sinking foods like bottom feeder tablets, you can feed these fish every day or every second day. It really depends on the amount of food you are providing, as well as the number and size of your fish.

In order to prevent overfeeding, make sure you aren’t feeding more than your fish can eat in one go. Uneaten food in the tank tends to cause nasty ammonia spikes and reduced water quality.

Tank Setup

If you want your Dojo Loach to live the longest, healthiest life possible, you’ll need to create an awesome tank where it can feel right at home. Here’s how:

Tank Size

When it comes to choosing the best tank size for aquarium fish, you must consider both the size of the fish and their habits. In the case of the adult Weather Loach, you’re going to need a tank of at least 55 gallons.

When you first get your dojos, they might be just a few inches long, but then they still have plenty of growing to do! A mature Dojo Loach can reach nearly a foot long.

These fish don’t spend a whole lot of time swimming in the open water, so a tank with a large footprint is ideal so give them plenty of room to explore the bottom.

Don’t Forget the Lid/Hood

You might not think it by looking at them, but loach species tend to be great jumpers. Sadly, these fish will jump out of aquariums without lids, and usually, this ends in tragedy. For this reason, dojos should only be housed in aquariums with tight-fitting lids. If you are considering a rimless aquarium, purchase a glass lid from the manufacturer or store you purchase from.

Plants

Growing live plants in your aquarium is pretty much always a great benefit for your fish. Sometimes, however, the fish aren’t so good for the plants, and this can be the case with the Dojo Loach.

These fish are natural-born diggers, and they just love to crawl through the roots of plants. Unfortunately, this often disturbs the plants and sometimes uproots them completely.

While dojo loaches aren’t a great choice for carefully designed aquascapes, you definitely can keep them in planted tanks. I would suggest growing epiphytes that grow attached to driftwood, floating plants, or leaving stem and rosette plants in their pots.

Some great plants to use are:

• Java Moss
• Java Fern
• Anubias nana
• Water Sprite

Plants to avoid

• Dwarf Hair grass
• Micranthemum ‘Monte Carlo’
• Baby Tears

Substrate

Pond Loaches are bottom dwellers that love to dig and explore the bottom of the tank. They have sensitive whiskers called barbels, and their bodies are not covered in protective scales. This means that they can easily hurt themselves in a sharp, coarse substrate.

In their natural habitat, these fish prefer mud and soft sand, but the best aquarium substrates for them is definitely fine sand or rounded gravel.

Great For Bottom Feeders

Fine Natural Sand

Natural sand is excellent for bottom feeder fish to forage around in.

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Decor

Apart from burying themselves in the substrate, Weather Loaches also love to hang out in caves and other hiding places. You can make up your own hiding places by stacking rocks or driftwood carefully, just make sure you arrange your hardscape securely to prevent any accidents during tank maintenance.

If you prefer ready-made options, you can always pick up some aquarium ornaments like artificial caves, castles, or sunken ships.

Water Quality

When it comes to aquarium husbandry, maintaining great water quality is the most important factor for success. Let’s take a look at how to keep your aquarium clean and healthy:

Filtration

A good quality filter is essential for keeping your tank clean and safe for your pets. When it comes to Dojo loaches, any type of filter is fine, although these fish do not enjoy very strong water flow.

One important tip is to go ahead and cover up your filter intake to be on the safe side because loaches love to hide, and often find their way inside filters.

Water Parameters

One of the most important things to remember is that Dojo Loaches aren’t tropical fish, so you probably will not need to run a heater to keep your water temperature in the right range. Be aware that if you live in a tropical area, the water temperatures in your tank might rise to warmer than 77°F even without a heater.

Apart from their temperature needs, Weather Loaches are very hardy fish that will do well in most setups. They are happy in slightly acidic to slightly alkaline water, with a range of hardness values.

Aquarium Maintenance

You will need to perform regular partial water changes to keep your aquarium water safe and healthy for your pets. Although Dojo Loaches are not very sensitive to water conditions, they definitely deserve the best conditions that you can provide for them.

Water changes are a pretty easy and straightforward job that you can do every week or two. If you’re not sure about how to change the water in your tank, go ahead and check out this article for all you need to know!

Test Tank Conditions

Even with a great quality filter and regular maintenance, the only way to know how good your water parameters are is to test. Your local fish store can test your water for you, but I would definitely recommend picking up a test kit.

Testing your water is easy, and this way, you’ll be able to pick up any problems before they turn into a headache! The most important parameters to test for are:

• Ammonia
• Nitrite
• Nitrate
• pH    

Breeding

Few aquarists have managed to breed this fish species in the home aquarium. That being said, it does happen and many fry have been successfully raised this way. the greatest challenge is that this often seems to happen out of the blue, so it is unknown exactly what triggers breeding and how to create these conditions in the tank. I supplied the video above from FishyBusiness. I’ll explain in text below.

Sexing

The most visible difference between male and female loaches is the size and shape of their pectoral fins. These fins are located just behind the fish’s gills.

In the male, they are larger and more triangular in shape when looked at from above. The female’s pectoral fins will be rounder in profile and a little smaller.

Getting Your Fish Ready to Breed

It is not known exactly what makes Dojo Loaches get into the mood to breed in the aquarium. Many fish are stimulated to breed by a change in barometric pressure, water temperature, and current that mimics a change in the seasons.

When it comes to Weather Loaches, there are no guarantees though, so your best chance is probably just to provide your fish with a great home with perfect parameters and a high-quality diet that includes live/frozen foods like Tubifex worms or black worms.  

Health and Disease

Dojo Loaches are usually very hardy, low-maintenance fish for cool water aquariums. They do pick up issues from time to time though, so let’s take a look at how to identify and avoid health problems.

Evaluating Their Health

Whether you’re picking out a new pet at the fish store, or just keeping an eye on the health of the fish in your tank, there are some important things to look out for.

A healthy Dojo Loach will spend a lot of its time hiding out in the substrate or under the hardscape of your aquarium. This is normal behavior, so don’t worry if they seem a little inactive. Around feeding time they should get a lot more lively, however.

Signs of poor health to look out for are:

• Clamped fins that are held tight against the fishes sides
• Floating caused by swim bladder issues
• Worn barbels that could indicate infection or damage from a sharp substrate
• White spots or patches on the skin that caused by parasites and fungal infections
• Swollen external gills

Common Health Issues

Although Dojo Loaches are very hardy aquarium bottom feeders, these are the issues that they are most likely to have:  

• Skin infections
• Ich
• Swim bladder  disease

Weather Loaches don’t have any scales which means their skin is very sensitive to damage. These fish love to dig, so avoid keeping them in a tank with a sharp substrate that could injure their skin and barrels, leaving them vulnerable to infections.

The best way to avoid illness is to make sure you keep your water quality high by running good filtration and performing regular water changes. Keeping Weather Loaches in water that is too warm will also stress your fish, which can lead to infections and other health issues.

Where to Buy

Dojo Loaches are common fish in the aquarium trade, and you can usually find them at your local fish store or online. I recommend checking out Flipaquatics because they keep great quality stock and back it up with a 100% live arrival guarantee to take the stress out of online shopping. They also stock the amazing golden form when available and quarantine all their fish!

Dojo Loach

A bottom-dwelling fish that is very adaptable. Compatible in both tropical and coldwater environments

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Frequently Asked Questions

Closing Thoughts

Dojo Loaches deserve a spot in just about any unheated freshwater aquarium. These funny freshwater fish are easy to care for and very entertaining to watch as they explore the lower levels of the tank. You can use the information in this guide to help you provide your Weather Loach with the best care.

📘 Want to learn more? This article is part of our complete Freshwater Fish Guide — your ultimate resource for freshwater species, care tips, tank setup, and more.

Aquarium snails get a bad reputation that’s often undeserved — some are genuinely excellent additions to a tank as part of a cleanup crew, while others are hitchhiker pests that reproduce fast enough to take over if you’re not careful. After 25 years in the hobby I’ve kept most of the popular species and dealt with the problem ones too, so I can give you a clear picture of which snails are worth adding intentionally and which you should avoid or remove. This guide covers 7 species worth keeping and 4 to steer clear of.

Good Vs. Bad?

What makes a good and a bad aquarium snail? Well, there are good and bad sides to most of the snails in the aquarium hobby. Many aquarists think of snails as fascinating pets that can be both beautiful and useful in the aquarium. Others don’t like them at all, especially when they find their way into the tank by accident and seem to take over!

Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of keeping these tank cleaners in your aquarium.

Pros

1. Snails do an excellent job of cleaning up leftover fish food and waste in the tank. They are the captains of the clean-up crew!

2. Snails eat algae- freshwater snails can help to keep your tank’s glass, plants, ornaments, and substrate looking clean and beautiful.

3. Some snails burrow into the substrate. Digging through the substrate releases trapped gas and also takes nutrients down to where plants need them. Snails can also clean the surface layer of the substrate to keep your tank looking great.

Cons

1. When snails breed out of control, they can actually add to the bioload of your aquarium, causing your tank to become overstocked and go out of balance.

2. It’s pretty rare, but some freshwater snails will feed on living plants.

3. A huge overpopulation of snails can look bad, and they can stick to the glass and leave snail eggs all over the tank too.

As long as you manage the cons, just about any aquarium snail can be a ‘good’ snail. That being said, certain species of snails do make much better choices than others.

The 7 Best Freshwater Aquarium Snail Species

There is quite a variety of snails available in the hobby at the moment, so choosing the right species for your tank can be a bit of a challenge.

In this article, I’m introducing the most popular types of freshwater aquarium snails and providing you with the most important information about them like:

• Scientific Name
• Size
• Origin
• Temperature
• pH
• Tank size

Although there are several species of snails available in the aquarium trade, these are the best species for planted tanks in particular. I consider these 7 types of snails to be the best options for most aquariums though, and they are great as species for community tanks as well. Below is a video from our YouTube channel. We go into further detail below. If you like our content, subscribe to us! You can use this information to help you decide which type of snail is best for your aquarium.

Let’s jump right in and meet these slow-moving aquatic friends!

1. Horned Nerite

Best Algae Snail

Horned Nerite Snail

Horned Nerite Snails are excellent algae eaters for planted tanks.

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• Scientific Name: Clithon corona
• Size: 1 inch
• Origin: Southeast Asia
• Temperature: 72-82°F
• pH: 7.0-8.2
• Tank Size: 5+ gallons

Horned nerite snails are fascinating aquarium snails that come in a variety of colors and patterns. They are easily identified by the projections (horns) on the shell.

The color of their shells is pretty variable but often they have a cool black and yellow striped look. These snails eat algae and are great scavengers for freshwater aquariums.

Like other popular aquarium snails from the Neritidae family, these animals live in freshwater but need brackish water to breed. These peaceful snails are perfect for aquascapes because they do not eat live plants.

2. Zebra Nerite

Zebra Nerite

Nerite snails are one of the best algae eating snails you can buy. Plant safe and do not reproduce in fresh water!

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• Scientific Name: Neritina natalensis
• Size: 1 inch
• Origin: South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia
• Temperature: 65-85°F
• pH: 6.5-8.5
• Tank size: 5+ gallons

Zebra nerite snails are one of the best aquatic snails for your planted aquarium. These animals look amazing and get their name from their beautiful striped shells.

It’s not only their looks that make them so great though, but they are also amazing algae eaters!

Nerite snails cannot breed in freshwater and rely on brackish water to reproduce. For this reason, you’ll never have to worry about this species overpopulating your freshwater aquarium.

3. Tiger Nerite

Tiger Nerite Snails

These Nerite Snails will eat algae, are plant safe, and do not reproduce in your aquarium!

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• Scientific Name: Vittina semiconica
• Size: 1.5 inches
• Origin: Indonesia
• Temperature: 65-85°F
• pH: 6.5-8.5
• Tank size: 5+ gallons

Like the zebra nerite, tiger nerites won’t bother live plants or breed in your tank. These snails have a really cool golden orange shell with rows of interesting black markings.

They do occasionally lay eggs, but these aren’t going to hatch in a freshwater tank. Nerite snails are excellent algae eaters and they do a fantastic job of keeping the tank clean.

4. Malaysian Trumpet

• Scientific Name: Melanoides tuberculata
• Size: 1 inch
• Origin: Southeast Asia
• Temperature: 72-86°F
• pH: 6.5-7.5
• Tank size: 3+ gallons

Malaysian Trumpet Snails are a species that many fishkeepers think of as pest snails. If you look at some of their benefits, however, it’s clear that there’s more to these crawling creatures!

They are burrowing snails that are great for managing the substrate at the bottom of your tank. All that burrowing prevents the build-up of toxic gases and helps to work nutrients into the soil which actually benefits the plants.

These animals aren’t for everyone though. Malaysian trumpet snails breed fast, are ultra-tough, and can be very difficult to remove, so think carefully before introducing them to your tank.

5. Mystery

• Scientific Name: Pomacea bridgesii
• Size: 2 inches
• Origin: Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru
• Temperature: 68-82°F
• pH: 7.6-8.4
• Tank size: 5+ gallons

Mystery Snails are awesome cleaners that will eat any leftover food in the aquarium. They are large snails but are super peaceful and work great in shrimp tanks. Mystery snails are also known as Gold Inca snails.

Mystery snails can be bred in the aquarium, but unlike other types of snails, their eggs must be laid outside of the water. This requirement, together with the fact that you need a male and female to breed, means they are easy to control and won’t multiply unless you make it possible.

6. Rabbit

Rabbit Snail

A snail with a head that resembles a rabbit. Great for keeping the substrate tidy and clean. It can grow up to 4″ inches in size

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• Scientific Name: Tylomelania spp.
• Size: 2-4 inches
• Origin: Indonesia
• Temperature: 76-84°F
• pH: 7.2-8
• Tank size: 30+ gallons

Rabbit snails look kind of like a jumbo Malaysian trumpet snail. The head of this species resembles a rabbit’s head, and that’s where they get their name.

There are several species of rabbit snails available. These big snails come in a few cool color morphs and won’t multiply like trumpet snails. Although it isn’t usually a problem, rabbit snails have been reported to feed on some aquarium plants like Java Ferns.

These snails are great for cleaning up the tank and also keep the substrate healthy by burrowing. Because they grow pretty big, these snails are best for larger fish tanks of 30 gallons or more.

7. Ivory

• Scientific Name: Pomacea bridgesii
• Size: 2 inches
• Origin: Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru
• Temperature: 68-82°F
• pH: 7.6-8.4
• Tank size: 5+ gallons

If you like Mystery Snails, but want something a little more exotic for your planted tank, the Ivory Snail might be the perfect option for you. These awesome-looking snails are the same species as the regular Mystery Snail but have been bred to have pure cream-white shells and pale white bodies with pink and orange markings.

Ivory Snails also have all the same great benefits for your tank as the regular Mystery Snail. These active snails will search your tank for algae and uneaten fish food and are completely peaceful with their tankmates.

The 4 To Avoid

The species in this list tend to be those unwanted snails that aquarists try to get rid of. They do have their positive sides, so I’m not calling them straight-up villains here.

Instead, you are recommended to be very cautious about adding them to your tank and rather try out some of the other snails listed above. You see our video below if you want to see these snails in action. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel if you like content like this.

1. Bladder

• Scientific Name: Physa acuta
• Size: 1/2 inch
• Origin: Uncertain
• Temperature: 64-84°F
• pH: 7-8
• Tank size: 3+ gallons

Bladder snails (video source) are a freshwater snail species that many aquarists have in their tanks. However, these snails aren’t usually added to fish tanks by choice!

These distinctive-looking snails have the ability to breed fast, and since they are hermaphroditic, you only need one to start a colony. Bladder Snails don’t dig and they breathe air from the surface, although they spend most of their time cruising around on surfaces in your tank.

They feed on algae, waste, and uneaten food but do not damage plants. They will feed on damaged or dead plant matter, however.

2. Ramshorn

• Scientific Name: Planorbarius duryi
• Size: 1 inch
• Origin: USA
• Temperature: 60-80°F
• pH: 7.0-7.5
• Tank size: 5+ gallons

Ramshorn snails often find their way into aquariums accidentally on new plants. They are one of the most common pest snails in the aquarium trade.

Ramshorn snails are very peaceful but breed freely, which can be pretty annoying if you never planned on having them in the first place. Ramshorn snails are hard workers in freshwater aquariums, however, and have awesome multicolored spiraled shells.

They are not fussy about food and are happy to scavenge and feed on uneaten fish food. They will also eat algae but do not feed on live plants. They are known for eating black beard algae.

3. Assassin

• Scientific Name: Clea helena
• Size: 1-2 inches
• Origin: Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia
• Temperature: 75-80°F
• pH: 7-8
• Tank size: 29+ gallons

Assassin Snails are the cannibals of the snail world. These carnivorous mollusks feed on other snails, so most aquarists keep them to help control the population of pest snails in their tanks.

For that purpose, they are great, but if you like your snails, avoid introducing assassins to your tank! Although it is rare, they will sometimes feed on freshwater shrimps in the aquarium as well.

Usually, however, they will only feed on dead or dying shrimps, and even dead fish. If you don’t have other snails, you can still keep this species if you provide them with a high protein sinking food like bloodworms.

4. Apple

• Scientific Name: Pomecea canaliculata
• Size: 2-3 inches
• Origin: Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Argentina
• Temperature: 65-82°F
• pH: 7-8
• Tank size: 10+ gallons

Apple snails (image source) have crawled onto this list of snails to avoid for two reasons, they have a habit of eating live plants and they are invasive.

To be fair, apple snails can make an interesting pet in tanks without any live plants, but they should be kept far away from your aquascapes.

Apple snails have escaped captivity and become invasive in many parts of Asia and the Southeast of the USA. They will probably invade other parts of the world if they are allowed to, so please remember to be responsible and never release them (or any other aquarium plant or animal) into the wild.

How To Care

Most types of snails are really easy to care for and will thrive in your fish tank without any extra effort from you. They will do best in a healthy and stable environment though, so here’s some basic information on how to provide them with a great home.

How To Set Up Your Tank

Aquarium and pond snails can be kept in just about any tank size, although the larger species obviously need more space. Assassin snails, for example, will do best in larger tanks with more stable conditions.

Good filtration is very important for keeping healthy aquariums. Although many snail species can survive in lower water quality conditions, running a good quality filter will keep the water looking and smelling pristine. Filtration is also super important if you plan on keeping other animals like shrimp and fish.

To keep the water temperature stable in your aquarium, you will need to install an aquarium heater. Make sure you set your heater to a temperature that your species of snail is comfortable in. A thermometer is also very useful because it allows you to monitor the water temperature in your tank.

Some types of snails, like nerites, for example, will often crawl out of the water and can easily escape your fish tank. Make sure you have a secure lid/hood over your tank to prevent them from escaping and getting lost or hurt.

What To Feed Them

Most aquarium snails will live happily in your aquarium without needing to be fed specifically. Here’s what they eat:

• Uneaten fish food
• Dead plant matter
• Soft algae
• Fish waste

This makes keeping your snails happy and well-fed really easy. If you don’t have enough of those food sources available to your snails, you can also feed them some bottom feeder tablets, or even some blanched green vegetables.

Providing an extra food source is definitely recommended if you keep a lot of algae-eating snails like nerites and they run out of food. If this happens, it is even possible to grow algae for them to eat.

Where To Get Them

Many fishkeeping stores have a few of the more common snails available for sale. For a great variety of cool aquarium snail species from an online fish store, I would suggest checking out Flipaquatics. The team at Flipaquatics takes great care of their stock to ensure your new pets arrive in perfect shape.

How To Avoid Introducing Nuisance Varieties To Your Aquarium

Snails often find their way into aquariums, whether we introduce them intentionally or not! It is easy to prevent this from happening though, so let’s start by looking at how they sneak in.

How Can They Get Into Your Tank?

The first thing to note is that snails can get into your aquarium as adults, or as eggs. Any time you add something to your aquarium that has been in another aquarium, you run the risk of adding snails.

This includes the tanks at your local fish store or even your friends’ tanks. Adding things to your tank from wild sources like ditches, lakes, or rivers is also a risk.

Snails and their eggs are usually attached to new plants, ornaments, gravel, or basically anything from another tank. Snails are really tough as well, so even if an object has been outside of a tank for some time, the snails can still survive.

Another way that snails can arrive is when you introduce new fish to your tank. Sometimes a little gravel gets scooped up and bagged along with your new fish, and sometimes a snail or two can be part of the deal.

Tips To Keep Them Out

Adding new plants is one of the most common ways that pest snails are introduced to fish tanks. Before adding a new plant to your aquarium, check it thoroughly and rinse it off, removing any snails or eggs you might see.

Next, prepare a bleach dip consisting of 1 part bleach to about 20 parts water. Dip soft plants in the solution for no more than a minute and firm plants for up to two minutes. Afterward, rinse the plants off carefully with conditioned water before planting them out.

A much easier way to safely add new plants is to buy tissue culture specimens. These are plants that are carefully grown under special lab conditions to ensure that they are pest-free. They are not always easy to find, so check out online retailers like Buceplant for a great range.

My Pick

Buce Plant

Buce Plant offers a wide variety of aquatic plants for sale. With one of the largest selections in the US, you will find what you need here. They are also a great source for freshwater shrimp!

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How To Get Rid Of Nuisance Varieties

Before starting an all-out war with the snails in your tank, remember the great benefits they provide. Often, it’s best to keep them around but keep the numbers down to a reasonable level.

Managing the snail population in your tank can be surprisingly easy if you understand this one simple truth about snails: the more food they have, the more they will breed! So how do you reduce the amount of food available to the snails?

Reducing Their Food Supply

Well, start by making sure you are not overfeeding your fish. If there’s limited food for the snails, their numbers will stay stable.

It is very important to maintain good water quality in your tank by performing regular water changes and tank maintenance. This is the best way to keep the nutrient levels low in the water.

Another great way to reduce the nutrients in your aquarium is to grow fast-growing aquarium plants that will soak up excess nutrients and turn them into healthy new leaves!

Physical Removal

Here’s a great tip for actively managing the snail numbers in your tank: you can bait them with algae wafers or even a piece of lettuce or some other leafy green.

Set the bait into a small dish on the bottom of the tank, and weigh it down so that the snails can access it. Leave the dish in the tank overnight, and remove it the next morning when it is crawling with snails!

Introduce Assasin Species

Introducing another species of freshwater aquarium snail to your tank might seem like a terrible way to reduce your pest snail population. Assassin snails are one kind of animal that can really help though because they eat other snails.

Fish That Will Eat Them

Whether you want to keep your pet snails safe from hungry fish, or are looking for a way to remove unwanted pests from your aquarium, knowing which species of fish eat snails is very useful! The following fish species are notorious snail-eaters that can help remove pest snails from your tank.

• Clown Loach
• Skunk Loach
• Yoyo Loach
• Carnivorous Cichlids
• Freshwater Pufferfish
• Goldfish

Fish That Are Compatible with Them

For the snail-lovers out there, it can be devastating to see your pets eaten by their tank mates. Fortunately, most peaceful community fish will get along fine with snails, as long as they prefer the same water parameters.

Smaller nano fish are usually a safer bet than larger fish, and shrimp are also great tank mates. Fish have a mind of their own of course, and there are no 100% guarantees, but as long as you avoid the fish listed above, your snails should be safe.

FAQS

Final Thoughts

Love them or hate them, aquarium snails are something that most aquarists and fishkeepers will come across sooner or later. Some might be pests, but many of them are very cool additions to community tanks and planted aquariums.

Whether you’re looking to add new snails to your tank or get rid of them, I hope this guide helps you out! Please comment below if you have any questions.

📘 Want to learn more? This article is part of our complete Freshwater Fish Guide — your ultimate resource for freshwater species, care tips, tank setup, and more.

🐟 Want to learn more? This article is part of our complete Aquarium Care Guide — your ultimate resource for water chemistry, maintenance, feeding, disease prevention, and everything you need for a healthy tank.

Bottom feeder fish are some of the most useful additions you can make to a freshwater community tank, and I’ve kept most of the popular species over the years. The biggest misconception I run into is that they’ll “clean the tank” on their own — they won’t. They’re excellent at their specific jobs, but they still need proper feeding, appropriate tankmates, and the right substrate to thrive.

Bottom feeder fish are among the most misunderstood in the freshwater hobby — and that misunderstanding leads to a lot of preventable problems. After 25 years keeping fish, the thing I hear most often from beginners is that they added a pleco or a cory to “clean up” the tank. It doesn’t work that way. Bottom feeders need to be actively fed just like every other fish, they have specific substrate requirements, and some of them get far larger than their tank can support. This guide covers 9 of the best bottom feeder species for freshwater aquariums, with honest notes on what each one actually needs rather than what the pet store might tell you.

What Are Bottom Feeders?

Bottom feeder fish are fish that spend most of their time at the bottom of the tank. Bottom feeders are some of my favorite species out there because they often have very interesting looks and behaviors.

Some species are fast and active, but many can be pretty inactive and some species are shy and difficult to see. They can be super useful in your aquarium though because they are happy to feed on food that has sunk to the bottom of the tank.

Each species does have its own preferred diet of course, and it’s important that you make sure that they are well fed (more on this later).

The Benefits Of Bottom Feeders

Bottom-feeder species are great for adding activity and life to the bottom of your aquarium. This can make your tank a much more lively environment that is even more fascinating to observe!

Apart from their interesting looks and behaviors, bottom-feeder fish have a bunch of benefits in the tank. Some species like the Otocinclus catfish are master tank cleaners because they feed on the algae that grow on the walls of fish tanks and the ornaments inside them.

Other bottom feeders like Cory Catfish feed by searching the substrate and any tight spaces in the aquarium for uneaten food which helps to keep your tank clean.

The Nine Best to Choose From

There are so many great bottom feeders out there, but these are definitely the favorites that I can recommend to any fishkeeper. Remember to take note of their needs to make sure they will work out in your tank! I’ve also included a few common bottom feeders that you should avoid.

Check out our video below from our YouTube channel. If you like this content, subscribe to our channel for additional videos. We are releasing videos every week. We go into more detail in the blog post below.

1. Corydoras Catfish

• Scientific Name: Corydoras spp.
• Adult Size: 1-3 Inches
• Care Level: Easy
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 10 + gallons for dwarf species, 20+ gallons for others
• Diet: Omnivorous, feed live and frozen foods, Sinking pellets and wafers
• Origin: South America
• Temperature: 72 – 82°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Cory Catfish or Corydoras are great little schooling catfish for the community tank. These bottom feeders for freshwater aquariums are a favorite in the aquarium hobby and there are many different species to choose from.

Some species like the Dwarf Cory Catfish and the Pygmy Cory Catfish can be kept in nano aquariums as small as a 10 gallon fish tank. Most Corydoras catfish species will prefer a 20 gallon tank or larger though. They are social fish so be sure to keep at least 6 together in the same aquarium.

Cory cats are great fun to watch as they cruise around the tank together, feeding on food lying on and in the substrate. A common mistake that fishkeepers make is to think that you don’t need to feed these fish. In fact, Cory catfish do best on a balanced diet of dried and live/frozen foods.

2. Otocinclus Catfish

• Scientific Name: Otocinclus spp.
• Adult Size: 2 inches
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 10+ gallons
• Diet: Algae
• Origin: South America, Venezuela, Argentina
• Temperature: 70-74°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom, midwater, Top

Otos are very peaceful fish for the community tank. These little catfish are algae eaters, which means they are great for keeping your glass and ornaments clean. These nano fish are very popular in the aquarium trade and will do very well as long as you are able to maintain good water quality.

Mature aquariums with a healthy amount of algae provide the best aquatic environment for this fish species. You can also supplement their diet with algae wafers and slices of vegetables like zucchini.

3. Dojo Loach

• Scientific Name: Misgurnus anguillicaudatus
• Adult Size: 10 inches
• Care Level: Easy
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 55+ gallons
• Diet: Omnivorous, feed live and frozen foods, Sinking pellets and wafers
• Origin: Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Russia
• Temperature: 59-77°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Dojo Loaches are great fish for larger aquariums. These fish have the interesting habit of increasing their activity levels when the weather is changing, kind of like your own little weather forecaster! This has earned them the name of weather loach as well.

Apart from just the regular Dojo Loach, there is also a golden variety available in the hobby. These fish are active bottom feeders that love to search the substrate for uneaten food at the bottom of the tank.

4. Bristlenose Pleco

• Scientific Name: Ancistrus cirrhosus
• Adult Size: 5 inches
• Care Level: Easy
• Temperament: Semi-agressive
• Minimum Tank Size: 20 + gallons
• Diet: Vegetarian, Algae
• Origin: South America
• Temperature: 73-81°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Bristlenose Pleco fish are super interesting-looking catfish that fit in perfectly with most community tanks. They are peaceful bottom-dwelling fish, although they do tend to be aggressive towards other members of the same species.

For this reason, it’s better not to keep more than one adult in the same tank. These amazing bottom dwellers do a great job of keeping the tank clean by searching the substrate for algae and food leftovers.

5. Clown Pleco

• Scientific Name: Panaqolus maccus
• Adult Size: 3.5 inches
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 20+ gallons
• Diet: Vegetarian, feed vegetables and algae wafers
• Origin: South America, Venezuela
• Temperature: 73-82°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

These beautiful bottom-feeder fish (video source) need plenty of driftwood in their tank to feed on. They love slices of vegetables like zucchini and cucumbers and also enjoy frozen foods.

These fish are very peaceful and do great in community tanks. They do produce quite a lot of waste though so the tank does need to have decent filtration.

6. Freshwater Shrimp

• Scientific Name: Caridina & Neocaridina spp.
• Adult Size: 1.5-2 inches
• Care Level: Easy-Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 5+ gallons (20+ gallons recommended)
• Diet: Omnivorous, Algae, Sinking flakes & Pellets
• Origin: Asia, North America
• Temperature: 70-74°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

The freshwater shrimp is an amazing aquatic animal that has become incredibly popular in the modern fish-keeping hobby. There are loads of different species available, and some eat algae while others will prefer pellet foods.

Shrimp will only get along with a few types of fish like Otocinclus catfish. Most carnivorous and omnivorous fish will see your shrimp as a food source, so many hobbyists prefer to keep shrimp-only tanks to be on the safe side.

7. Kuhli Loach

• Scientific Name: Pangio Kuhlii
• Adult Size: 4 inches
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 20+ gallons
• Diet: Omnivorous, Feed sinking pellets, wafers, and frozen foods
• Origin: Southeast Asia
• Temperature: 73-86°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Kuhli Loaches are great-looking little bottom feeders. This fish species has some really silly antics and is great fun to watch when not hiding. They are nocturnal fish and tend to hide out during the day so you won’t see them every time you take a look at your tank.

Kuhli loaches are one of the best bottom-feeder fish in the hobby. They use their whiskers to locate food on the bottom of the tank and do a great job of picking up scraps of uneaten fish food. These fish will do best in a group of at least five. They should be kept on a sand or fine gravel substrate and love plenty of hiding spaces in the tank.

8. Panda Garra

• Scientific Name: Garra flavatra
• Adult Size: 3 inches
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 20+ gallons
• Diet: Omnivorous, feed wafers, and frozen foods
• Origin: Southeast Asia
• Temperature: 70-74°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Panda Garras are very peaceful fish that prefer high flow tank conditions (video source). They are pretty new to the fish-keeping hobby but already very popular. They are actually Cyprinids from the carp species family.

Panda Garras get their name from their bold, panda-like stripes. These fish feed on biofilm and algae that grow on rocks at the bottom of the tank, but you should supplement their diet with some frozen foods and wafers for a balanced diet.

9. Clown Loach

• Scientific Name: Botia macracantha
• Adult Size: 12 inches
• Care Level: Moderate
• Temperament: Peaceful
• Minimum Tank Size: 100 gallons
• Diet: Carnivorous
• Origin: Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sumatra
• Temperature: 70-74°F
• Swimming Level: Bottom

Clown Loaches are a really cute bottom-feeder fish species for large aquariums. They are active but very peaceful fish that are great in community tanks. These fish like to school, so make sure you have at least 4 of them in the same aquarium. They are also great snail eating fish.

Other Great Types To Consider

Below is a list of honorable mentions. They are as popular or provide as much utility as the ones above, but are worth mentioning. Check them out below:

• Synodontis catfish- This is a great bottom feeder for African cichlid tanks in particular.
• Siamese Algae Eater– These active algae-eaters are great bottom feeders for community tanks. Keep these fish in groups of 5 or more in a 40-gallon tank or larger.
• Twig Catfish- These are some of the most interesting looking bottom-feeding fish in the hobby. They grow to 6 inches in length but are safe to keep with small, peaceful community fish.
• Pictus Catfish– These interesting little South American catfish are peaceful but very shy fish. They have pretty big mouths and will eat any small fish in your tank, so make sure they are the smallest fish in the aquarium.
• Yoyo Loach-These fish have markings on their sides that look just like the word yoyo. They are mostly peaceful but will love snacking on shrimp and snails in the tank.
• Zebra Loach– These are great little freshwater bottom-feeders for the community tank. The zebra loach is a peaceful fish that grows to just 4 inches or so.

Bottom Feeders To Avoid

Not all bottom feeder fish are suitable for your standard home aquarium. The following few species are not great choices for most fishkeepers:

Common Pleco – Hypostomus plecostomus

The Common Pleco is one of those fish that are probably more popular than they should be. These bottom-feeding fish can grow to sizes of over 20 inches in length which comes as a surprise to many fish keepers.

This is an easy mistake to make because they usually measure just a few inches in length when you see them at your local fish store. Unfortunately, these fish are often released into local ponds and rivers when they get too big, and they have become quite a nuisance in the wild¹.

They are great fish, but only for keepers with very large tanks who can take care of them properly.

Chinese Algae Eater – Gyrinocheilus aymonieri

The Chinese Algae Eater grows to about 10 inches or a little more in length. These fish grow fast and catch a lot of fishkeepers off guard when they get too big for their tank.

They are good algae eaters but have a tendency to get pretty aggressive towards other fish in the tank. In fact, Chinese algae eaters will even attack other fish to eat the slime coating off of their skin and scales.

These aren’t very good-looking fish either and you’re much better off choosing another fish from our list!

Tiger Shovelnose Catfish – Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum

The Tiger Shovelnose Catfish is a really cool-looking fish that many people have made the mistake of buying. It’s hard to imagine that the 4-inch long little cutie you just brought home can grow to over 3 feet in length!

These catfish are carnivorous and have big mouths. This means the rest of your fish are going to be eaten as soon as the Tiger Shovelnose is big enough to swallow them.

Avoid this species unless you have a very large aquarium (200 gallons), and are prepared to care for a very large carnivorous catfish!

How To Set Up Your Tank

Before buying any bottom-feeding fish, it’s really important to read up on its needs. Here is some basic information on setting up for bottom-feeding fish:

Filtration

Running a good quality filter in your aquarium is absolutely essential. Some fishkeepers make the mistake of thinking their bottom feeder fish will keep the tank clean so they don’t need a filter. Big mistake!

But which kind of filter should you choose? There are many options available, but as a general rule, pick a model that can process all the water in your tank at least 4 times every hour.

Some bottom-feeder fish like the Panda Garra like a stronger current in the tank, and for them, you can bump up the flow rate to as much as 10 times your tank volume per hour.

Water Quality

Good water quality is what keeps fish happy and healthy in your aquarium. Remember, your pets rely on you to provide them with a great environment to live in.

Once you’ve set up your tank and got your filter running, you’re going to want to start the process of fishless cycling. Once your tank is cycled and you have stocked it with some great fish, you’re going to want to get into the routine of performing a regular partial water change.

This means taking out a percentage of the water in your tank every week or two and replacing it with new water that you have treated with a conditioner. The amount of water you need to replace is going to depend on a couple of things like:

• The size of your aquarium
• How heavily stocked you are
• The bioload of your fish
• Whether you have live plants in the tank
• How powerful your filtration is

Testing Your Water

In order to know how stable your water quality is in the aquarium, and whether you’ve successfully cycled the tank, you’re going to need to test for a few parameters on a regular basis.

This is easy to do using a liquid test kit. Test the water before you do your regular water changes to know whether you’re performing regular and large enough water changes.

Substrates

Your choice of substrate can be pretty important for the health of your fish. This is especially true when it comes to bottom dwellers because they spend most of their time down on the bottom of the tank.

Sure, bottom-feeder fish can be kept in open bottom tanks, but this prevents them from acting out a lot of their natural behaviors and will probably leave them feeling seriously exposed.

Instead, choose a fine substrate like sand that allows these fish to dig through and forage in safely. Avoid using sharp substrates that can injure your fish.

Great For Bottom Feeders

Fine Natural Sand

Natural sand is excellent for bottom feeder fish to forage around in.

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Many bottom-feeder fish like loaches and cory catfish have fine whiskers known as barbels. Sharp gravel can damage these ultra-sensitive structures that are used to feel the substrate to find food.

Some bottom-feeder fish like the Kuhli Loach do not have scales and can get their skin scratched up on sharp substrates while digging through it. This can cause infections.

Hiding Places and Decorations

Bottom-feeder fish are often shy creatures that love having caves and other hiding places to hang out in. You can build your own caves out of rocks if you like, just make sure that your structure is safe and stable.

Driftwood that has holes in it, clay flowerpots, and purpose-built aquarium cave ornaments are other great ways to provide hiding places for your fish. Some bottom-dwellers, like Kuhli Loaches, will even dig themselves into the substrate to hide away and find shelter.

The Planted Aquarium

Growing live plants is a great way to make a really natural and healthy environment for your freshwater bottom-feeders and other fish. Keeping a planted tank can be really easy if you grow plants like Anubias and Java Ferns that don’t need any special equipment. Plants also create great places for your bottom-feeder fish to hide and look for food.

What To Feed

Bottom-feeder fish need to be fed a high-quality, balanced diet. Of course, different types of fish have different diets, but here are a few of the best food options available for your fish:

Frozen foods

Frozen foods are great for omnivorous and carnivorous bottom-feeder fish. Brine shrimp, bloodworm, and daphnia are all good examples of this food type. Frozen foods should not be the primary food source for your bottom-feeder fish but can be a great supplement.

Live foods

Live foods like brine shrimp, daphnia, micro worms, and mosquito larvae are great food sources for carnivorous and omnivorous fish. Fish love live food so much that it usually doesn’t get to the bottom of the tank before your other fish eat it all!

Live Algae

Algae eaters like Otocinclus Catfish, Siamese Algae Eaters, and Plecos have a natural diet of algae. This is great because they are able to get a healthy meal and keep your aquarium clean at the same time! Algae grow in all mature fish tanks, especially tanks with bright light and a lot of nutrients in the water.

Algae Wafers

Algae wafers can be a great supplementary food source for omnivorous and algae-eating fish like Clown Plecos, Otos, and Siamese Algae Eaters. Look for brands like Hikari when search for a wafer.

Great For Bottom Feeders!

Hikari Algae Wafers

Algae wafers are a great way to directly feed your bottom feeding fish. They are especially effective for larger fish like plecos

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Shrimp Food

Most shrimp are omnivorous creatures and there are plenty of excellent products available that are designed specifically for their needs. Shrimp food is available in gel, pellet, wafer, and stick form.

Pellets

These sinking pellets provide balanced nutrition for all sorts of omnivorous aquarium fish. There are plenty of good quality products available on the market, just make sure you choose something that is the right size for your fish.

Vegetables

Herbivorous fish like Otos and Bristlenose Plecos love vegetables. Sliced cucumbers and zucchinis are great options, but you can also use blanched peas, broccoli, and cabbage for variety.

Where To Buy

Most fish stores have a good variety of bottom-feeding fish for freshwater aquariums. These days, many fishkeepers prefer the convenience of buying online.

My favorite online retailer is Flipaquatics because they offer a great range of fish at great prices. They also fully quarantine their livestock. They really care for their stock and their 100% live arrival guarantee takes so much of the stress out of buying and transporting new pets. For larger fish, check out the link above for other fish retailers.

FAQS

Final Thoughts

Bottom feeder fish have a place in pretty much any home aquarium. These fish are fun to watch, look great, and work hard to keep your tank clean. If you don’t already have a few bottom feeders in your fish tank, why not pick some from our list and add them to your tank today?

I hope you’ve enjoyed the article and please comment below if you have any questions!

📘 Want to learn more? This article is part of our complete Freshwater Fish Guide — your ultimate resource for freshwater species, care tips, tank setup, and more.