Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Do tilapia eat small snails? I had a growing number of snails in my system and noticed they have recently disappeared. My tilapia are getting larger, could they be the culprits?

Also, I have been sprouting oats and wheat to feed the fish. Some of the sprouted seeds are not eaten. I was thinking of getting bottom feeder like a pleco to clean things up a bit. Can they exist with tilapia and goldfish? My water is in the 80's. Other suggestions?

Thanks.

Tilapia would probably like snails.

A larger pleco would get along fine with tilapia. When DH and I kept aquariums together, he liked the plecos and I liked the cichlids. The plecos are tough enough to hold up to the attentions of large cichlids and have enough attitude to ram persistent pesky ones. One thing to be careful of with plecos: If your fishtank is plastic, their rasping teeth will wear it.

Janet,

My tank is pvc pond liner. Is that tough enough?

unsure about the pond line.

no. My plecos ate through 1/8" of plastic

emsjoflo,

Thanks. You caught me just in time.

Go for gyrinocheilus, they are small cheap fish but they work a lot all day and night. They are relatively aggressive so they would cope with the tilapia.
Give it a try and they shouldn't go through the liner.

Or go with some Clown Loaches.... nice to look at and LOVE snails!

I've thrown hand fulls of small snails into my tilapia cage and the tilapia do go for them though if I watch closely they usually spit them back out and another fish will grab it. I don't know if the snail ever actually gets eaten. Do they manage to suck the snail out of the shell and just spit the shell out, I'm not sure.

There are usually very few snails in the catfish tank though.