Another snail problem

|| Ive got a problem w/ some trumpet snails. Ive got a planted
|| aquarium, and they really kind of help the aquarium.. There are a
|| lot of them but the population isn't out of control or anything. I
|| usually dont see any durring the day, but they come out at night.

That's the thing with MTS, they only come out at night*in numbers*

|| The problem is that one of my fish loves to eat them, but he cant
|| digest them. I had to have surgery on the fish to get them out of
|| his gut!

which fish is that? most of what you've named are strong enough to crush the
snails.. not sure why they couldn't...

|| So, I want to get rid of a lot of the snails. I dont want to use
|| chemicals that could hurt my fish or my plants. Everyone talks
|| about using loaches to control the population. The only problem is
|| that i think my fish would eat the loaches. Ive got an oscar, jack
|| dempsey, severum, and convict living in this aquarium. All of the
|| fish (other than convict) are over 7" long, and the oscar and
|| dempsey have big mouthes.

That tank surely couldn't support loaches, they don't have armor like
scales.... they are scaleless loaches...

|| There is plenty of cover in the tank.. Most of the bottom is covered
|| in a maze of plants. Do you think the loaches would look like food
|| to my big fish? Do you think the plants would provide enough cover
|| for the loaches to safely hide in? Does anyone know if its possible
|| to get large loaches? (few inches at lest)(all the local pet stores
|| say they can only get babies). Or, is there anything else I can get
|| that loves to eat snails?

My suggestion would be to manually remove the bigger snails as you find
them. I get mine during gravel vacuuming as the bigger ones always come to
the top, while the smaller ones even get sucked out... I never worry though,
they'll make more..

you could bait them, put a plate on the bottom, some algae wafers on it, and
when the lights go out, grab a flashlight and either net them or slowly
raise the plate(cup) out and they'll be in there.. not alot, but you can
repeat several days in a row..

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is that better??