Snail infested, formerly ich infected-possible snail-loach treat

[Guppygirl]

I have a major question-- I have a tank that is infested with pond and ramshorn snails, they are slowly eating my java moss, the last plant to survive. The problem is that this tank has been affected by an ich outbreak. I have since treated the tank and the fish are fine now. The major question I have is can I use those snails from the infected/infested tank to feed my skunk loaches? Are they poison, from the meds?, carriers of ich? The tank that was infected with ich was a tank full of guppies that had babies all through the treatments, so there is no way I am just going to let the loaches in, they attack flake food mid tank so fry would be a snack. The loach tank was totally infested with snails but within 3 days of getting these guys at the Edmonton auction the tank was full of empty snail shells. That was the best, but now I would like to give them a snail treat but only if the food won't sicken them. Any input would be helpful. Thanks.

[werner]

From what I understand, invertebrates cannot be infected with ich, so they can't carry it in to the other tank.

Did you treat the ich with a copper based medication? In that case, any snails that weren't killed by it would likely have a pretty good dose of copper in them, and not be a suitable snack for the loaches. If that's the case, I'd remove any adults & young snails and wait for new ones to grow up. If you just used salt for treatment, they should be good to go.