:: UPATED :: Getting rid of MTS? (what eats them?)

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cgcaver

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
71
Location
Starkville MS
I once had the great idea of adding snails to my tank to clean/stir the substrate. So, I started with about 12 adult snails about 9 months ago. Now I have roughly a zillion. They are the only fauna in my tank atm, but Im sick of them everywhere, looking ugly, uprooting my glosso etc.

So, here's the question: How do I get rid of em? I have tried manually removing them, and have probably removed at least 200. They just keep coming; its like a never-ending supply. As best as I can tell, I've removed all the adults and all that are left are babies and juvenile snails.

I wanna know what eats them, and not only what eats them, but what eats them LIKE CRAZY (and is relatively cheap at the LFS). Thx for your help guys ;)
 
clown loaches, yellow labs, red devils, severums. puffers, black ghost knifefish, keyhole cichlids, some bettas. There are probably more cichlids that eat them as well, but these are the ones I know of.
 
If you keep removing them I will buy some from you.

They are great for a tank with a sand bottom like mine
 
talloulou said:
clown loaches, yellow labs, red devils, severums. puffers, black ghost knifefish, keyhole cichlids, some bettas. There are probably more cichlids that eat them as well, but these are the ones I know of.

Keyhole cichlids do not eat them! 8)

MTS have really hard shells, so you should look for something with a strong bite......perhaps teeth? Maybe dwarf puffers?
 
Yeh i had sand too... thats why i got them. I got flourite now. There is nothing else in the tank besides snails and plants

So you guys know that yellow labs will do it? Thats cool cuz I was going to get Malawi's anyways ;)
 
Whatever fish you get will probably just help control the population and not necessarily eradicate it all together. MTS are very adept at surviving.
 
The smart money is on selling them, 50 at a time, on eBay and Aquabid.....keeps the population down, and you can make $10-$20/month doing it.
 
hard part is getting em off the sand, unless you like... wanna stay up all night scraping them off the glass :/
 
Loaches and dwarf puffers can't really eat mts. Loaches will lower the population by picking off a few unsuspecting snails that are out in the open and make the snails hide more so you don't see them. Most dwarf puffers won't even bother trying and a few people on the puffer forum have mentioned they could injure their mouth trying to break them open. It would take a much larger puffer to break their shells. Mts are for the most part indestructible. Just try squishing a few with your hand :lol: I doubt you'd manage to squish enough to add ammonia to a tank even if you stayed at it all day and used something harder than your hand to crunch them. If you don't plan on having any inverts in the tank and you don't have any fish maybe a snail killing chemical or any copper. However that will give you a nice ammonia spike.
 
my yoyo loaches took care of my population, which wasn't out of control, and now I don't have any more snails...just shells! =) Yoyos stay small (4 inches), are fairly cheap $3-5 each, and have a great personality, best seen in larger groups. half the time they are swimming up with my danios! If you want to get rid of any number, you can send them my way, or like someone suggested, sell them on ebay or aquabid. PM me if you want to send them my way!
 
Im currently looking for some clown loaches... my LFS sucks and only has the most common of the common fish, so puffers are kinda outta the question.

A question I forgot to ask - Will clown loaches mess with my plants?
 
I don't know about eating them...but when the clown loaches get bigger they will most definitely uproot them.
 
clown loaches look GORGEOUS when they're fully grown. i saw some pictures, and i bought 2 small ones. i havnt seen them eat my nails but the population was decreased by a lot. the clown loaches are now my favourite fish in my tank. totally loventhem theyre so cute. they sleep on their sides!!!!
 
clown loaches look GORGEOUS when they're fully grown. i saw some pictures, and i bought 2 small ones. i havnt seen them eat my nails but the population was decreased by a lot. the clown loaches are now my favourite fish in my tank. totally loventhem theyre so cute. they sleep on their sides!!!!
 
on top of that clown loaches are schooling fish.. so they are big and need to be with big peers.. both are bad for a tank thats not big enough.. :?
 
Hey guys - just an update:

I got 2 clown loaches (about 3" long)... and they don't do crap LOL. All they do is swim like nutjobs up and down the glass (they are like glued to each other) - CONSTANTLY. Seriously, it's kinda annoying. They don't bother the snails 1 bit. I sat and watched BOTH of them run into a snail in the corner of the glass walls of my tank at least 10 times, as they swam up and down. They ignored him of course. They bump into snails all the time and ignore them 100%. There are 0 empty snail shells in my tank. My Neons eat the flakes before a single one drifts to the bottom, so I know they (the loaches) aren't gettin full on flakes.

So... Im thinking about returning them. They annoy me. My LFS did have some very nice looking puffers in (I couldn't believe my eyes cuz my LFS sucks totally). What do you guys think about trying a puffer? I've heard some of yall say they will hurt themselves trying to eat MTS. And I wanna make sure they don't wreak even more havoc on my steadily declining Neon population (side note - I will never buy neons again... most puny fish ever. I have perfect water conditions and I fish out 3-4 dead ones daily. I do a water change and you'd think I was runnin a Nazi death camp in my tank.) I figured the quite "round" puffer would have a hell of a time catching Neons.

What do yall think? Are there any other "very easy to find" fish that I might consider? I think we can safely scratch Clown Loaches off the list... sigh. Between fighting green water, an army of snails, and 60+ Neons each constantly on death's doorstep - I think I'm going to have to quit college to pay & care for my tank! ;(
 
IME, clowns take a little time to settle and need a group of 4 to 5+ groups to feel secure. your clowns are just uneasy. i have found the 'up-and-down-the-glass' symptom to be caused by stress (in a lot of fish). also, do they have a hiding place? unless they have one, they feel very insecure with people staring at them.

my clowns like to hide immediately when someone passes by. but one will come out in about 10secs to take a full report of the scene and go back to base. then the full group cruises out. no snails whatsoever for about a year now. i feed them live snails from my 20g now :wink: .
 
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