To MTS or not to MTS

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875mill

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
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150
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hanson ky
I got a 29 gal tank with about 3-3 1/2 inches of eco complete in the bottom. I hear trumpet snail are great for keeping the substrate churned by digging in it. I was just wondering if this is absolutly necessary? Will i run into problems later on if I dont stir it up everyonce in awhile or dont put snails in there? Second i keep hear conflicting reports on weather MTS will over run a tank. Can anybody with a few please comment on this? And how bad will they affect my tanks bio load? I think it would be cool to have 10-20 in my tank not 100-200. I just want to make sure there not more trouble than what there worth. Lastly would anyone be willing to send me a couple for a few dollars?
 
I am going to be using them inside my HOB filters to eat crud off of the filter media and decrease my filter maintenance.

Here in Alabama, they cannot be sold legally, but when I asked, my LFS was more than happy to make sure a few of them got in the bag accidentally when I bought a new plant.

I only have a few, but I think that is all it takes to have as many as I want.

My plan is to feed the extras to my clown loaches.
 
YuccaPatrol said:
I am going to be using them inside my HOB filters to eat crud off of the filter media and decrease my filter maintenance.

Interesting idea. How will you keep them from moving over to the tank?
 
You don't. I have them in my filters that have found their way in from the tank. And with MTS, ONE is all you need to start with. They are livebearers, as well as hermaphrodites, so the first one will already be "pregnant". Be aware, once you got 'em, you'll have 'em forever. In a few months, a couple will become a couple hundred. They mostly stay out of sight by day. They are basically the aquatic equivalent of cockroaches, and just as difficult to get rid of, if you decide you don't want 'em any longer.
 
As I understand, MTS eat algae, eat gunk, self propegate, don't harm plants and stay out of sight when the lights are on. What more could you ask from a janitor?!?! I have not had mine for long, but they seem to be doing just as expected.

Snails do not add much if any to the bioload on your aquarium, and should not overpopulate unless you are overfeeding.
 
tropicfishman said:
not to be rude, but I don't think its right to ask people for money on here, in my opinion its rude

I read the initial post as asking if someone could send him some MTS and he'll send them in return a few dollars. considering their breeding habits.. I don't see this as being rude.
 
OHHHHHHHHHHHH my bad sorry about that I misread the post I thought they were asking people to send them money, I also thought we were talking about multiple tank syndrome not snails lol boy do i feel stupid lol
 
I have two different experiences going on with my MTS

The ones in my 75gal with eco complete do all the positive stuff- they dig in my substrate, don't eat my plants and only come out at night- but there are plants in there

In my 29gal, I used to have puffers and silly me throws in a few snails for them which they NEVER ate... so now the puffers are gone and I have a zillion snails. I have eco complete in that tank as well, but no plants. There are babies on the wall CONSTANTLY. However, I haven't tried to knock them off to see if they would crawl back up or not.
 
FYI- MTS cannot reproduce alone...at least not in every case. I had one random MTS egg come into my Goldfish tank in July or August with some Java Moss I got in the mail and now about 8 months later there is still only one very large adult MTS in the tank.
 
MTS are live bearers- meaning that they breed and populate through copulation with M/F pairs and give live birth, not eggs. I'm sure you could have received a fertile and pregnant F. I don't presume to understand FW invertebrate propagation habits, but, dang, get an M/F pair of these guys and you are set for life. Like they say, MTS is forever. Once they're in your tank, it is dang near impossible to get rid of them - and, hey, why would you want to IMHO?
 
no regrets here, beneficial in every way.
if they get out of control plant some zucchini and pull a heap of snails out with it. no problemo.
There are babies on the wall CONSTANTLY.
For those who don't know if they are climbing to the surface chances are you will be having an ammonia spike.
 
In that case I must have received a single very tiny MTS with my Java Moss. At any rate you are correct though, about their breeding success when there are two of them. I put 6 of them into another tank perhaps two months ago and there are quite literally dozens of them in there now working the sand for me.

But as of yet there remains only one old snail in the Goldfish tank.
 
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