malaysian trumpet snails.

[claudio1]

hi everyone,would like some advice/help here,are malaysian trumpet snails a good choice for sand substrate tropical aquarium?.


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[Autumnsky]

That depends a little.

Do you like snails? A lot?

Are you an over feeder? They explode in the tank in population if you over feed.

Once you have them, unless there is a pH crash or you specifically do something to kill them all off, you will them for the long haul.

Figure that you might end up having to sift them out of the sand which requires basically cleaning out the whole tank to reduce the population.

Even if you don't want them you may get them with plants or fish.

Personally I like them, but it is annoying to have to sift them out of the tank every year or two if you over feed and rescape the tank.

Yes they move the sand around and are interesting creatures.

If you ever see them all crawling up the glass you know you have a bad situation with your parameters in your tank.

 

[dalto]

A good choice for what?

Autumnsky did a good job of going through the pros and cons. If you want them because you like small snails feel free to pick them up.

Just don't feel like you have to have them because you have a sand substrate.

 

[Autumnsky]

A chop stick session each week at pwc time moving around the sand will work too.

 

[claudio1]

sorry i forgot to mention it,good choice to keep the sand clean and aerated...thanks for your comments by the way,i really appreciate it..


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[dalto]

I can't speak to the planted tank but in the non-planted tank MTS are not going to do much for you. Unless your sand bed is very deep aerobic bacteria are not a huge issue. If it is deep, MTS won't help much as they don't venture very deep into the sand. The need for MTS is sand substrate is one of those long standing fishkeeping myths.

Once again, there may be some value in the planted aquaria that I am not aware of because that is not my area of expertise.

 

[toddnbecka]

The worst thing I've found is that they sometimes jam impellers on hob filters. I remember a 30 gallon tank I had years ago, never really thought I had many snails in the gravel until I turned on the lights one night. The entire bottom of the tank was a moving carpet of mts shells, and there were a (relative) few climbing the glass. Never found that in a tank many since then, particularly since I switched from gravel to sand substrates.

 

[emerald76]

Personally I hate them. Almost had to get assassins to stop them in my ten. I spent hours picking them out and killing them. They came on plants, which stinks. I love nerites and would take those anyday, seem to help me keep the tank clean and tidy and are easy to feed if you have any algae, otherwise wafers.


Emerald76

 

[Autumnsky]

I will be cleaning them out of my 6.6G very soon like in the next couple of days, because there are so many. It needs to be cleaned anyway I guess. It has been 1.5 years since the last time for that tank.

 

[Mebbid]

MTS snails are not that bad at all. I introduced them to my planted tank on purpose and never regretted it. Yes, they can have a population explosion, but that's only if you overfeed. This is also the first time I've ever heard of them causing problems with a filter so I would assume that is a very rare occurrence.

Chop sticks are functional, but the sand compacts back down within a day or 2. To really aerate your sand then MTS are the way to go. However, you don't need them to have a healthy planted tank.

 

[claudio1]

thanks everyone for all the advice/help,really appreciate it.


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