MTS?

[Yassmeena]

Although I hate snails that grow out of control, lately I've been considering that I should consider getting some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to stir up and clean my substrate.

I have never even seen them, so I have some questions about them:

1 - Are they unsightly in the tank?
2 - How do you quarantine them, if at all?
3 - How do you control their population growth? Does it ever get out of hand?
4 - Do you regret getting them?
5 - Do they eat plants?

Thanks so much!!

Yasmin

[yim11]

Although I hate snails that grow out of control, lately I've been considering that I should consider getting some Malaysian Trumpet Snails to stir up and clean my substrate.

I have never even seen them, so I have some questions about them:

1 - Are they unsightly in the tank?
Not in my opinion.


2 - How do you quarantine them, if at all?
I added them after then had been in another tank about a year, but I had no formal QT for them, it just happened that I didn't use them until about a year after I got them.


3 - How do you control their population growth? Does it ever get out of hand?
I use a few assassin snails to keep the population in check.


4 - Do you regret getting them?
Not at all, especially for sand substrate.


5 - Do they eat plants?
Nope.

HTHs,
-jim

[blkrob]

This is just my opinion. I add a few to my planted tanks for the cleaning of the substrate.

1. They do climb the tank at the end of the day. I believe it's a co2 issue. The substrates always moving and the kids like watching it. For the most part they don't come out til night time.

2. Nope just drop them in.

3. Try not to over feed. If you do overfeed they will take over. You can put lettuce at the bottom of the tank and pull them in the morning. They will cover the lettuce completely. I have skunk loaches that eat them and don't bother the discus. IME. Assassin snail will do the job also. They don't breed as fast and when the food is gone they decrease in number.

4. Somedays.

5. Nope.

HTH

Robert

[darbex]

I would vote for just get assassin snails and skip the MTS. They do the same thing, they look better, they dont breed as rapidly, and I have never seen them cover the floor and glass at night like MTS do.

[David Rose]

Malaysian Trumpet Snail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FigmRJgpw&feature=related

Assasin Snail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6N7xRBx60I

[Tito]

Only problem with the Assassin snails is that very few people have them and when you see them for sale - you have to pay a hefty price for something that should cost a nickel. MTS on the other hand you can get for free from the LFS. It's just amazing how people are - you may pay up to $5 for one Assassin snail. It's just not cool in my opinion. And the reason why people will charge that much for the Assassin snail is because they know that people are desperate to kill their MTS population at any cost without uprooting the tank. I'm not against making money but it's not cool. Assassin snails are the same size as MTS and look similar though their shells are more attractive.

If you overfeed the MTS will reproduce exponentially but the benefits are irreplaceable. If you don't mind over paying for a little snail by all means buy the assassin snails. It's the principle to me so I've never bothered. In my 55 I have 3" of sand in the back and 2" in the front and I never see my MTS. It's an African Cichlid tank by the way not a Discus tank - that's why the sand is so deep.

[Apistomaster]

I always end up introducing MTS through plant transplants even if the plants are potted. I don't mind them but in tanks which have been set up for many years there will be an accumulation of empty shells that are a bit unsightly and troublesome to remove. Once MTS become established they are there for good but they are useful animals. They do eat bits of food that Discus miss.
I can only avoid them in completely bare tanks.
The night time behavior is for them to leave the sand and is unrelated to a normal dissolved O2 content. If you see masses of them crawling up the sides to the surface during the day that could be an indication of a low dissolved O2 level.

The Assassin Snails are terribly overpriced, imo. Ironically, those who breed them claim to raise them easily in large quantiites so we are not dependent on wild imported specimens. in their naturl range the Assasin snails have low population densities locally so it is understandable that those would be expensive but for some reson those who have been successful at breeding them in quantities have not made them widely available at reasonable prices. I think a dollar each would be reasonable for cultured A. helena. At least I would be willing to pay that much for a quantity of them but you are still left with that accumulation of empty MTS shells problem.

[whitedevil]

assassins by me are 4 bucks all day long at an LFS

also I have MTS infact I got tons of them and let them breed as well, I sell them to loach and puffer owners mainly. I have over 1000 in a 52g with 6 assassins, my substrate always moves, some days it turns white when the MTS stick their butt out of the gravel.

I hate snails with a passion but these ones do a darn good job of cleaning the tank.

[Apistomaster]

In some of my L134 pleco grow out tanks MTS are so thick that they eat most of the earthworm sticks before the plecos. To an extent, I have minimized their competition by feeding sticks in submerged cereal bowls.
My tanks only have about a 1/4 inch layer of FloraBase as a token substrate so the MTS are not able to dig deeply. As a consequence of the thin substrate depth the snails are on the food within seconds and the bottom material literally seethes from MTS activity.

It is such a hassle to use Loaches in juvenile pleco tanks; they out compete young plecos for live foods. Puffers wouldn't do at all as they would clip the fins of all my plecos. The bowls are reasonably effective at minimizing snail competition so until a better method comes along that is what I continue doing.
I also use these bowls in Discus tanks as they make a good way to feed live blackworms and still minimize the numbers of worms which escape into the substrate. All my plecos are carnivorous and love to feast on black worms confined in bowls.
To a great extent, I am able to raise many plecos along with discus tank mates. Both have very similar water condition and dietary requirements.