Malayan Livebearing Snails

[Seecher]

Will these snails help keep an aquarium in better balance by
decreasing the nitrate levels?

Does anyone have any experience with this specie.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/r90019.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwinverts.htm

The Malayan livebearing snail Melanoides tuberculata, also known
as the Malaysian trumpet snail (MTS) is a snail that divides the
hobby. Some aquarists see them as a boon, others as a pest. On
the one hand, they are totally harmless as far as plants go. They
are excellent scavengers and keen burrowers, and in the planted
aquarium do an excellent job of keeping the substrate clean and
oxygenated, fulfilling the same sort of role as earthworms do on
land. However, they breed rapidly, and any waste organic
material in an aquarium not removed by the aquarist will be
quickly turned into Malayan livebearing snails.(the eat fish poop)

[Don Trinko]

One breeder/dealer I know keeps them in his display tanks. He sey's they burrow thru the gravel and eat stuff. Don T.

[Graham]

There's no reason that they would decrees NO3...The extra waste foods etc that they are eating is being turned into ammonia, no different than what heterotrophic bacteria would be doing, decaying it or our fish when they eat it. Protein = NH3 = NO2 = NO3

No question that I would sooner have excess food eaten than laying around rotting....at least this way pathogenic bacteria and parasites counts are kept lower.

[Hans Kloss]

Will these snails help keep an aquarium in better balance by decreasing the nitrate levels?


I have always a lot of these guys in my tanks. Together with freshwater shrimps, gold nugget plecos and clown loaches they are a part of cleaning squad in my discus tank.
Snails cannot decrease nitrates but will eat detritus and algae for sure. Additionally they are doing very good job digging in the gravel.
Hans

[Moon]

I have these in some of my chiclid (non discus) tanks. They certainly do a good job turning the gravel over and eating left over food. The problem is once you have them it is very difficult to get rid of them. I tried cleaning the gravel, sun dried, boil and they kept on coming back. Now i've learned to live with them.

[Hans Kloss]

The problem is once you have them it is very difficult to get rid of them.

Having clown loaches the only problem is to clean the bottom from empty shells ;).
Hans

[Seecher]

If these snails

1... Borrow in the substrate, that is keep oxygen flowing

2.... Eat food that would otherwise go rotten

3... Will also consume detritus

It would seem that all of these contributed to aquarium pollution
and increase nitrate levels. Is my reasoning faulty to think that
by this action they would eliminate much of the causes for
increased nitrate in an aquarium? Maybe they're very presence
would not decreased nitrate but what they "do" would have a
major effect.

It would seem that these snails would be excellent for growth
tanks, juveniles, and those hobbyists who are overfeeding their
discus for maximum growth. Any comments?

[Seecher]

I have these in some of my chiclid (non discus) tanks. They certainly do a good job turning the gravel over and eating left over food. The problem is once you have them it is very difficult to get rid of them. I tried cleaning the gravel, sun dried, boil and they kept on coming back. Now i've learned to live with them.

Greetings Moon,

I've been doing a lot of research on these critters and it seems
that their population is governed by the amount of food that is
available to them. For instance, if a hobbyist keeps a very, very
clean aquarium he will have very few snails and vice versa.
Perhaps they are a good barometer to judge are cleaning
procedures with our tanks?

I'm beginning to like the idea of the snails but have not found a
source... any ideas?

[Graham]

Is my reasoning faulty to think that
by this action they would eliminate much of the causes for
increased nitrate in an aquarium?

Yup...matter doesn't get destroyed.......fish eat food ...what do we get...NH3 and mulm....snail eats food...what do we get... NH3 and mulm......

Bacteria rots food......... what do we get...ammonia and more bacteria and or parasites....

I'd sooner have snails eating it than bacteria but by and large it shouldn't be in there in the 1st place.

One of the worst bacteria that we can have is aeromonas...guess what it likes to munch on more than anything.... the casings on fish poop:bandana: so a good cleaning every few days always helps that situation