# Yet another question to pester with.



## mlefev (Apr 19, 2005)

Ok, another silly question from me. I swear, I have the oddest things happen in my aquarium. I was looking around when I saw something that was about an 1/4 inch long shell. Now I have miserable pond snails in my tank, but this was different. It was a pointy-spiraly shape that looked more like a sea-shell than a regular snail. When I picked it up, it was dead. I tried examining it, but it doesn't match anything I've found online. Any idea what it was, where it came from, and how it got there? I haven't introduced anything into my tank in over 3 months. By the way it was a pale goldish-tan color.


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## Lara (Sep 4, 2005)

Sounds like a malasian trumpet snail, they can come in with plants, sometimes even fish. They bury into the substrate and keep it aerated which is good if you have plants (prob why you never saw it). I tend not to like anything that can reach plague proportions in my tank though .


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## Lara (Sep 4, 2005)

You can check them out here


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## mlefev (Apr 19, 2005)

Lara said:


> You can check them out here


Thank you, that looks likes it! I hope they don't invade


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Lol they will. I checked my plants throroughly before I put them in my 29 gallon and even soaked them in salt water to try and try up any eggs or snails I missed. I thought I did a good job because nothing seemed to be in the tank for a while, but a few months later I spotted one and I tried to take them out as I saw them. Now there are just too many to deal with so I let them be. There must be atleast 50 in there. I always find about 10 on the glass walls... Oh well.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

i don't seem to mind them, as long as they do something beneficial to the tank (cleaning up after my messy piranhas) I can deal with them climbing all over the glass. I have several species of pond snails, and I wouldn't trade them for the world, they are excellent at cleaning up algae and left over food. Whats really funny is a little piece of fish floating around the tank while 20 or so snails ride it while eating, like eating while riding a rollar coaster with those powerheads in there! BTW, I havent had to clean my glass since they became established in the tank... something really to enjoy.


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## flynngriff (Jan 19, 2005)

If you have a large enough tank, and don't want to have snails you could always get a couple of clown loaches. They'll eat all the snails they can find...

-Flynn


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2005)

malaysian trumpet snails aren't that bad. they clean up extra food and wont harm plants.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

Malaysian trumpet snails are actually useful especially when having fine sandsubstrate. They keep it airy and eat all the leftovers, and some algae too.


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## mlefev (Apr 19, 2005)

Well they don't sound too harmful. I've been looking around my tank, and don't see any others, but they could be lurking in there, they're pretty small. I have a ton of pond snails and they keep everything but the sand well cleaned (even prune my plants for me) so I guess these others could be a useful addition.


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## AprilRain (Aug 10, 2005)

MTS usually hide in the substrate during the daytime and come out when the lights are out. Dig around in the gravel and you might find some. Another interesting piece of trivia about these snails is that they are livebearers. They don't lay eggs, they'll have one baby at a time and WOW are they tiny! If you are a cronic over-feeder, you might get a population explosion. Even then, they really don't hurt anything... it's just kinda gross to see your gravel churning with all the snails crawling around in it.

-April


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## mlefev (Apr 19, 2005)

I have sand in mine...I think it would creep me out to see it wriggling around. I'm not sure where that one came from because I tried turning the light off and looking around, but haven't seen any more. I do have lots of plants that they could be hanging out by near the roots. Who knows, maybe it was a loaner...


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

Yeah, even though my tank is infested with them, I have to say they do keep it extraordinarily clean. The glass rarely needs scrubbing and it never seems like much comes up from vaccuming. I just wish sometimes I could see past them on the glass to actually look at my fish.


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## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

If i were to get 2 or 3 MTS and got a few clown loaches for population control, would the clown loaches only eat the baby snails? Or the fully grown ones as well? 
Also, if i were to use clown loaches to control the snail population on my community/live bearer tank, would they leave my community fish alone? Or will they pester them. I read on fishprofiles.com that they are "peaceful/active". Not quite sure on the meaning of that. 

thanks


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