Does Anyone Know What Type Of Snail This Is?

[rodders666]

Does anyone know what type of snail this is, it's a bit of a blurry photo as it is tiny (the white is 5mm gravel).

Thanks
 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looks like a Malaysian Trumpet Snail.
 
These are good for turning over the substrate, eating debris and leftover foods. However, they are profilic breeders, so you may get a rather large amount of them in a short amount of time.
 
http/www.planetinverts.com/malaysian_trumpet_snail.html

 

[rodders666]

Thank you, Ch4rlie. I have only seen this one, must have been a stowaway on a plant. I'm not too bothered if it's a helpful one, I do have two nerite snails in the tank. I haven't seen any other imposters and it's been a few days since this one appeared.

I don't fancy being overrun (hence the nerites option) so fingers crossed it is just this one haha.

Thanks as always Ch4rlie, you're a star.

 

[Ch4rlie]

A very common occurence having snails sneaking into tanks via plants.
 
Happened to me with pond snails hitchhiking into my tank via a non aquatic plant (dracenea plant which is ironically commonly sold as aquatic plants!) when i first started the hobby, though I have learned to like having snails and now absolutely do not mind having them. Imho they are of more benefits to a tank than they are negative.
 
Nerites are cool snails, lots of pattern and colour variations, though they need lots of algae to munch on, they may be ok with algae wafers and suchlike, it depends on how they were introduced or bred by LFS. Nerites eggs cannot survive in FW so they need brackish waters in order to reproduce so thats one good thing about nerites, the ability to control their numbers

 

[rodders666]

Nerites eggs cannot survive in FW so they need brackish waters in order to reproduce so thats one good thing about nerites, the ability to control their numbers

This I knew hence going for the nerites. The more I read about the MTS though I wouldn't mind having some, I just really don't want to get overrun haha

 

[Ch4rlie]

Pretty much next to impossible not to get overrun with MTS if you mulitples of them already
 
You can of course try with lettuce leaves and snail traps take out a bunch of them every so often to keep population under control.

 

[Baccus]

In my experience MTS dont tend to go for lettuce leaves, like Ramshorns do, instead use sinking catfish wafers in a trap and it will soon be swarming with MTS. Otherwise I find after doing a pretty large water change the MTS often start crawlling up the walls of the tank making it much easier to wipe them off with a net and dispose of.

 

[Ch4rlie]

In my experience MTS dont tend to go for lettuce leaves, like Ramshorns do, instead use sinking catfish wafers in a trap and it will soon be swarming with MTS. Otherwise I find after doing a pretty large water change the MTS often start crawlling up the walls of the tank making it much easier to wipe them off with a net and dispose of.

 
This is what I have found exactly as well, very soon after a big water change, out the MTS come of the substrate and go all over the glass.
 
I did wonder if this happens to others who keep MTS, guess that question is now answered

 

[Baccus]

Rather than crawling I maybe should have said swarming, its only when you see hundreds of them you realise how bad they had got, hidden away as they usually are in the substrate.
 
Since I mostly have sand in my tanks another thing I do is scoop a net through the sand getting a net full of sand and snails, then I swish the net in the water allowing the sand to fall back into the tank (dont do this near your filters intake) until I am left with almost no sand and just a bunch of MTS to dispose of. Very satisfying and the fish have a field day going over the freshly turned sand picking up tasty morsels.
 
I dont think napalm could even kill MTS, so most of the time I maintain a running battle with them since I cant use any poisons to kill the MTS as this would also kill my shrimp and wanted snails like nerites and notopala.
 
If using any commercial snail traps watch out for the fish, my not so bright endlers and guppies got themselves stuck in the trap and so did some of my shrimp, also I found the commercial traps didn't work so well for MTS so I made my own.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I dont think napalm could even kill MTS

 

 

[Baccus]

I firmly believe that the two things that will survive a nuclear holocaust is cockaroaches and Malaysian Trumpet Snails

.

 

[rodders666]

I firmly believe that the two things that will survive a nuclear holocaust is cockaroaches and Malaysian Trumpet Snails

.

 
....and twinkies, right?

Thanks. I am having a full rethink on my tank, I am fully cycled and have gravel in, but I'm going to switch to sand so tonight I'm draining the tank and removing the gravel. I'm going to try to save my mighty imp mts as he's a cute little bugger. As there is only 2 nerite snails and my imposter I'm not overly concerned about causing any issues with my cycle, but do you have any tips?

I'm going for a dark sand in which my plants (java fern, anubias nanas & cabomba) can take further rooting through there from the bogwood they're on. The cabomba isn't on bogwood btw. I've had cabomba before and it grew for fun, so will be ideal for my "jungle" type vision I have.

I'm thinking of a group of pygmy corys then eventually my neon (or cardinal) tetra group. It's a 20g long.

 

[thrujenseyes]

Hey guys!  Haven't been around in a long while so I'm reading the boards and came upon this thread...
 
is there a reason you don't introduce the Assassin Snail?  It sure takes care of pest snails!  No need to over run your tank with them either...just plop one in there and watch him go to town!  They don't usually become pests themselves.
.....and they're cute as hell