Malaysian Trumpet Snail Question

[Akasha72]

Hi, I have a few Malaysian trumpet snails and I've just changed my substrate from gravel to sand. My trumpet snails have now disappeared.
I know they bury themselves, especially during the day but should they have 'disappeared' to this extent? I honestly can't see a single one and havn't for two days now.
I'm just concerned they arn't coping with the sand

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

I would imagine they prefer sand to gravel. I never see mine, they disappear completely into the substrate only coming out after lights out and bury themselves again by time time the lights come on

 

[Akasha72]

okay, that's reassuring

 

[AdamHawk]

They prefer sand big time, I had 7 to start with and they were always in the sand not to be seen, now around 3 months later I have over 100 and you see them when lights come on and about an hour before they go off, if you put your lights on a timer that is. BandQ sell good ones.

 

[Akasha72]

thank you both of you. I've stopped worrying about them now

 

[AdamHawk]

They will be fine im sure, when I got my batch and saw how few there were and how small they were I was tempted to throw in bin, but stuck them in tank and they breed like wildfire.

 

[Akasha72]

I have them for their excellent cleaning properties

If they breed, I don't care. I have friends and family with fish tanks too so they can have a few

I've also read that they are good with sand for airiating it. Not sure how that works but that's what I read

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Yeah well sand can get really stale and compacted if it's not stirred up every now and again but since the snails live in it and are moving around down there it helps to stop this from happening. I have seen a few cases on the forum where tank problems were traced back to nasty sand so, it's a preventative thing to have them

One thing that I love about them is they eat all the algae right on the sand line (and everywhere else lol) where it' really hard to clean without risking picking up bits of sand and scratching the glass

 

[Akasha72]

so I have to stir the sand occasionally then? I wasn't sure on whether I had to or if the snails were doing it for me

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

mmmmm...I don't? Pretty soon I'm going to have quite a few in there so I think it should be fine. But I don't really know for sure

 

[Akasha72]

okay, well what will be will be. I keep a close eye on my tank anyway so I think I'd notice if something was going wrong.

Cheers

 

[Akasha72]

well there's one thing I've learned tonight ... these trumpet snails are tough lil suckers!!!

I've been going through the old gravel (taking out all the plant roots and looking for the glass end off my thermometer that I broke at some point!)that I took out on Wednesday when I changed to the sand and so far I've found 5 small trumpet snails and they're still alive!

They've lived, crushed by a mountain of gravel, in a bucket for 2 days!

I've still another bucket full to go through, god know's how many more I'll find