Mts Snails

[Hallett]

I was just wondering if my zebra loaches would eat mts snails. I wanted them to assist my plants as their not doing to well in sand but I don't want them to get massacred by my loaches either. If I can get some can I order online anywhere?

Cheers!

 

[Wrams]

I was just wondering if my zebra loaches would eat mts snails. I wanted them to assist my plants as their not doing to well in sand but I don't want them to get massacred by my loaches either. If I can get some can I order online anywhere?

Cheers!

I'm not totally sure if the loaches will try and eat your snails (I have had snails and fish peck at them but then swim off due to there shells being to hard). However with snails they lay eggs very often and you will need to keep them under control.(Snails dont need other snails to re-produce.) If you just want something to help with plant growth then just add something like Nutrafin Plant Gro. Make sure you read the instructions before hand. What plants do you have? Some require low light and some high levels of light so that can also be a problem.

Did you know that snails re-produce on there own? You can have 1 snail in your tank and before you know it hundreds...

 

[Corleone]

Did you know that snails re-produce on there own? You can have 1 snail in your tank and before you know it hundreds...

Depends on the snail. Apple snails can't do this, and ramshorns can, but it takes longer than pond snails.

Trumpet snails actually give live birth, and while they don't breed that fast, they can still overrun a tank, and can do so very suddenly when they run out of food in the gravel and come out in the open.

Your loaches might eat some, but the shelter of the sand will keep a lot safe. If you get a good number (people on ebay sell them in lots of 50-100 regularly, and some LFS will give them away for free if they have a heavily infested tank) enough should survive and make it under the sand to make a sustainable population.

Are you using any kind of root tabs or fertilizrs? That may be the cause of the plants doing poorly, in which case, MTS won't help very much.

 

[Amunet]

I would try to find free ones in your LFS first.

We went to a Petsmart here, we got a few apple snails, and I thought I would ask if we could have some of the trumpet snails just to see if they would give them to us... and BOY they could not find enough of them to toss in to the bag for us.

Or maybe find a person here on the forums that's willing to part with some. Never know, might find someone near you that has some to give away, so you wouldn't even have to pay for shipping

 

[rdd1952]

In answer to your question, my understanding is that they will not eat them but I could be wrong. For the most part, they stay buried in the sand. To the best of my knowledge, they will have no bearing on your plant growth. The main purpose they serve is to keep the sand loose and non-compacted. The plant roots will do tht on ttheir own. I just want to relay my personal experience with MTS. I had a few and then a few more and then a few more until I was absolutely over run. They took over my tank. I could dip up a table spoon of sand and there would literally be a hundred in it. I finally had to break the tank down and completely change the substrate to get rid of them. If you get them, make sure you don't overfeed. They will feed on the excess food and in no time at all, as mentioned, you willl have a snail population explosion. I will never voluntarily have them in my tanks again

 

[Corleone]

With gravel it's a bit easier to control them - babies can't hold on and will get sucked up with a gravel vac. Sand, you'd suck up the sand at the same time, though.

 

[Hallett]

Hmm I'm not using any tabs or fertilizers. I had gravel before and they loved it..Grew wonderfully. then I switched ot sand they don't grow and some are looking pretty poor. My loaches seem to suck them out of the shell rather than break the shell..Thats why im concerned.