Mts Snails

scotty · Feb 11, 2011

i currently have lots of mts snails in my tank,what is the best way get them out?

cheers

scott

kevinjames · Feb 11, 2011

Stop overfeeding

scotty · Feb 11, 2011

kevinjames said:
Stop overfeeding

what a useful answer that was !!!

Curiosity101 · Feb 11, 2011

Although it was an extremely short and un descriptive answer kevinjames is right to an extent.

If you want mts but have had an explosion in population then it'll be due to overfeeding.

However if you got them accidently and want rid then I find the best way is to do a blackout for 24hours or so. MTS only normally come out at night or if the water quality is bad. If you leave the lights off for an extended period of time then you should find that the majority are snailing their way up the sides of your tank/plants/equipment. So just manually remove them. Repeat the process over a couple of weeks and you should hopefully be able to remove them all. Possibly not... but they aren't a pest so long as you don't overfeed.

scotty · Feb 11, 2011

Curiosity101 said:
Although it was an extremely short and un descriptive answer kevinjames is right to an extent.

If you want mts but have had an explosion in population then it'll be due to overfeeding.

However if you got them accidently and want rid then I find the best way is to do a blackout for 24hours or so. MTS only normally come out at night or if the water quality is bad. If you leave the lights off for an extended period of time then you should find that the majority are snailing their way up the sides of your tank/plants/equipment. So just manually remove them. Repeat the process over a couple of weeks and you should hopefully be able to remove them all. Possibly not... but they aren't a pest so long as you don't overfeed.

cheers for that,certainly not overfeeding,only have 6 pepper corys in there,who get fed a small amount once a day,i'm sure i read somewhere you can put a bit of veg under a plate/bowl,leave it for a while and that should bring some up,is that correct.

cheers

scott

Curiosity101 · Feb 11, 2011

The lettuce/spinach trick is well known but it's less applicable for MTS than it is for pond snails and ramshorn snails.

You could try it. But for MTS your best bet is definitely a 24 hour black out then scraping them all off the sides/equipment. You might be shocked at just how many you see after a 24hour black out.

fishnovice · Feb 11, 2011

Curiosity101 said:
Although it was an extremely short and un descriptive answer kevinjames is right to an extent.

If you want mts but have had an explosion in population then it'll be due to overfeeding.

However if you got them accidently and want rid then I find the best way is to do a blackout for 24hours or so. MTS only normally come out at night or if the water quality is bad. If you leave the lights off for an extended period of time then you should find that the majority are snailing their way up the sides of your tank/plants/equipment. So just manually remove them. Repeat the process over a couple of weeks and you should hopefully be able to remove them all. Possibly not... but they aren't a pest so long as you don't overfeed.

Unless you have a HUGE population explosion due to overfeeding, keep the MTS. They don't normally breed in huge numbersto become a pest and are great for turning over sand and finishing off uneaten food, bits of leftover bveg etc. Brilliant tank cleaners, love mine and have them in all my tanks