Nerite, Mts, And Assassin Snail Questions

[FCWonderer]

So I'm renovating my 10G tank because I want to put sand in it and also want/have plants in it so I also want the sand to be airated and "fluffy" for them. So my questions are as follows:

1. I want to introduce MTS into my sand to keep the sand turned over and promote good root growth. I hear they are great for this. I also hear they will leach up your tank at night to eat algae. I currently have 2 tiger nerites in there and they do a wonderful job of keeping the algae under control. The MTS won't cut off the nerite's supply of algae will they? Will I have to feed the nerite's algae wafers/blanched vegetables then?

2. I love snails and want to have a variety of them but I also want to keep the MTS in check so I want to get some assassins. I don't want to eradicate the MTS population so how many assassins can I get to just control their numbers in my 10G?

3. I've read mixed reports of assassins mixing with nerites. Some say the assassins won't bother bigger snails (my tigers are much bigger than any assassin would get) and some people say they'll gang up on them like they can with mystery snails. What do you guys think?

Thank you guys for your help. I live this site and it's variety of people.

 

[Chad]

My vote is no. I have assassins and they are meat eaters. Here's a couple of videos I found that shows the results.
 
[media]http/youtu.be/72dF0GUftFI[/media]
[media]http/youtu.be/yQRqTTgfQmI[/media]

 

[This Old Spouse]

Assassins will kill any other snails. 

 

[FCWonderer]

I could always move the nerites to another tank but I still would like to know about if I can maintain both populations of assassins and MTS.

 

[Chad]

If they have enough smaller, easy prey it's probable they will leave the larger snails alone but it's certainly no guarantee.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I could always move the nerites to another tank but I still would like to know about if I can maintain both populations of assassins and MTS.

At the risk of repeating myself, assassins will eat any other snail.

 

[FCWonderer]

I could always move the nerites to another tank but I still would like to know about if I can maintain both populations of assassins and MTS.

At the risk of repeating myself, assassins will eat any other snail.

I understand what you're saying, but that answer does not satisfy the question "will any amount of assassins eradicate every singlw MTS no matter how quickly they bred?

 

[Chad]

In my experience with them they will hunt down and kill all the other snails in the tank. That's my experience. The four I have now killed at least a hundred large pond snails in less than a week. They were non stop eating machines. For the largest snails they dined together. If it were me I wouldn't put a snail I wanted to live in with them. 

 

[This Old Spouse]

 

[FCWonderer]

Ok thanks for that. Now if I don't include the assassins and just integrate some MTS, would my nerites have enough algae to eat? There is some large rocks and a stump in my tank that grow a lot of algae on them. I could always just throw in some veggies or algae wafers their way if I have to.

 

[Chad]

That depends on your tank. I can't say how much algae you have so I really don't know if it would be enough.
 
Nerites generally do fine. Trumpets even better.