Snail Advice?

[ginaekdal]

I got my new tank in the house today. It is a 115-litre and it came complete with filter, some wood, and sand substrate. There is a small colony of lovely snails that came with the tank, I have yet to take a close look at one but they appear to be Malaysian Trumpets or something similar.
 
The issue is of course that I have soft water which I am aware can be detrimental to snail health and their shells. I have a pH of 6,4 with hardness at 1 dGH. I am happy to have snails in my tanks as I think of them as useful, but with my soft water I would not have intentionally added any either. So where do I go from here? Do I leave them be?
 
I would rather not mess around too much with water chemistry as my other stocking will be soft water fish such as Rasboras, Cories, and/or Tetras.
 
Advice gratefully received.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, leave them be; I have really soft water too and although I fail with 'proper' snails, the MTS seem to do just fine!

 

[ginaekdal]

Thanks! I really hope these little ones will do fine.
 
I am having a blast watching them burrow in and out of the substrate.

 

[NickAu]

MTS are nice looking snails as well as being beneficial.  Just don't over feed or you will have more than you know what to do with.  Other than that they are kinda hard to kill.
 
I also have Clown Loaches in another tank so they make a tasty snack.

 

[fluttermoth]

If they are MTS, they are practically indestructible!
 
I had one tank that had a breeding colony of assassin snails that were doing really well. Unfortunately the tank sprang a leak and I had to dismantle it. I spent ages picking baby assassins out of the sand, but I still lost them all; when I reused the sand in the new tank, after being left outside for a week (damp but not underwater) dozens of MTS appeared, completely unharmed,

 

[ginaekdal]

This fills me with hope. Having never had snails before this tank will be interesting for me.

 
The tank was a complete bargain at only £82 for everything as a local guy was scaling down his fish room, the snails are an added bonus!

 

[StevenF]

Adding a few sea shells or decorative snail shells will add calcium and magnesium to the water which should prevent any health issues to the snails.  It also will not strongly affect your water hardness or alkalinity.  Or you could put argonite or coral in your filter to maintain healthy calcium levels.  Since the previous owner had a heathy population of them it is likely your tap water is OK for them.  Or he used fertilizer with calcium magnesium or had shells, coral in the tank.  Ask him for any advice.

 

[Byron]

I have the softest water on the planet, aside from the Rio Negro itself I suspect.  And I have Malaysian Livebearing Snails by the thousands.  They will be just fine in very soft water, without any additives which will even minimally affect soft water fish.  My pond snails manage, but not anywhere like the MLS.
 
As fluttermojth said, MLS are almost indestructible.  They have been known to survive drying out for a shortish time.  And in an article in Amazonas a while back the author described how they survived being frozen solid for several months in a bucket of ice on the back porch, and when thawed began crawling about.
 
Byron.

 

[ginaekdal]

Thanks everyone.
 
I will leave it as is for now. To my knowledge the previous owner did not have anything in the tank bar the substrate, wood, and a couple of plants. He is fairly local to me but we're not with the same water supplier, and I did not deal with him directly. I assume he has soft water too as he keeps Discus and Puntius titteya.
 
I obviously want the snails to do well but the fish have to take main priority. I'm in luck with the breed of snail it would seem!