Thinking About Malaysian Trumpet Snails

[idlefingers]

I'm playing with the thought of getting a few Malaysian Trumpet Snails and have a few questions:

In rain's pinned post on snails it says "When the lights are off the snails head towards the surface and start eating algae". Does this mean they will climb (or slime!) out of the tank? I don't like the idea of coming downstairs in the morning to find a load of snails on the floor and my dog probably munching on them

Also, I've read that they breed very easily.. is this to the point of becoming a pest and quickly would this happen?

And finally, stocking wise, would adding 8cm of snails be like adding 8cm of fish or do they not really "count"?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[smithrc]

they head for the water line - no futher

they do breed like rabbits though

 

[fishboy619]

i once had them by accident in a planted tank, the best and worst little buggers ive ever had, they would clean up the algea brilliant, stir up the gravel, and not eat plants, but on the other hand, they breed like thier no tommorow and seeing a hundred of these fellas climbing up the side kinda makes you want to get rid. in the end i caught up hundreds and hundreds of these guys.i didnt have the heart to kill them so they all live in my huge outdoor pond apart from a few that remain in my tank.i remove any i see.so they're a blessing and a curse, its kinda up to the owner of the tank if they want them or not, im concidering adding a few to my new sand substrate to turn over the sand, they might breed quickley and i will regreat adding them, but its a risk im going to take.
depends on the tank size, a snail eating fish might be a well choice, but then you have to get the balance between eaten snails and living snails to see any impact.i dont think they count like adding fish, the waste they eat (algea, dead plant matter) sort of equal out what they produce themselves.

 

[three-fingers]

I have them in my tank. You rarely see them unless you look at your tank at night with a torch or moonlight, and though they do breed fast the make up for the bioload by eating waste food and dead plant materials.
My tank doesn't have any algae since I added them either, though I think that has more to do with the mass of plants ive added to my tank, and lack of direct sunlight because it's winter.
I love MTS.
And even if you were to be 'overrun' by them, they sell pretty well on ebay, and puffers like to crunch them too apparently.

 

[idlefingers]

hmmmm... well I don't know what to do now! I do like the idea of them churning up the gravel and eating decaying plant bits & alge.. I guess it's just the thought of them breeding like hell which I'm worried about, but if they're easy to get rid of then maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Glod]

They *can* reproduce quickly when there is a lot of available food. If your tank is not overfed the population should not explode. The short answer would be if pest snails reproduce quickly your malysian trumpets will too. If you don't have a problem with pest snails then all should be (relatively) good.