I have had a large snail population in my Piranha tank for at least 4 months now and before that the tank was a half land half water tank and it to also had waves of snails. I have read online that snails will only populate as much as the available food will allow them to. My Ps are of course messy eaters so food is readily available. I was originally thinking that they were Trumpet snails based on information I have read on the internet, but when ever I have seen pictures of them it didn't necessarily look like what I have in my tank. I have read good and bad things about MTS and have recently converted one of my tanks from gravel to sand. I was doing more research on snails because I wanted something that would aerate my sand and control waste and algae. I have heard that Trumpet snails are good for that purpose. What made me really start questioning what typre of snails I had was that people were saying that MTS remain hidden for most of the day. The snails I have are out constantly and they are everywhere. After searching for more info I stumbled upon a type of snail that kind of looks like mine, the Bladder snail. I have read that these maybe good as a cleanup crew as well. One thing I did notice is that despite the thousands of snails in my tank I still have algae in spots. What I am trying to figure out is if I should introduce the snails I have in my piranha tank to my bigger sand substrate tank or possibly get some actual trumpet snails(if that is not what I currently have), or use something else for waste control and possibly get rid of the snails I currently have?
Bladder/Pond snails or Trumpet snails? Good or Bad???
- Thread starter D Realist
- Start date
you can get rid of the snails by adding aquarium salt to your tank
the best wast control you can do is by doing regular water changes
the best wast control you can do is by doing regular water changes
Hello; I have had tanks with a large population of MTS in the past. It seemed to me that when the population gets large that many are out and about much more during the lit peroid. My guess is that they are being outcompeted in their preferred spots and are resorting to being out and active even during a lit peroid.
Even thou the population may be unsightly they may well be doing some positive things for the tank conditions in that their consumption of uneaten food may be a better result than the decay process that would be taking place.
The MTS in my planted tanks do not clean algae very well. I see a lot of them grazing the glass just after lights on in the morning but the cleaning is spotty being only good in random small areas.
There are web sites with pictures of MTS.
The concept of adding salt to a tank to control snails is not one I am familiar with. Would the amount of salt needed not be such that it would cause other issues in a tank?
I also do not understand how water changes can affect a snail population. Perhaps someone can explain?
Even thou the population may be unsightly they may well be doing some positive things for the tank conditions in that their consumption of uneaten food may be a better result than the decay process that would be taking place.
The MTS in my planted tanks do not clean algae very well. I see a lot of them grazing the glass just after lights on in the morning but the cleaning is spotty being only good in random small areas.
There are web sites with pictures of MTS.
The concept of adding salt to a tank to control snails is not one I am familiar with. Would the amount of salt needed not be such that it would cause other issues in a tank?
I also do not understand how water changes can affect a snail population. Perhaps someone can explain?
I am about 98% sure now that they are bladder/pond snails that I currently have in my Piranha tank. I am seriously considering adding MTS to my Oscar/Gar/ID Shark sand tank. I want to get them to stir up the sand.
Do pond/bladder snails stir up sand? If I add assassin snails will they control the population or will they eliminate them all together?
I have a large population of MTS in my tank. They're great for keeping the tank spotless, but are quite unsightly.
Hello; I have watched a tank with MTS and gravel. From time to time the gravel would move. It appears strange if you do not know that the MTS are moving about underneath. I do not know how deep they can burrow but have been impressed at the amount of gravel they can shift for their size.