I have a snail puzzle.

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tanks4thememories

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Aug 16, 2008
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How does the song go?
"she swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly"

Ok well to make this as short as I can. I just switched to sand. I dont want to stir the sand as periodic maintenance (have to stir sand in FW to avoid gas pocket build up that is poisonous to fish) So I got some MTS (Malaysian Trumpet snails) coming this Thursday or so. These guys live in sand and do a good job of stirring it. Problem solved right? Well now I have to make sure my tank is not over run by snails. I was considering a puffer (they eat snails) but if one of the larger fish ever bit the puffer it would likely die(Puffers flesh is often poisonous). So that leaves me with assassin snails but they would soon multiply and eventually eat all of the MTS and Assassin snails don't stir sand. So my idea is to get just (1) assassin snail but my questions are two fold:
1) How do assassin snails reproduce?
2) How many snails could an assassin snail assassinate if an assassin snail could assassinate snails?....Hehehe I couldn't resist So how many could just (1) snail be expected to kill?
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MTS shells can often be too strong for brackish/fw puffers. I would suggest a small eartheater, they turn the sand over and look beautiful without significant aggression.
 
srikamaraja;2234302; said:
MTS shells can often be too strong for brackish/fw puffers. I would suggest a small eartheater, they turn the sand over and look beautiful without significant aggression.
Click to expand...

how deep do they dig?
You know anything that eats snails besides puffers?
 
Loaches will keep the snail population down, but never completely eliminate it, especially when well fed. Botia, Yasuhikotaria, and Chromobotia loaches are all good snailers.

A geophagus cichlid will sift through all of the sand it can access as a passive activity.
 
The small population of malaysian trumpet snails dissapeared from my tank when I bought some clown loaches.


1 snail makes more snails without other snails to start with, I think, BTW.
 
dont get a fish/snail to solve a problem... it always causes more problems than it solves..

just take 3 seconds out of yer life and move the sand a bit when you vacuum yer tank out
 
chesterthehero;2235293; said:
dont get a fish/snail to solve a problem... it always causes more problems than it solves..

just take 3 seconds out of yer life and move the sand a bit when you vacuum yer tank out
Click to expand...

That isnt the real point for me. I am trying to take my tank to the next level and do some things I havent done before and hopefully learn from the proccess.

Kept multiple large "oddball" predators in a large tanks - Done that
Had gravel in FW tanks - done that
Kept strange "Oddball" fish that typically don't get along in the same tank with few incidents - Done that .
Treated different diseases that fish get - done that
Kept moderately planted tank - done that
Kept snails - New
Sand - new

So I'm trying with this tank to do some more natural maintenance, I will still run UV and do water changes of course but a few things differently.
 
You can control your MTS population by keeping the tank clean. They won't reproduce if there's not enough crap for them to eat. Besides they never leave the sand so you barely even know they're there.
 
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