Who's this stranger in my tank?

irishspy

irishspy

There is a stargate in my aquarium.
Nov 6, 2002
2,502
43
51
67
Los Angeles, third door on the left
breeland.wordpress.com
Hi all,

I came home from the movies tonight (Indiana Jones, better than I expected) and turned on the tank lights to check to see how the new shrimp were doing. Well, to my surprise, I saw the guy in the photo below working his way over the driftwood. :eek: (Sorry for the off-quality on the photo. I hadn't time to get the tripod.)

Tell me if I'm wrong, but is this a Malaysian Trumpet Snail? I have never seen him before in my aquarium, and I know there weren't any in the bag with the shrimp. At his size, I would have noticed him. I'm assuming he must have come in with the plants back in March, but I'm surprised I haven't seen him until now. Do they only come out in the dark? Right now, he's fled to a hollow under the mopani wood.

And I guess this is one of those cases where, if there's one, there are probably several?

I'm assuming he's a MTS and thus harmless, but it's amazing what we'll find in these little worlds we create. :lipssealedsmilie:

DSC00251.JPG
 
MTS, bury them selves in the gravel / sand w/e substrate you have during the day and venture out at lights out.
 
Nocturnal explains it. I wouldn't have turned the lights on at all, except I wanted to check on the shrimp I added. I've wanted some in the tank, so this is a fortunate find. :)
 
I wouldn't worry about there being several. Some people consider them to be pests, but I think that they provide a critical function, digging in the gravel/sand/whatever. By doing that, the snails release any toxic gas pockets, before they could build up and become dangerous. They also help to get rid of excess food. If you don't over feed, you won't get a massive population of snails, either.
 
Get rid of it fast!!!

Well its up to u. I remember long time ago when everyone was sayint they are important and u need them 100% Thats when they were 20 for $20 and that was cheap!

But when I finally got them, I have armies of them and its was a huge eye sore. Eventually there was no gravel just MTS.
 
martialtheory said:
Get rid of it fast!!!

Well its up to u. I remember long time ago when everyone was sayint they are important and u need them 100% Thats when they were 20 for $20 and that was cheap!

But when I finally got them, I have armies of them and its was a huge eye sore. Eventually there was no gravel just MTS.
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah just a few weeks ago i had a 20L over run with them. one every 1/4" to 1/2" on the glass, not to mention all over the 2 pieces of driftwood. I even had 6 Khuli loaches in with them! However when i added 4 dwarf puffers, it took about 3 days before i could not find one. :)

They were an eye sore; however, it was my fault. I tend to over feed. I personally love having them in all my tanks. I just have cut back in feeding if they start to over populate.

Congrats irishspy, on your new friend(S)!
 
The interesting thing is, I haven't seen him since. Not a sign of him... :look:

Judging from his size, I'd say there have to be more, which is fine; I've wanted some MTS in the tank, and almost asked the store owner for some when I was there buying shrimp this weekend. Little did I know, I already had one! (Some...) :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom