View Full Version : Snail ID please
When I first set up this 10g I bought a batch of MTS and I always thought this guy looked different. Even now I can easily tell him from my other MTS. Recently I've begun to wonder if this might be a quilted melania? He's a hitch hiker from the original batch of MTS.
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Are they hermaphroditic? If they are, are they sequential or synchronous? Since it's been more than 3 months without any sign of reproduction from this guy I suspect I'll need a few more to get the population going.
Oh, and one more thing, how can I tell a quilted melania from a malaysian trumpet?
Sounguru
01-19-2009, 6:59 PM
Sure looks like a quilted melania to me... You will need a few more for breeding but to be real honest out of all the snails I have it is the slowest to breed and in one tank hasn't bred at all.
jackiomy
01-19-2009, 7:06 PM
I love it when I get hitchhikers.
I better stop calling the trumpets MTS in general.lol
vampie
01-19-2009, 9:07 PM
Yes, that looks like a Quilted Melania to me. You should only need one to reproduce, and they're very prolific.
Squawkbert
01-19-2009, 9:36 PM
Did you get that from me?
Are they preferable to MTS?
I sure would keep that quilted melania. I have a couple with blue and pink pastel colors on their shells that I kept with my diffusas and ditched the plain brown ones due to tacky colors.
Sounguru
01-19-2009, 9:51 PM
Thanks Vampie for that correction.
Here is some good info on the QM http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/ansrp/ANSIS/html/tarebia_granifera_quilted_melania.htm
vampie
01-19-2009, 10:25 PM
You know, I'm actually surprised you haven't seen any more after 3 months. They're basically like MTS, except they're diurnal, which in most situations would give them the upper hand in getting to food. Because of that, I've found them to be the most prolific snail I've kept.
pik01
01-19-2009, 11:20 PM
nah squawkbert it wasn't from you hehe, this guy arrived months ago. As far as I can tell, QM and MTS are functionally the same snail: burrowers that aerate the substrate and serve as an indicator of overfeeding. I don't really prefer one over the other.
I'm definitely keeping him around. Previously I held onto him just because he looked different. Now that I know I have an entirely different species, he's not goin anywhere :)
Maybe I have been seeing QM young thinking they were just MTS. Either that, or the one I have is a male. The linked article states that QM reproduce through parthenogenesis. Females clone themselves but males, when present, are useless. Makes me question why males are even present in the species, but hey, I'm just reading the article.
Thanks for the help, everyone.