Can you keep snails and mbuna together?

[jameshilljr]

I have a planted 55g I bought off of craisglist that had about 5 small snails with it. Since the 55g has been setup(about 8 weeks now)I keep seeing empty snail shells, and no activity from any snails. Can I keep snails with mbuna(I also have a 5" CAE as well), or will they just be eaten?

 

[ibr3ak]

Someone mentioned keeping nerite snails in with africans, but personally I don't see how keeping any snail in with mbuna will work, they'll pretty much poke their noses and try to eat anything that's edible and alot smaller than they are.

 

[jpappy789]

I agree. An entire pond snail infestation (literally) was wiped out by my tangs in the 55. Inverts do not last long with cichlids.

 

[Lupin]

Try an infestation of MTS. They're more well-protected than pond snails from predation.

 

[nchoe123]

i don't see my snails surviving long when i plop them in my mbuna tank; not a big deal though. the mbuna nipped at the apple snails too much so i rescued them and moved them to another tank. (they eventually died)

most of my other tanks seem to have a pretty decent number of both MTS and ramshorn snails, but not the mbuna tank. i just got victorian haps, in a different tank, we'll see how the snails fare in there.