Malaysian Trumpet Snail Problem - Kindly help

nagukush

nagukush

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Jan 1, 2008
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Hi Friends !

With great difficulty and a lot of search, I got these 20 Malaysian Trumpet Snails to add to my Frontosa Tank (to help with the Gravel job) but the problem is that I have 4 little (about 2") Zebra Loaches (http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile65.html) who I'm afraid will kill & eat all my snails.

I'm ready to get rid of the loaches but I cant catch them as they always hide in the tank decor (lots of caves etc for them in the tank)

Just wanted to request you to kindly advice if te MTS will survive along with these Zebra Loaches ? Will they be able to multiply rapidly enough to stay in the tank ? Also are MTS hardy enough to survive the 'loach-attack' ?

Kindly guide me a little here...
Thanks a lot !
Regards
Kush
p.s - Also can these snails survive in salty water (as I add a lot of salt for my Frontosas)
 
I've read that if they're gradually acclimated from fresh to salt (if they were being kept in fresh) they can do just fine, they're hardy snails. I'm sorry idk much of anything concerning loaches but if you're worried about the population being decimated, you could try culturing the MTS in a separate tank. That way you could possibly supplement your frontosa tank, but I don't know how well that would work since you said you wanted them for substrate aeration and they reproduce a little more slowly compared to other small snails (rams and pouch snails).

I hope that made sense/helped at least a little. Maybe someone with more loach experience can chime in? You might as well post in the loach forums as well :)
 
Frontosas are not brackish nor marine fish. Get rid of your salts. They're practically useless here. If you are referring to cichlid mineral salts, it's another story but that one isn't necessary either.

Your MTS will eventually be eaten by the zebra loaches. All botiine loaches are not compatible with invertebrates.;)
 
I have so many MTS in my loach tank that it isn't even funny and I have 10 Kubotai Botia and 6 Clown Botia in there and 3 of the Clowns are around 4". Yes, I find some empty shells around once in a while, but the loaches aren't really putting a dent in my MTS population and the entire population started from a hitchkiher or two on a plant somewhere. If any of your MTS are large, they will probably start breeding right away, and the babies will be so small that the loaches probably will not be able to find them in the gravel. I'm not sure about zebra loaches, but I know that YoYo loaches are the most voracious snail eaters, followed by the Clowns. If I can keep hundreds of them alive in my tank with 16 loaches in it, I think you will do just fine.

DISCLAIMER: It is obviously a risk to put them in there with the loaches if you want a sustained population, even if that risk is low. Maybe put 5 MTS in the tank for a week or two with the other 15 in a separate tank, and see if you find any empty shells over the next couple of weeks. If there aren't any empty shells on the surface of the substrate, the loaches probably are not eating them.

By the way, the MTS will be under the substrate during the day and mostly only come out at night.
 
Maybe the other approach to saving the snails is to feed the loaches enough so that they will not feel the need to eat the snails. Some weeks I have tons of empty snail shells, and some weeks I have absolutely none. I have yet to see my loaches eat an MTS, even though I know they do because of the empty shells in the tank. However, as soon as I put pond snails in the tank they are gone. The loaches eat them up so quickly it is utterly insane. Almost like the pond snails are laced with crack.
 
Hi Friends !
I finally managed to remove the Loaches ! Now I'm a little worried if the snails would be enough to scavenge for excess or missed food that my Loaches were doing wonderfully well - so now my question is are these snails more important or are the loaches more important ?
Kindly guide me...
 
Important in what regard? As far as I am concerned, my loaches mean more to me than the snails, but I have hundreds of the snails and know that the loaches will never be able to eat all of them. Plus, I keep my loaches well fed and I have another 55 gallon tank with the MTS in there as well. I don't have to worry too much about my 16 loaches eradicating my MTS entirely. Give it a shot with the MTS and the loaches in the tank and see what happens. Worst case scenario, you will find out that your loaches are MTS eating machines and you can order more MTS for a separate tank later on. Best case scenario, the loaches will not be able to find each and every MTS snail and you will soon have a good snail population that the loaches can snack on once in a while, and between the loaches and the MTS you will have a really clean tank bottom.

When you put the snails in tank with the loaches, you might want to bury them under the gravel so that they aren't easy prey up introduction into the tank. Sometimes it takes snails a little while to come out of their shell and get going, so this would leave the MTS pretty vulnerable.
 
fabsroman said:
Important in what regard? As far as I am concerned, my loaches mean more to me than the snails, but I have hundreds of the snails and know that the loaches will never be able to eat all of them. Plus, I keep my loaches well fed and I have another 55 gallon tank with the MTS in there as well. I don't have to worry too much about my 16 loaches eradicating my MTS entirely. Give it a shot with the MTS and the loaches in the tank and see what happens. Worst case scenario, you will find out that your loaches are MTS eating machines and you can order more MTS for a separate tank later on. Best case scenario, the loaches will not be able to find each and every MTS snail and you will soon have a good snail population that the loaches can snack on once in a while, and between the loaches and the MTS you will have a really clean tank bottom.

When you put the snails in tank with the loaches, you might want to bury them under the gravel so that they aren't easy prey up introduction into the tank. Sometimes it takes snails a little while to come out of their shell and get going, so this would leave the MTS pretty vulnerable.
Click to expand...

Hi there !

Thanks for the reply and for guiding me... Actually I'm only worried because both Loaches and the MTS are very rare here (we dont have good Fish shops here) and I've found these guys with great difficulty. I really love them both (though I would also agree that I lovemy loaches more than the snails...)

Anyways, the only reason I need the snails in my tank is to keep the substrate and the tank bottom clean. I even read somewhere that MTS also eat Fish waste which I doubt (any ideas regarding this ?)

The tank is a frontosa tank and I need the loaches to keep the tank substrate free of ay rotting excess food and I need the snails to aerate and turn the gravel (also to clear off the algae)

I'm afraid that keeping only the snails might lead to them overmultiplying - anyways, is there any danger if they overmultiply ? I mean is there any danger to my fronts if they increase in numbers ( the excess bioload ? )

So, should I give them some time and let the MTS population grow a little and then put the loaches in or can I do without the loaches - that is if the snails will scavenge equally well ?

Kindly guide me on what to do.. I dont really want to loose the snails also as I got them with a lot of search and I cant get them again...
 
Your MTS will breed up to what the tank can handle unless you overfeed, then you will eventually be overrun by snails.
 
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