Does anyone have a good way to get populations of MTS under control when
they're overrunning a tank? I have baby MTS crawling into my power filter
and clogging up the intake and sponge layer. Every square inch of the
substrate seems covered with them. They crawl up the walls during the day
and hang off the surface of the water there's so many of them. Hell,
they've even outcompeted the pond snails that came in on some plants.

I can't really add things like loaches as this is a Tanganyikan cichlid
tank and my similis (very mean for a shellie) are really protective of the
substrate area. They'd probably beat any loaches to death. Too bad the
similis aren't into escargot... might have saved their last several
spawns, which I suspect the MTS ate because there's MTS in almost every
one of the shells and there has not been a successful spawn since the MTS
population exploded. I'm looking more for some tried and true baiting
methods. I don't want to eliminate the snails, just thin out the herd a
little (well, a lot).

I'm also wondering if this overabundance of MTS is why all my crypts
melted. They started a slow melt several months ago (1 leaf every few
days) right about when the snail population took off. I've gone from nice
big "red" wendtii to one or two small young leaves per plant. One of the
crypts I took from this tank and transplanted to another tank stopped
experiencing melt, so I know this has something to do with this particular
tank. What makes me suspect the snails is the way they swarm the base of
the plants and the few plants I've found that have slowly risen out of the
gravel. Seeing as the fish pay no mind to the plants and the similis do
not dig in that portion of the substrate (crushed coral is where the
crypts are planted, the similis prefer their sugar fine sand shellbed), I
doubt its the fish that are unplanting the crypts.