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Cichlidiot 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
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.

Jennifer Brooks 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Does anyone have a good way to get populations of MTS under control when
they're overrunning a tank?


One non toxic way to nab a bunch of them is to drop a couple of big algae
wafers into the tank in the evening, right before you turn off the lights. In
the morning the wafers and surrounding gravel is usually covered with balls of
snails. Take a big net and scoop out the snails and surrounding gravel. Toss
the whole thing or pick them out and return the gravel. Do this a few times in
a row and your population will take a serious hit, no harm done to anything
else.
Good luck.
J

David Wee 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Oh i thoguht this thread was going to be a spoofy take on girls gone wild.
Sorry.

--

Daniel Whiting 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Mine always seem to come out at night when the lights are off and climb
up the sides of the tank.. Soooo, I make the room as dark as I can (ie.
no room lights) wait half an hour then go in and use a net to scrape
them off the walls. I had the same problem as you, and doing that a
couple times brought the population down to a tolerable level.

Cichlidiot wrote:
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.




LeighMo 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
I have baby MTS crawling into my power filter
and clogging up the intake and sponge layer


Do you have a pre-filter on the intake? That will probably help. They sell
generic prefilters (black foam cylinders that slide over just about every
standard intake) for a few bucks each at PetSolutions.com and other pet supply
places. It keeps the snails from ruining your filter. One or two may still
get in, but prefilters help a lot.

As for getting rid of them...trapping works very well, especially when the
population is so large. They'll be hungry. Put a big slice of apple or
zucchini on a saucer on the bottom of the tank. (Weigh it down with lead plant
weights, if necessary.) It will be covered with snails by the next morning,
and you can just lift the whole saucer out, snails and all. Do this a couple
of times, and the population will drop sharply. You won't get rid of them all,
but you can easily knock the population down to more aesthetic levels.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Cichlidiot 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
LeighMo wrote:
I have baby MTS crawling into my power filter
and clogging up the intake and sponge layer


Do you have a pre-filter on the intake? That will probably help. They sell
generic prefilters (black foam cylinders that slide over just about every
standard intake) for a few bucks each at PetSolutions.com and other pet supply
places. It keeps the snails from ruining your filter. One or two may still
get in, but prefilters help a lot.


Yeah, I've already thought about the prefilter idea. I've ordered a sponge
that should function as a prefilter by mail-order when I did all my food
mail-ordering this week. It should come sometime next week. I'm still
concerned that the very small snails will get through the sponge, but at
least those won't clog up the intake as badly as the ~0.5-1" ones do.

As for getting rid of them...trapping works very well, especially when the
population is so large. They'll be hungry. Put a big slice of apple or
zucchini on a saucer on the bottom of the tank. (Weigh it down with lead plant
weights, if necessary.) It will be covered with snails by the next morning,
and you can just lift the whole saucer out, snails and all. Do this a couple
of times, and the population will drop sharply. You won't get rid of them all,
but you can easily knock the population down to more aesthetic levels.


Ah, that sounds much easier to lift out than a couple of the other
suggestions. Maybe I'll sink one of my 1 cup measuring cups that I usually
use to mix up food. I know those don't have any soap residue on them
(which I'd worry about with "normal" dishes, hard tap water means the
dishwasher doesn't rinse well). Hmm... I also have a "nursery" net that is
usually meant to float up top for picked upon fry. Perhaps that would work
as well if weighed down.

On a side note, if anyone in the Davis/Sacramento CA area wants MTS, speak
up now. I have plenty to give away.

Cichlidiot 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Daniel Whiting wrote:
Mine always seem to come out at night when the lights are off and climb
up the sides of the tank.. Soooo, I make the room as dark as I can (ie.
no room lights) wait half an hour then go in and use a net to scrape
them off the walls. I had the same problem as you, and doing that a
couple times brought the population down to a tolerable level.


It's a bit of an odd angle for me to get at the sides or front with a net.
I have an acrylic tank with dual lidded home-made canopy on top. That's
the one maintanence task I didn't plan for when designing the canopy.
Simply trying to get the algae off the front glass requires a fair bit of
dexterity, especially for the middle... which is where of course the most
MTS like to go (perhaps because that's where the power filter output is?).

LeighMo 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Yeah, I've already thought about the prefilter idea. I've ordered a sponge
that should function as a prefilter by mail-order when I did all my food
mail-ordering this week. It should come sometime next week. I'm still
concerned that the very small snails will get through the sponge, but at
least those won't clog up the intake as badly as the ~0.5-1" ones do.


Yeah, a lot of people use Aquaclear sponge inserts are prefilters. You cut a
slit in one edge, and stick the intake in. (It's important to use filter
sponges, since they are designed to let water flow through them.) I used them
for years. They work well, but they're kind of ugly.

IME, few snails get through a foam prefilter. And the ones that do probably
get in through gaps, rather than actually traveling through the foam. (I have
quite an MTS farm myself, in my 29 gallon tank.)

I got home from a two-week vacation Wednesday, to find the filter on the 29
gallon tank running very slow. I thought it was dirty media, so I took the
filter apart to clean it. The media was very clean. The strainer with its
foam prefilter had fallen off while I was gone, leaving the 1" diameter intake
unprotected. (I probably didn't connect it tightly during the pre-vacation
cleaning.) As for why the flow was so slow...a 1" diameter apple snail had
lodged itself in the intake tube. It was stuck so tight I thought I'd have to
break the shell to get it out. I did manage to rock the shell back and forth
and work it out of the tube eventually. I thought the snail was dead, since it
was hanging out of its shell and not moving, even while I was manhandling it.
But as soon as I put it down, it started crawling around, seemingly none the
worse for wear.

And of course, I had to wash zillions of MTS out of the filter...

Ah, that sounds much easier to lift out than a couple of the other
suggestions. Maybe I'll sink one of my 1 cup measuring cups that I usually
use to mix up food. I know those don't have any soap residue on them
(which I'd worry about with "normal" dishes, hard tap water means the
dishwasher doesn't rinse well). Hmm... I also have a "nursery" net that is
usually meant to float up top for picked upon fry. Perhaps that would work
as well if weighed down.


I sometimes use a small, wide-mouthed jar. Like the size of a baby food jar.
(My tank is so heavily planted I no longer have room for a saucer!) Sometimes
I leave the veggie bait in for two days (if there are veggie-loving fish in the
tank). The fish will lose interest after the first day, and then the snails
really go to town. (Fresh or frozen vegetables don't pollute the tank as too
many algae wafers might.)

Whatever you use, make sure it's something the fish can't get trapped in!


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Moontanman 18-07-2003 11:15 AM

Malaysian snails gone wild
 
Your problem is almost surely caused by over feeding. MT snails usually don't
bother healthy plants and will usually prefere to scavenge left over food than
eat algae or plants. I like them because the hide during the day and only come
out at night. In your case the over abundence must be causing them to come out
all the time. Put a plate or saucer unpside down with a small peice of liver
under it and remove the snails that accumulate over night until their number
are down to a more acceptable level and cut down on your feeding.

Moon
remove nospam from e-mail to send to me, I grow trees in aquariums like bonsai.
I breed dwarf crayfish, great for planted community tanks. If you can get me a
shovelnose sturgeon fingerling (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) no wild caught
please, contact me


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