Strange Snails?

[misnoma]

I just had a looksee at the freshwater tank, and it's somewhat infested with cone-shaped snails, all running around in the gravel (well, doing what snails do).

Anyone know what these are? and how to get rid of em?

[Ira]

Trumpet snails, I think.

[misnoma]

That's them - thanks

(as found here: http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Mela ... culata.php )

Seems interesting, they certainly breed fast, I hadn't noticed them before, and now there are hundreds!

[whetu]

Yep, the good old Malaysian Trumpet Snail. As people said on the site you linked to, they have advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is aerating the substrate, the main disadvantage is that you end up with millions of them!

Personally I don't like the way they look in a tank. Especially if you have dark substrate, you can see lots of white shells all over it. If you do regular gravel vacuuming you're clearing away the dead plant matter and aerating the substrate anyway, so no need for the snails.

Basically it's a matter of personal preference. At least they won't eat your plants.

[LYNDYLOO]

Hey Misnoma,

I would suggest, you invest in a couple of Clown Loaches, they absolutely LOVE these little snails, if I had any snails in my tankies, they wouldn't be there for long, the Loaches clean them out pretty quick.

Good Luck

Lynda

[misnoma]

Yeah, I think we're going to get a couple this weekend (or four )

[Modern Angl]

We've got a few hundred of these in our cichlid tank, you never see more than one or two until the lights go out, then the swarm erupts from the gravel.... good to know they have a good side to them

[LYNDYLOO]

Yeap Mis,

Four is a good number for Loaches, I had 1 Clown loach and never saw him/her, now I have 4, I see them all the time, they are such cool little fellas, they quite often play tag together.

Lynda

[alextret]

I actually like trumpet snails, and tried introducing them in my tank on purpose.

Unfortunately, they are not doing very well. Some died out, some remain alive, but it appears that they do not breed. I see occasionally one or two of them climbing the glass, but they are all the big ones that I introduced in the first place. No small ones.

[JoandWilly]

we had a huge infeststation of them, put 3 skunk loache's in the tank and pretty much all the snails were gone overnight.

[dee_jay_01]

Clown loaches are the answer to get rid of them.

We had a swarm of snails in one of our tanks, so we moved the Clown Loaches over to the infested tank, and with in 3-5days all was left was empty shells.

Gotta love the Loaches, But be carefull if you get them as they are very seceptable to white spot, so quarantine them first if you are able.