# Malaysian trumpet snail, tons of em



## Mekong (Jun 30, 2006)

I have TON of Malaysian trumpet snails in my tank, they dont seem to be doing any harm, but I fear that they have multiplied so much that they are the main bio-load and polluting the water. The second the lights go out its like night of the living dead, they all come out of the ground in hordes.

Tank specs: 29g, natural CO2 system, aquaclear 50, two normal output florescent tubes. Fish bioload is very low, I have 6 white clouds and a sword tail (its mate jumped out a hole near the filter :icon_cry: ) Seachem Flourite substrate about 2" and a number of plants. I have had the tank setup like this for quiet a while, the snails just have gotten out of hand. I tried getting a clown loach, but the last two have mysteriously died after living for a month or so.

So any suggestions? Just let them be? Nuke them with Had-a-snail? Try another loach?

:fish:


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Do not use any snail killing agents.

Stop overfeeding. You can try assassin snails which may eat baby MTS.


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## Lupin (Nov 21, 2006)

epicfish said:


> Do not use any snail killing agents.


Nor fish. I agree. Control overfeeding and simply throw the extra number of snails.


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## vance71975 (Jun 4, 2008)

awww leave um be! they are my Fav Snail, if you have that many excess sell some on Swap and Shop, they are very helpful in keeping gravel stirred up and providing fert at the roots of plants(snail poo).


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## Oscar17 (Dec 7, 2007)

I had the same problem with my Ramshorn Snails.. I just "let it be" and fed carefully.. The population is stable now. I believe that with careful feeding so many snails eventually eat up all the excess food and start to die off. Of course my tank is very clean now. And I have removed a few dead shells here and there.

Another thing I did is, I bought a small acrylic container in the food section of a discount store, it's about 1 gallon. Put a flat rock with Java Moss tied to it and VOILA! instant nano tank for snails. HTH.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

just siphon them when they come out..


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## dr.tran (Oct 8, 2007)

I hate them too and I hand picked out as many as I could from plants and the sides. Then I tore down the tank and poured boiling water over the substrate. I finally got rid of all of them.


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## medicineman (Sep 28, 2005)

I have a sizeable clown loach that survived in my tank for years, but it failed to act as good MTS control. I do not feed my tank well, so the loach should be pretty much left to feed itself from snails.

I leave my MTS be as they are beneficial. Just keep them in check so they do not become a nuisance. Remove excess snails manually and try not to overfeed.


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## Soujirou (Jun 16, 2008)

Don't use loaches for snail control. There are two mistakes you made with your clown loach. The first is that they are a social fish and to be in a school or they will be constantly stressed out which makes them more likely to die. The second is that a 29 gal is not nearly enough room for them when they begin to grow. The only loach you could get away with are dwarf loaches, but they are too small to eat MTS's.

Basically you need to figure out what the snails are eating at get rid of it or limit it. After many responses of "you're overfeeding your fish" I finally figured out that my snails were eating my driftwood. That is not to say they weren't eating other things, but their main source was the driftwood. So I pulled out the driftwood and perhaps I will put it back in a month or so, but they are all gone.


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## debdp (Apr 9, 2008)

Good luck. I had one come in on a plant, from there they skyrocketed. I don't overfeed. They just keep multiplying. There are a lot of mixed feelings about them. Some love 'em, some hate 'em. I fall to the latter. I started getting concerned because I have kuhli loaches that come out to feed at night... if there's anything left for them. I noticed they were getting thin when before the snails showed up they were always nice and fat. I tried picking and picking every time I walked by... tried setting traps. It's been several months and it's impossible. I started with Java plants and went out and bought some different ones to get a nice planted tank... my first one. And although people say they don't eat plants they're eating mine and I can see them do it. I was soo concerned for my kuhli loaches that I bought a 29g, built a new cabinet and set up the tank. The kuhli's have been moved. There are 6 plants in there that were QT for 3 weeks after being soaked in Hide A Snail for 30 minutes and then rinsed really, really well. 2 plants came from the old tank, the others were new... Of the new two were in a tank at the LFS that had malaysians there, too. I still have half my Amano and rest of my fish to move to the new tank. The old tank is a 30 gallon Hex. I moved one piece of driftwood over after boiling it. But the rest of the really nice driftwood with java attached will not be moved. There's no way to be sure they're free of snails or eggs without treating somehow. And I won't soak anything like rocks or driftwood with Hide A Snail solution as the copper will most likely be absorbed by them and will never come out. For me setting up a new tank actually works out better. Before I only had gravel, now I have Eco Complete substrate. I have 5 more plants in QT that will be moved into the new tank after another 4 weeks of QT, all have come from the old tank as well.


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## moogoo (Dec 7, 2007)

I have a ton in my 10 gal shrimp tank. I pick out the large ones as well as large pond snails and toss them into the other tank where my dwarf puffer is waiting for supper.


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

you could tie a piece of string around a slice of zucchini and put that at the bottom of the tank, when the snails come to eat it, and cover it, you pull em out and discard them.

I did this and after about 5-6 times most of the snails were gone.


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