AAARRGGG!! Malayan Livebearing Snails

[xtc]

I need sumthin to get rid of em- or at least keep the population under control.

Are Clown Loaches the way to go? Can they handle Brackish? Can they eat the hard shelled bastages? Is there a better option I'm not seeing/hearing about?

My Fugu tank is getting bad and I need to stop it or at least manage it.

suggestions?

[Boxermom]

Yes clown loaches eat them. No, they cannot handle brackish water. They are almost impossible to get rid of unfortunately. Try throwing a carrot or other piece of veggie into the tank at night before you go to bed. In the morning, it should be covered with them. Repeat as necessary.

[xtc]

Yea, I've heard of the food on a plate idea- that's just a bit more work than I wanna oversee- and this is Chomper's tank- the super shy guy that freaks out easily- I'm lookin for stress free solution- I was hoping to test a tank mate...

Any other options?

[Boxermom]

Not really, no. Not sure what you mean by the plate method or more work. No plate is needed and no work is required. You throw a piece of veggie in the tank when you go to bed. In the morning, you pull it out and throw it away with all the snails on it. No work, no stress, no fuss, no muss.

[xtc]

Same concept, but you put the food on a plate and remove the plate- I guess it prevents the loss of those that release as the food is removed....you know, the ones that say "oh, crap- he's gunna kill us!! AAAAAHHHH...let go!!...let go of the food and save yourself!!"

Those guys

I'll give this method a shot.

[Nick]

it's a good one, it never gets them all, but you will also never get nearly overrun, if you do it occasionally.

[OraLacerta]

I've been employing a combination of methods to control my snail-overpopulation. I do something similar to what Boxermom suggested, and also put in a few inhabitants that eat snails- a dojo loach and 2 DPs to kill off most of my ramshorns (this is a FW tank).

The most effective method for me is similar to what the others are suggesting: I take an algae covered rock from my brackish tank, put it in my FW snail-infested tank, and then after a day the snails are all over it and I put it back in my BW tank for my F8s to eat. Malaysian live bearers, which aren't suitable puffer food, can just be tossed.

It's good in a way to hear about someone else's snail woes- I've been battling snail over-population for months...

[xtc]

My first 55 was a community tank- I collected gravel and rock from my local lake- a place where me and my buddies mountain bike- so it was cool to have local flare. Well, that's where the snail came from- now I have those buggers in every tank I have.

But I did notice the issue in the puffer thank lastnight- and there's nothing in there to control the population- so I need to do sumthin.

My FW tank has 4 loaches and they seem to do ok- but when the moon is full- you can see millions more.

[Rocker]

A commercial snail trap is an excellent way of capturing and securing MTS

[Pufferoni]

I have MTS snails in most of my non puffer tanks because they are great for stirring the sand.

I have found that snail populations are usually self limiting based on the availability of food. Although I have snails in all my tanks they never become an issue. I control light(in tank and ambient) and feed carefully.

An over abundance of snails means an overabundance of snail food.

Also I have been wondering for awhile now

Are MTS truly a problem in puffer tanks?

They do keep buried in daytime and there appears to be some disagreement about whether they are a hazard. I have heard this in a lot of places from a lot of people. What is this conclusion based on?

[Rocker]

the cocnclusion is based on a puffer that bit one and broke its tooth.

[nmonks]

And that's the thing... the puffer that broke its teeth on a Malayan snail happened once, as far as I've heard.

My mom broke a tooth on a bar of chocolate once, but I don't consider chocolate hazardous. The risk is surely very, very small. We feed tougher foods (like crayfish and whole clams) to puffers, without problems, so why Malayan snails should be singled out I don't know. Puffers certainly eat MUCH tougher foods in the wild: I've seen them biting oysters and reef rocks to expose their prey. Obviously, it's your call. Rocker considers the risk too high, and he's an experienced puffer keeper (and breeder) and worth listening to.

All I can say is that in my tank adult Malayan snails are ignored by the South American puffers, while the baby snails certainly are eaten, especially when the puffers are hungry. My feeling is that most puffers are intelligent enough to be able to select the right size prey for their jaw size, and surely use feedback mechanisms in their jaws to "feel" whether prey is too hard to be broken. After almost two years, my experience with SAPs is that baby Malayan snails seem to be good tooth-grinders, reducing the need for teeth-trimming down to once a year, if that. Conversely, by eating the baby snails, the SAPs keep the snail population fairly small.

As others have said, excess snails = excess food. If you have too many snails, it means you aren't cleaning the tank properly and/or putting too much food in the tank. Reduce the food in the tank, and the snail population will stablise and then decline as older snails die (Malayan snails that I've deliberately marked seem to live for at least eighteen months).

As a total aside: the salt-tolerance of clown loaches is debateable. A few, mostly older, references say they migrate into brackish water to spawn; most other books consider them salt-intolerant, as with other loaches. Personally, I'd keep them out of the brackish water aquarium without learning more first.

Cheers,

Neale

[Fella]

Why get rid of them at all? I quite like MTS snails, they turn over the sand, mostly only come out at night, and eat left overs.

I consider the upsides of keeping MTS snails to be greater than getting rid of them.

[manutius]

I have to agree with you fella, however if you have a nocturnally active puffer I think the balance goes the other way and I would consider removeing them. The shells are very hard and not all puffers can deal with them effectively. Malaysian population can be controlled by reducing feeding and the addition of loaches like clown will do the job too.

[xtc]

I had a 55 that was over run- in my ignorance I didn't do anything to manage it- I had a disease or illness start takin fish- one a day for nearly 3 months...someone along the way said it was probably due to the over abundance of MSL...I'm not sure that's true at all...but it stuck in my mind as something I wouldn't try again. I did regular water changes and had normal water readings...

I think they're ugly and make a tank look unkept- that's the only real reason I want em gone. That and I didn't invite em- so they're squatters!