# Malaysian Trumpet Snails



## Zeus. (17 Mar 2017)

Hi all

Was thinking of adding some MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snails). 




Read some good stuff about them esp no eggs.
Could go down the Nerite Snail route as they do look great. But dont really want sterile eggs on hardscape.

Your thoughts

Zeus


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## maboleth (17 Mar 2017)

Well, if you take a look on my recent post you'll see we are in the same boat. 

For what I've researched, it comes to this:

+ They don't eat plants - ever.
+ They don't lay eggs
+ They eat decaying matter, refresh and aerate the substrate
+ They eat diatoms (brown algae)
+ They look very cool and neat
+ Many plant breeders and old-school aquarists recommended them in a heartbeat.

- They breed like crazy
- Point of no return: once there they will always be in your tank, whatever the numbers.
- Periodic removal of their numbers is required, either manually, netting them on the glass, using baits or as a last resort, using assassin snails or fish that eat snails.

However, this snail will never harm your tank. People write crazy stuff about snails, some even use nasty chemicals to get rid of the snails. I could never understand that. Snails are part of the nature. MTS even in large numbers won't do any harm, except making your tank look ugly. Or freaking you out with their crazy numbers.

That being said, I'm still on the fence. Mostly because I suffered from a very mild case of molluscophobia. I love and even admire snails now, although I still cannot touch their bodies with my bare hands. But looking at hundreds of them at the same place still produces some terrifying feeling in my stomach. I hope to overcome it by finally introducing MTS to my tank.


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## rebel (18 Mar 2017)

I've heard that they can come back even after the tank has been completely nuked and substrate dried out for months. They also come out of the tank and will kidnap family members on occasion.


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## Zeus. (18 Mar 2017)

rebel said:


> They also come out of the tank and will kidnap family members on occasion.



If you don't pay the ransom do they keep the family member? that would be a plus then


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## Daveslaney (18 Mar 2017)

It cost me 4 lettuces a cucumber and 5kg of potatoes to get the dog back! .
seriously ive had them in the tank for a while,I do have a couple of candy loaches but numbers dont really seem to a problem.
Find lots ofthe real small ones in the skimmer when i clean it too?


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## Progen (21 Apr 2017)

I had some introduced probably with the plants. They soon filled up the 5G tank for a few months until I introduced 2 dwarf puffers. Now, zero.


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## Zeus. (21 Apr 2017)

After further reading around and advise from others i decided against adding them. But i happen to have Ramshorn's in the tank, sneaked in with some plant etc so got got some assassins keeping them in check

Sent from Mountolympus via neural interface


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## Deanne (8 Sep 2017)

I've got MTS, 5 of which I added to my tank as bioload during cycling. The cycling isn't yet finished and ive not fed them, but today, back from holiday, I noticed that the little snails are now adult and there is one tiny baby snail. I feel inordinately pleased.


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