# Getting rid of Malaysian Trumpet Snails? (i.e. what eats them?)



## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

*:: UPDATED :: Getting rid of Malaysian Trumpet Snails? (i.e. what eats them?)*

I once had the great idea of adding snails to my tank to clean/stir the substrate. So, I started with about 12 adult snails about 9 months ago. Now I have roughly a zillion. They are the only fauna in my tank atm, but Im sick of them everywhere, looking ugly, uprooting my glosso etc.

So, here's the question: How do I get rid of em? I have tried manually removing them, and have probably removed at least 200. They just keep coming; its like a never-ending supply. As best as I can tell, I've removed all the adults and all that are left are babies and juvenile snails.

I wanna know what eats them, and not only what eats them, but what eats them LIKE CRAZY (and is relatively cheap at the LFS). Thx for your help guys


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## JeffB (Mar 24, 2005)

I hear loaches are great snail eaters


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## fishmaster#1 (Apr 10, 2005)

Get a PUFFER they eat snails all day long


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## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

What type of loach? And aren't puffers kinda hard to find?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

They have to be eating something. What is it? I'd clean the tank out well and manually remove them at night. You can help yourself in that by using some bait to attract them all.


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## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

thats another thing... I cannot figure out what the heck they are eating


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## JeffB (Mar 24, 2005)

Dwarf loaches, clown loaches get too big.

They might be eating dead plant matter.


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## fishmaster#1 (Apr 10, 2005)

I can get you puffers no problem. They have the teeth needed to crack the hard shells of the MTS.. Loaches do eat snails,BUT just try to catch them when their job is done


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## SnyperP (Dec 10, 2004)

If you want to go another route, you can put a shallow container or dish with some algae wafers as bait. Generally MTS come out night, but they will show up during the day if there are no predators. Anyways, put the dish in the tank and leave it for a few hours and then come back and remove the dish and discard any of the snails. Rebait and reset. 

A few people here mentioned about the possible food source of the snails. This is because snail population generally booms when there is an abundance of food. This can be because of overfeeding, but you have no fish. The other source is dead/decaying plant leaves/matter. If this is the case, you need to keep an eye out for floating leaves or any material that will decompose and become snail food. 

I went with the dwarf puffer method. It eradicated my snail population, but i left one MTS for kicks. They're pretty easy to find in my area. Please be careful with dwarf puffers though, they're generally rather aggressive towards other species.


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## jsenske (Mar 15, 2004)

SnyperP's idea does work very nicely. On the loach tip- the QUEEN BOTIA (not sure the scientific name, but commonly sold as QUEEN botia) is great in a planted tank and they really get after the snails. They stay fairly small and grow very slowly. I have use dthem many times for major snail outbreaks where the bait trick is not so much an option. I can't stand those types of snails!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

SnyperP said:


> A few people here mentioned about the possible food source of the snails. This is because snail population generally booms when there is an abundance of food. This can be because of overfeeding, but you have no fish. The other source is dead/decaying plant leaves/matter. If this is the case, you need to keep an eye out for floating leaves or any material that will decompose and become snail food.


Yes, the snails will not get out of control without one of the above mentioned reasons. You can go to many measures to remove the snails, but you ultimately have to trace the source to effectively control them, and keep them in control.

Just stick a piece of zucchini in the tank before lights out (much to the same tune mentioned above), and you'll have a covered piece in the morning. That will quickly reduce your population, but you still need to deal with the source to keep them from quickly repopulating again.

I can always tell if something is off balance in a tank just by seeing extra snails on the glass. :-s


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

I have rams horns, trumpets and pond snails, though the pond snails may be gone by now. I have a botia rostrata and 5 khuli loaches. The khulie loaches suck the trumpet snails right out of thier shells, and the other loach keeps the general population down.

Occasionally we will have an abundance of them and a couple sessions of collecting them from the glass and surface knocks them back.

I use a thin scraper that I attached a pouch to get them off the glass. If you knock them loose they fall down into the pouch for removal.


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## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

Im currently looking for some clown loaches... my LFS sucks and only has the most common of the common fish, so puffers are kinda outta the question.

A question I forgot to ask - Will clown loaches mess with my plants?


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Sometimes they do. I've heard reports of them eating holes in leaves.

I'd try the bait method first.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I don't know what size your tank is, but Clown loaches also get pretty large in good conditions and have been known to get a little clumsy with the plants and uproot them.


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## Walter Klockers (Jan 21, 2005)

*Re: Queen Botia*

I agree with jsenske. I found the "Queen Botia" (B. dario) to be the best "snailer" of the Botia group.

IME, Clown Loaches -- *some* have the habit of "popping" holes in leaves (even Anubias), others appear to be perfect citizens. I've always thought that this was due to feeding issues (should include vege matter and more frequent feeding than once a day).

Concerning the "Dwarf Puffer" (or "Pea Puffer"), I added a single one to my tank. I fully expected the lil guy to nip the fins of other fish. The lil floating pea has been in there for about three months now, and I see no indication of nipped fins. I am pleasantly surprised by this. On the other hand, in the LFS tank I purchased him from, it was only the other puffers in the tank that had nipped fins.


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## skinns (Apr 8, 2004)

I bought some 20 MTS about a year ago, since then I have had millions but they don't bother me and the tank does wonders. About a month ago my friend needed to house his clown loach in my tank, its been weeks and I haven't seen but only a handful of snails. 

He took his loach back last night, so hopefully they will rebuild there population.


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## shadow (Jan 21, 2005)

don't know about anyone else but i've always used kribs for ridding snail populations they love them, they eat the eggs and polish of the snails in no time, on the plus side there easy to get and aren't to expensive, i often move some into my rainbow tanks if the snails are out of control and in a day or two move them back out.


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## cgcaver (Jul 10, 2005)

Hey guys - just an update:

I got 2 clown loaches (about 3" long)... and they don't do crap LOL. All they do is swim like nutjobs up and down the glass (they are like glued to each other) - CONSTANTLY. Seriously, it's kinda annoying. They don't bother the snails 1 bit. I sat and watched BOTH of them run into a snail in the corner of the glass walls of my tank at least 10 times, as they swam up and down. They ignored him of course. They bump into snails all the time and ignore them 100%. There are 0 empty snail shells in my tank. My Neons eat the flakes before a single one drifts to the bottom, so I know they (the loaches) aren't gettin full on flakes.

So... Im thinking about returning them. They annoy me. My LFS did have some very nice looking puffers in (I couldn't believe my eyes cuz my LFS sucks totally). What do you guys think about trying a puffer? I've heard some of yall say they will hurt themselves trying to eat MTS. And I wanna make sure they don't wreak even more havoc on my steadily declining Neon population (side note - I will never buy neons again... most puny fish ever. I have perfect water conditions and I fish out 3-4 dead ones daily. I do a water change and you'd think I was runnin a Nazi death camp in my tank.) I figured the quite "round" puffer would have a hell of a time catching Neons.

What do yall think? Are there any other "very easy to find" fish that I might consider? I think we can safely scratch Clown Loaches off the list... sigh. Between fighting green water, an army of snails, and 60+ Neons each constantly on death's doorstep - I think I'm going to have to quit college to pay & care for my tank! ;(


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## Overfloater (Apr 2, 2004)

You are overfeeding your fish. Nearly all snail problems are a result of overfeeding. They can only multiply if there is food for them to eat.


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