# Snail recommendation



## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

Hello folks,
Would anyone like to volunteer a suggestion on how I should populate my first planted aquarium with snails?

My tank will be a 55 gallon heavily planted El Natural. The substrate will be MGOC mineralized soil mixed with Safe-T-Sorb and Laterite with a cap of Black Diamond sand with some rock and driftwood on top.

Thanks in advance, I always very much appreciate you-alls help.

~Grizz


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

All of the common snails are good, in my opinion. Malayan trumpet snails are especially useful because they gently burrow into the substrate and help prevent anaerobic conditions. And they are almost always free for the asking.

If you want something more ornamental, there are interesting color varieties of the common mystery snail and ramshorn snail.

Some species of apple snails and rabbit snails will eat plants, so avoid those. They are relatively rare in the hobby, so you are unlikely to get any by accident.


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

I would stick with the MTS (malayan trumpet snails). They have live young. The other snails are egg layers and they leave their egg sacks all over everything. The MTS are really the ideal snail for a planted tank.


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## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

Tugg said:


> I would stick with the MTS (malayan trumpet snails). They have live young. The other snails are egg layers and they leave their egg sacks all over everything. The MTS are really the ideal snail for a planted tank.


Thanks guys for your help,
How many MTS would you recommend for a 55 gallon? Should I introduce them once I have verified the tank has cycled or wait some period of time?

~Grizz


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

MTS reproduce very rapidly--you literally could start with just one! Start off with 10 or 15 just for good measure. More won't hurt. You can add them to the tank as soon as it is cycled.


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## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

Michael said:


> MTS reproduce very rapidly--you literally could start with just one! Start off with 10 or 15 just for good measure. More won't hurt. You can add them to the tank as soon as it is cycled.


Cool, thanks Michael and Tugg.

~Grizz


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## redthumb (Apr 17, 2014)

You may want to add assassin snails at the same time to kinda curb the over population of the MTS


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## junebug (Aug 5, 2013)

MTS will only grow to the population that the bioload of the tank will support, so there's no need at all for an assassin snail. However, Assassin snails are BEAUTIFUL so if you want a really pretty snail, get a few. They won't hurt a thing. IMO MTS are a requirement for any planted tank, particularly those with soil prone to anaerobic spots, and those with sand.

There are many fun varieties of nerite snail as well, and mystery snails are a great addition to a planted tank. I find nerites useful if the tank receives a lot of natural daylight, otherwise they are just there to look pretty, so I tend to stick to colorful, or horned varieties whenever possible.

I also have a NPT that gets all natural daylight with a mixed herd of black and white mystery snails, and the color contrast is awesome. The fish in the tank are jenynsia onca, if you haven't seen them they are a nice pearly white with black dots on their body. The snail's colors work very well with them. I think I also have one gold mystery snail in there by accident. He's not hurting anything.

My boyfriend's 55 gallon walstad tank has mystery snails, MTS, and some bladder and ramshorn snails that came in on the plants. We're keeping them all, they are so fun to watch 

Edit: Rabbit snails might also be an option. Some are plant eaters, so watch which ones you get. But they have amazing colors and are just plain gorgeous.


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## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

redthumb said:


> You may want to add assassin snails at the same time to kinda curb the over population of the MTS


Thanks RT, I was kind of wondering about that.

~Grizz


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## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

junebug said:


> MTS will only grow to the population that the bioload of the tank will support...


Thanks for the helpful information junebug. I noticed that there are several varieties of MTS out there and I suppose that they are all basically the same snail with different shells. I now know enough to make an informed decision on the subject. I'll most likely begin by adding a few MTS and then add some friends as time goes on, although I don't think assassin snails would be considered friends by the rest of the pack. 

~Grizz


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## Tugg (Jul 28, 2013)

I read somewhere that assassins leave he nerites alone. I'm not sure why, but I've seen it more than once.

In any case, I'd let the MTS get a healthy population before adding the assassins anyways.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I don't know about assassins versus nerites--the few nerites I have owned all crawled out of the tank and committed suicide. I would only keep them in a covered tank.

Almost all of my tanks have a mix of trumpet, ramshorn, and assassin snails. I find that each tank usually comes to a balance point between the populations of the different species. Over the long term, sometimes the assassins become too numerous and suppress the population of the other snails more than I want. When that happens I just take out some assassins. Assassins reproduce much more slowly than the other species, so they are very easy to manage.


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## redthumb (Apr 17, 2014)

Yeah I have a ten that's full of snails and I drop baby assassin snails in there to eat and grow ...... My MTS almost covers all of my gravel so I leave adults in the big tank with them


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## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

I wanted to get back to you all and thank you once again for the help.
Much appreciated!
~Grizz


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## mooncon (Oct 12, 2011)

Assassin snails will eat nerite snails when all common snails are gone ive seen it in my tank.


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