# What is this and is it bad?



## mrwong41 (Mar 9, 2007)

I noticed a whole bunch of these things in my gravel










What are they?
Are they Bad?
How can I get rid of them?

My tank has been up and running for a little over a year. I have not added any fish in about 7 months. I have been doing regular 25-30% water changes every 2-3 weeks.


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

That is a malaysian trumpet snail. They are not harmful, just annoying. If you search the posts, there are several methods for getting rid of them.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

They are a good thing, in that they keep the substare stirred up. They spend most of theirn time burrowing in the gravel. I wish I had some.


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## 748johnd (Jun 30, 2007)

BillD,

The problem is that "some" soon turns into many. Be careful what you wish for. I don't like any snails in my tanks because they multiply rapidly and are hard to get rid of. They can also get into your filter and hoses.

John


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## MalawiLover (Sep 12, 2006)

BillD said:


> They are a good thing, in that they keep the substare stirred up.


Though if your fish are of the digging variety, they take care of that.



> They spend most of theirn time burrowing in the gravel. I wish I had some.


They can be unsightly depedning on your substrate color. I can send you some. They can reproduce asexually so all you need is one to get the ball rolling.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

748johnd said:


> BillD,
> 
> The problem is that "some" soon turns into many. Be careful what you wish for. I don't like any snails in my tanks because they multiply rapidly and are hard to get rid of. They can also get into your filter and hoses.
> 
> John


then there is an underlying cause. the snail population only increases when they have to food to do so. I've got MTS in all of my tanks, but in very low numbers. reason, theres no excess food for them.

if your having problems look too see whats feeding them, uneaten food, dead fish, dead plant leaves.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

*PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn*
I thought the same thing when I read that... the snails can only be reproducing at the rate that food allows them to do so at.

Detritus, plants stuffs, algae or something is in that substrate is large volume. If there's enough brown gunk in your gravel, don't be surprised if the Trumpet snail population doesn't hit the 10,000 mark!


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## cevvin (May 2, 2008)

Keep your tank clean and they dont get out of hand. My tank is so clean that I had ton and now I have none. Which is kinda sad, because now I have to stir my sand again. They tend to burrow in the day, and come out when the lights are off. If you have to many of them, there is what is called an Assassin Snail, repoduces very slowly and kills the MTS.


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## 748johnd (Jun 30, 2007)

I agree with you guys about overfeeding and tank cleanliness. I had snail problems years ago when I first started out in the hobby, probably for those reasons. Finally I decided to sterilize any plants I bought when setting up a tank and since then I haven't had any snails at all in my tanks. I just don't want to have to worry about them, although I do like them. I even sterilize the plants I put in my outdoor above ground pond.


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## lv8pv (Apr 6, 2008)

I like them, That's why i always make sure to add them in new tanks. I think they are part of an healthy environment. And they do their part in the little ecosystem we have.


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## heylady (Oct 14, 2004)

I like them too and have them in all of my freshwater tanks. Like others have said, their population is self regulating. If you have a ton of them look to see if you are overfeeding the fish or under cleaning the tank! The only tank I ever see them in is my oscar tank but that's because the tank is mostly bare bottomed. The other tanks I have to search through the substrate to see if I have any still in there (as sometimes my cichlids will eat them especially the small ones).
I'm also becoming a fan of ramshorn snails....for my large cichlids the big ramshorns seem (so far) to be able to deal with them and they really help to keep the surfaces algae free. They will reproduce in the aquarium too but a big downside is they will eat plants.


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## malawimix (Oct 8, 2008)

I got a big bag full of them for a buck at the last aquarium club meeting I was at. I put some in each of my tanks....african community tank, grow out tank, and maternity tank. I seldom see any in the community tank or grow out tank but have a handful in the maternity tank. I've seen my africans pull them out of the gravel and chew on them. They must be killing them off.


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