Snails/fry

[Cathy G]

My main tank has become a haven for malaysian trumpets... I don' t mind, I know I over feed. (My bolivians have become fairly good at raising some of their fry, and feeding the fry in a large planted tank gets tricky...)

Anyway, they and their blue cousins often lay eggs and/or wrigglers on the substrate. Will the trumpet snails go after these eggs/wrigglers? I have seen my male blue ram nose one off a rock with eggs, but it would be awfully hard for them to protect against a snail coming up through the gravel, and both pairs move their wrigglers to gravel pits they have dug.

What do you all think?
Cathy

 

[apistoireland]

Hi Cathy,
don't think that the snails pose a threat. I used to have them in my tanks and never had any problems. Since I moved to a new house we have a different water supplier and my water is so soft that they can't form a proper shell. A pity really since these snails come in handy eating any left over food and also aerate the substrate for better plant growth.
Just see if the spawns get eaten. If they do, you might have to strip the whole tank and start fresh. It's almost impossible to remove all snails mechanically. You will always overlook some snailspawn on a plant or some other kind of decoration. Chemical remedies against snails don't actually kill them just disable them so that they are easier to collect. Which is complete bull since no snail has out run or out foxed me yet....

 

[sherry]

I have very soft water AND mtsnails.. and my first baby cacatoides

I do add gh back to the water for the plants.. so my kh is 1, gh is 4.