Malaysian Trumpet Snails

[razorkai]

I picked up 10 of these critters yesterday to help stir up the sand in my new tank. I was expecting to see them very rarely as everything I read seems to suggest that they are nocturnal, but they seem quite active above the sand at all times of day. I have seen them burrowing, but quite often they are on the tank glass or crawling on the sand surface. Is this normal or have I got the wrong type of snail? I asked the lfs guy whether they were MTS and he said "Um dunno". Typical! They certainly look like the photos I have seen, but I just want to be certain as I don't want plant eating snails! Are other people's snails this active when the lights are on?

 

[Shrimper]

Mine are, I have them in both tanks. At the moment i can only see a few but when i feed the fish/shrimp they all come out of hiding regardless of the light. They are move active at night though.

 

[razorkai]

Hmm... This is probably a daft question but how sensitive to water conditions are these snails? I added them to my tank during a fishless cycle and they were fine for a while but now there are quite a few lying upside down on the substrate I'm fearing the worst, and suspect the ammonia I keep adding has killed them off. For some reason I just assumed that they were hardier than fish. Can anyone confirm my fears?

 

[Colin_T]

these snails are the toughest snails in existance. they can tolerate copper levels 100x recommended dose. that is enough copper to kill a horse.
When the water is not suitable they simply close their operculum (shell door) and stay shut up for weeks at a time. Then when the water is good they come back out and carry on like nothing has happened.
Resiliant little buggars.

 

[razorkai]

these snails are the toughest snails in existance. they can tolerate copper levels 100x recommended dose. that is enough copper to kill a horse.
When the water is not suitable they simply close their operculum (shell door) and stay shut up for weeks at a time. Then when the water is good they come back out and carry on like nothing has happened.
Resiliant little buggars.

Cool! They have all "shut the door", so I'll leave them be. Cheers Colin

 

[Starfishpower]

Colin's right. it's a good thing these guys aren't pests cause theyr tougher than cockroaches. when i first got some i did some research too and found one account of some ppl that had these, they had taken the gravel out for cleaning out to redo the tank... ran it under enough scalding hot water to satisfy any doubts they had in their minds that it was clean... and left it to dry. they came back 3 week later, ya.. it had been drying for 3 weeks, and stuck they gravel in the new tank. the trumpet snails came back! crazyness. their tough little buggars indeed. and ya mine crawl around in the daytime too

 

[Colin_T]

if you can see them crawling around during the day then your tank is probably chock a block full of them. Have a look in the tank an hour after the lights go out and see how many are moving about then

 

[razorkai]

Last night they I had about seven lying in a small group on their backs. They were all protruding slightly from their shells and looked almost like they were testing the water. Very strange sight! I haven't got many at all yet as the tank is new and I only added about 10 to start with. Don't think they've been having babies as they haven't really been very active at all for last few days.

 

[Davegixer]

Mine are due to arrive today, 20 of them. Really excited to be honest (is that sad?) as I'm hoping they will turn over my sand substrate and stop patches of algae forming on it.
I know they breed like crazy but it's just got to best for the sand.