Snail catching time

[seangee]

Decided last night enough is enough and its time to catch some MTS.

No I am not being over-run. No I did not want to reduce the population and no they are not eating my plants. But I am getting fed up with cleaning the substrate in my only tank that doesn't have any. So last night I waited till two hours after lights out and went around the other 3 tanks. I must confess that I was a little surprised to be unable to find any, especially as in mid summer I was removing them by the bucket load - and MTS are for life, you don't just lose them . I did manage to pick a few babies out of the filter chamber in the Flex as well as a couple of decent sized ones. Added a few more to the number today as every time I walked past a tank I had a good look. I know that's enough to start a new colony as it only needs one, but I don't want to wait 6-9 months before I see the effect, so I suspect I'll be putting out some bait tonight

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Are you kidding me? When I turn the lights on in the morning, I have over 50 out in the open! They go back in the sand during the day though.

 

[2tank]

Are you kidding me? When I turn the lights on in the morning, I have over 50 out in the open! They go back in the sand during the day though.

Damn dude thats a lot of snails.

 

[Colin_T]

Damn dude thats a lot of snails.

No it's not when it comes to Malaysian livebearing snails. We removed over 5000 from a 4ft tank once and they weren't being fed much, they just ate the plants and stripped all the leaves and stems down to nothing. The substrate consisted of more snails/ snail shells than actual gravel.

 

[seangee]

Oh well - I hadn't managed to kill them off. First night I left the room light on and went in 2 hours after tank lights out. The next night I turned the room lights out and went in later. Managed to find 50 or so decent sized snails. Repeat next night. I'd be lying if I said the new tank was sparkling but there are large areas of the substrate that are significantly cleaner than others. So in the interests of research I will change the water this weekend without a gravel vac - which is exactly how I do the other tanks every week.

This tank is on my desk and it really is fascinating to watch how hard the little guys work in and under the substrate

We removed over 5000 from a 4ft tank once and they weren't being fed much, they just ate the plants and stripped all the leaves and stems down to nothing. The substrate consisted of more snails/ snail shells than actual gravel.

Never seen them do any harm to the plants but I can confirm a self sustaining gravel bed

 

[Colin_T]

Never seen them do any harm to the plants but I can confirm a self sustaining gravel bed

lol