Snails Hiding?

[Hathaway]

A couple of weeks ago there were snails everywhere. A couple of small species I couldn't identify that had no doubt stowed away on some of my plants to get into the tank, as well as many Malaysian trumpet snails I'd deliberately put in. It was actually getting to the point where I was considering methods to remove the smaller unknown snails. They were literally everywhere including the MTS happily moving about during the day, up the glass etc.
Last week however my first fish entered the aquarium (350 litres) after a long fishless cycle. Just 9 juvenile black ruby barbs and a juvenile opaline gourami to start with. The day after I barely saw any, and now I'm hard pressed to see more than one or two. Even though I don't believe the barbs or the gourami pose any threat or have any interest in eating the snails (or am I wrong?), is it possible that the snails, having had the run of the tank for weeks prior, have now gone into hiding having detected a new presence in their environment?
It's not a problem in any case, just wondered if anyone else had experienced similar.

 

[Munroco]

I have heard of blue gouramis (which your opaline is a sub type) eating snails, I have no experience of it.

 

[Akasha72]

have you checked your water stats? I know you've done a fishless cycle but there is evidence that snails will make their way out of the tank if the water stats arn't right. In fact snails acting oddly can be the first sign that there's ammonia in the tank.
 
Might be worth a quick check just to make sure

 

[Hathaway]

Yea I've been checking the water stats regularly and ammonia and nitrite and have stayed at 0 thankfully (it's nerve wracking starting off! xD). Haven't seen any snails out of the water.
The nitrates are stubbornly remaining at about 50-60 ppm but that's been the case since the beginning. Unfortunately my tap water is 50ppm. I've added JBL BionitratEx filter media to my external canister but have yet to see any real results, may still need a little time to activate properly. Doing weekly 25% water changes now even though that may be counter productive in that sense. The tank is fairly heavily planted too. May just be a waiting game.

 

[Ch4rlie]

The MTS will burrow under the substrate so you'll hardly see them except after water changes when most of them will pop out to say hello!
 
BTW I would up the water changes to 40 - 50% weekly rather than just 25% to keep the water nice

 

[NickAu]

 
The MTS will burrow under the substrate so you'll hardly see them except after water changes when most of them will pop out to say hello!

Yes I noticed that, I also noticed that if you see lots of MTS on the glass during the day between water changes check your water params as there is something not quite right.

 

[Akasha72]

if I come into the living room during the night for a glass of water or what ever my tank is just a mass of snails. They're all over the glass, the substrate and decor. I've always taken this to be a good sign that all is well. 
 
If I see them during the day making their way up the glass then I know something is wrong. Snails are alarm bells to me

 

[Hathaway]

The MTS were rarely on the glass but they were happily all over my slate, rocks and plants during the day, which surprised me somewhat given their reputation for disappearing but I didn't think anything of it. But then they were gone, along with all the many other tiny snails by the day after the fish were added.
I just figured they were somehow sensing their environment had changed and it spooked them into hiding. I'm certainly not complaining!
Anyway two weeks in and everything is fine so I've no reason to worry, was just fascinated by it. I've since added another 25 young MTS who all scurried into the sand and I trust are doing a good job in the tank

 

[NickAu]

I have a deal with my MTS and Pond snails If I see them on the front glass during the day they will get taken out of my nice 2 foot Betta tank and put in a 6 foot tank with 5 Clown Loaches. Seems to be working so far. LOL.

 

[Akasha72]

MTS are great if you have sand substrate as they help to keep it 'turned' as gases can build up. The MTS help these gases to be expelled

 

[Far_King]

I'd love to keep some but my tanks have assassins.  I don't think MTS are assassin proof sadly and the assassins although they burrow a bit probably don't to the same extent.

 

[Akasha72]

I had an assassin (just the one) but he couldn't keep the MTS population down by himself. MTS reproduce at such a fast rate all the assassin did was keep the population under control. If I didn't have my nerites aswell I would have another assassin to keep the MTS down

 

[Far_King]

Two of my tanks only have three assassins in, they haven't bred.  My larger tanks have breeding populations that would have no trouble dealing with a few MTS, they wouldn't be able to breed fast enough to establish a colony.