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Snails! Mystery and MTS Qs

cowgirluntamed

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So far my 20 gallon seems to be going well!! Pygmy chain sword is the only one up in the air, oh well.

Anyway....I wanted to get a colony of Malaysian trumpet snails going. I had three from an order a while ago but wanted more. So, I found an ad on aquabid and purchased 25+ of them!!! Also, I could get a bonus mystery snail(I ended up paying for a second one of these too...lol.)

Now, I know the mystery snails are big eaters. Right now they finally seem to have found the fungus on my wood! So hopefully they will take care of that for me. Anyway, the day after I put them in the tank, I put in an algae wafer. More of the MTS went to that than the mystery snails. I plan on getting a cucumber next time I shop in a day or two. But when do I know to feed them? Right now they are only about the size of a nerite. (I also have harder water -ph is 8.2 and kh and gh are around 12-13 drops from api liquid kit-, do I need to "feed" them some sort of calcium?

Also, what else can I put in there to make sure they get food since there are no fish? (Dying leaves from melting crypts and the fungus but that's it).

One other question...I thought the mts were nocturnal?? Now, I don't see them all out at once but a lot of them are! Is this maybe because there aren't any fish to "scare" them? First time I've had the mts so I was curious. Lol. Also maybe because to me, it's not a really bright tank either. Between the mopani wood releasing it's amazing tannins, I think I have my fluval aquasky dialed in fairly well(at the moment!) It's set with not quite the brightest of the white LEDs(supposed to go up to 6500k on those) but I added more red and blue and just a smidge of green. So far no algae!! I'm also using the seachem flourish with 1 1/2 ml dose. The wisteria is taking off already!! Then I only have 3 flourish root tabs spaced out I think I decent amount. The kliener bar swords are happy!!

Sorry for the rant! I'm having fun with so far(just over a week.......*cough*....) of success!!
 
No on additional "calcium," you have sufficient with the GH where it is.

Malaysian Livebearing Snails will rapidly multiply according to the food, and they will find plenty without anything specific being added, believe me. Especially once fish are present, but even without, I would not feed them. I bought two in 2009 or 2010, I now have thousands. Not that this is at all bad (they are eating the organics like fish excrement) but the point is you will not lose them.

Mine are out all the time, some of them; hundreds more do come out at night, judging from what I can see first thing in the morning.

I would not encourage algae in any way if you have live plants. There will be algae naturally, and the snails will eat some but won't be able to deal with any problem outbreak, and something like that could harm and even kill the plants.
 
No on additional "calcium," you have sufficient with the GH where it is.

Thanks!


Malaysian Livebearing Snails will rapidly multiply according to the food, and they will find plenty without anything specific being added, believe me. Especially once fish are present, but even without, I would not feed them. I bought two in 2009 or 2010, I now have thousands. Not that this is at all bad (they are eating the organics like fish excrement) but the point is you will not lose them.

Mine are out all the time, some of them; hundreds more do come out at night, judging from what I can see first thing in the morning.

Awesome!


I would not encourage algae in any way if you have live plants. There will be algae naturally, and the snails will eat some but won't be able to deal with any problem outbreak, and something like that could harm and even kill the plants.

Trust me, I'm not trying to encourage it at all. Lol. So far after a full week, and 2nd dose of fertiliser added yesterday, no signs of algea, but I'm sure it's still early. Mostly the food question was directed towards the mystery snails more than the mts. I'm not worried about them but have heard more than once, a lot of mystery snails die from starvation just because they don't have enough to eat. I didn't intend to feed everyday but I don't want those two snails to starve or anything either.
 
Yes, for sure. Once the BN finds out it tastes yummy just try and keep it off the food.
 

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