Infestation...

[spidey_webb]

Hi all,

I recently had a problem with my filter and while cleaning it I found A
couple of conical shaped shells in the filter media. It has been less than
two months since that problem and I started having the filter problems again
and this time I noticed quite a few more of these conical things. They vary
in size with some being as long as a quarter is wide. They are a dark brown
or black and seems to be something living in the shells. I don't know how
they got introduced and I am positive that they were not all introduced by
me which leads me to belive they are growing in the tank and somehow
producing their on shells.

Should I be concerned? I think it might be some kind of snail. Do I need
to get rid of them and if so how would I go about doing so?

Thanks in advance
Jimmy

[Seweryn]

Sounds like snails, possibly Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Do they have a little
trap door on the opening of their shells?

-Seweryn

[AdaJe5]

Heck. I need all the snails I can get. I've got green spotted puffers. The LFS
manager actually tried to start charging me for nuisance snails. I thought I
was doing him a favor by asking for his unwanted snails. Those MTS snails
actually help condition the substrate. If you keep them in check they actually
perform a valuable function.

[spidey_webb]

"Seweryn" > wrote in message
...
> Sounds like snails, possibly Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Do they have a
little
> trap door on the opening of their shells?
>
Yes they do have a trap door on their shells.

I still would like to know how they reproduce/multiply and if they are not
harmful to my tank then any ideas to at least keep them out of the filter.

Thanks in advance
Jimmy

[spidey_webb]

"Seweryn" > wrote in message
...
> Sounds like snails, possibly Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Do they have a
little
> trap door on the opening of their shells?
>
> -Seweryn
Ok It's definately a snail though I am not to sure about what kind. The
picture that I found on the net of a MTS shows a shell of lighter color and
the shape of the shell dows not quite match. the shells on the snails that
I have come to a sharp point. Couse maybe my snails are younger and thuse
darker in color and shells that haven't worn down......

Jimmy

[Amateur]

"spidey_webb" > wrote in message
. com...
>
> "Seweryn" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Sounds like snails, possibly Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Do they have a
> little
> > trap door on the opening of their shells?
> >
> > -Seweryn
> Ok It's definately a snail though I am not to sure about what kind. The
> picture that I found on the net of a MTS shows a shell of lighter color and
> the shape of the shell dows not quite match. the shells on the snails that
> I have come to a sharp point. Couse maybe my snails are younger and thuse
> darker in color and shells that haven't worn down......
>
> Jimmy
>
Snails. Great creatures. They can sleep up to three years. :) They come in on
plants, in the bags of substrate and through other sneakier means I've been
unable to discover. They're asexual, so to multiply, all you need is two snails.
That's it. Two snails will get you millions. They sell products like
snail-a-cide to kill a few of them here or there, but it's easier to keep up
with tank cleanings and water changes. You can also make snail traps by putting
a piece of lettuce or something in a film canister with holes in it. In the
night, the snails will flock to it and you can remove quite a few this way. I've
found that once you have snails in your tank, they're just about impossible to
get rid of.
Amateur

[Iain Miller]

Snails. Great creatures. They can sleep up to three years. :) They come in
on
> plants, in the bags of substrate and through other sneakier means I've
been
> unable to discover. They're asexual, so to multiply, all you need is two
snails.
> That's it. Two snails will get you millions. They sell products like
> snail-a-cide to kill a few of them here or there, but it's easier to keep
up
> with tank cleanings and water changes. You can also make snail traps by
putting
> a piece of lettuce or something in a film canister with holes in it. In
the
> night, the snails will flock to it and you can remove quite a few this
way. I've
> found that once you have snails in your tank, they're just about
impossible to
> get rid of.

.......unless you put 2 or 3 Clown Loaches in there as well. I've got two
tanks, one has loaches & is snail free & the other didn't & so wasn't. I've
recently put some loaches in the second tank & they are committing
systematic genocide on the snail population therein (as intended!). Previous
to that I used to vacuum out as many as I could (several dozen at a time)
and
then stick them in the other (snail free) tank. The loaches in there would
make short work of them.

I.

[Seweryn]

Sounds like you have young ones, that is why they are darker and still have
their top spirals. MTS's are notoriously hard to get rid of. Like other
posters said, they do perform a good function by turning over the substrate,
but you gotta keep them in check. In my experience, loaches will not do the
trick on MTS, and the snailicides don't work too well (especially if you
have fish sensitive to meds like corys) as the snails can clamp their trap
doors (operculums) shut and keep out the chemicals.
Best way to keep them out of you filter is to keep the numbers low, using
traps, and if you want to try, using some loaches.

-Seweryn
> I still would like to know how they reproduce/multiply and if they are not
> harmful to my tank then any ideas to at least keep them out of the filter.
>

[AdaJe5]

green spotted puffers are cheap, fascinating, entertaining and easy going. They
will eliminate all but the largest snails. provided the snail does not stay in
the substrate all the time or above the waterline all the time. Puffers need to
crunch snails, clams or shrimp to keep thier ever growing teeth worn down to a
serviceable size. and they are greedy little fish. They will eat flake food and
when they do you can hear thier teeth working. Puffers equal no snails. But if
you like shrimp don't put a puffer in the same tank.

[Cichlidiot]

spidey_webb > wrote:
> Hi all,

> I recently had a problem with my filter and while cleaning it I found A
> couple of conical shaped shells in the filter media. It has been less than
> two months since that problem and I started having the filter problems again
> and this time I noticed quite a few more of these conical things. They vary
> in size with some being as long as a quarter is wide. They are a dark brown
> or black and seems to be something living in the shells. I don't know how
> they got introduced and I am positive that they were not all introduced by
> me which leads me to belive they are growing in the tank and somehow
> producing their on shells.

I am sure this is a sort of Malaysian Trumpet Snail (MTS). They can vary a
bit in color and the young ones are much "pointy-er" than the adults. They
are livebearers which live mostly in the substrate. They do tend to come
out of the substrate at night. You can try making a "snail trap" by
putting a saucer with some sinking algae waffers on a clear part of the
substrate and see how many come out to eat. Some also recommend using meat
to trap MTS, although I'd take care doing that if you have mbuna or other
veggie cichlids.

MTS have a nasty habit of invading filters, particularly sponge media. One
way to prevent it is to put a coarse sponge (like what AquaClear uses) on
the filter intake. It should be coarse to allow water to flow fairly
readily through it, but still be able to trap the snails. Clean that
sponge often and replace it if it becomes clogged with snails (or anything
else). You should also take the filter completely apart and clean it out.
You'll probably find bits of shell in your impeller if your experience is
anything like mine. Plus there will probably be many shell remnants in the
bottom of the filter housing. Just clean that all out. It affects the
amount of water your filter can move. Of course, preserve the bacterial
colonies on the actual filter media. One way I did this was to just
repeatedly squeeze the sponges (I use a dual sponge method on my MTS
infected tank) in a bucket of tank water and I also manually picked off as
many of the snails as I could. Doesn't get rid of all of them, but greatly
reduces their numbers. Eventually, you'll have to replace the sponges most
likely to keep the water flowing, but do it in a way that won't completely
wipe out your bacterial colonies, like if you have two sponges, replace
one then don't replace the other for several weeks. Other types of media
will need other methods of course.

You'll probably have to repeat this cleaning of the filter (especially the
impeller) for several months to get rid of the last of the snails in the
filter. It gets rather annoying. On the plus side, the sponge on the
intake is great if you also have fry in the tank. Prevents them from
getting accidently sucked in. Also, it helps prevent other large matter
from getting into the filter. For example, my 40 gallon tank also has java
ferns and the broken off young plants often get drawn to the filter
intake. With the sponge, I can pick them off the sponge and put them
elsewhere. Although, it doesn't seem to help with my crypts that want to
grow into the intake, heh.