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Re: MTS Snails



> Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 17:43:14 -0000
> From: "George Booth" <gbooth at frii_com>
> Subject: Re: MTS Snails
> 
> Someone is complaining that their clown loaches aren't eating their MTS,
> even if they starve the loaches.
> 
> Whoa!  What's wrong with MTS? They are wonderful inhabitants for a planted
> tank, helping with general cleanup and contributing to the eco system. Have
> you been led to believe that "snails are bad"?  Totally wrong.

No, you are. ;-)

Actually, it depends on what you want. MTS are despised and considered a 
menace by folks who breed fish. Their carnivorous habits are most focused on 
eating eggs. With killies, they will strip a spawning mop clean, every 
night, and disappear back into the substrate for the day. Likewise, cichlids 
will guard eggs during the day but lose them at night.

Yes, they stir the gravel and are slow to pick on plants compared to many 
other kinds of snail. They are also really tough to get rid of. Loaches may 
eat them in soft water, but the shells get too tough in harder water.

The trapdoor and their ability to "hibernate" makes poisoning, freezing, 
etc. impossible control methods. Strong acid and boiling are the only 
methods known for sure to kill them.

A saucer of sliced meat can be collected before dawn each day to reduce the 
population, but it never gets all of them.

> 
> And starving your clown loaches? Shame, shame.

ROTFL!

Wright

-- 
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