Malaysian Trumpet Snails MTS (The benefits to having them)

[guppyguy]

Malaysian trumpet snails or MTS snails as many call them. I have 2 species but I know there are dozens of different species out there some larger than other and and some with different colored shells. I have a tan colored shell species that get quite large for MTS. The biggest ones are 2 inches long and very fat. I also have another species that is smaller with a dark and light brown marbled shell. I have them in my tanks for a few purposes. The most important to me is aeration of the substrate, as they borrow through the substrate keeping it from compacting and this is ideal for good root growth and that brings on healthy lush plants. The second use for them is there scavengers. They eat everything in the tank except the live plants and that is perfect. They eat left over food, dead plants material some algae and dead fish. In a heavily planted tank a small endler often hits old age and dies but I would never see it in the plants, but snails sniff it out and can consume a entire endler in about 2 hours leaving only a tiny skeleton. So often these make my life easier as I hardly ever have to remove anything from the take (meaning dead leaves, dead fish etc) And if you not over feeding there population levels off in a good place to keep the tank in tip top shape without having too many around. Another small bonus is these snails often out compete ponds snail for food and they die out. I have not had more than a few ponds snail here there in my tanks for years. Before MTS I had much trouble controlling them. So in a indirect way there helping me get rid of pond snails. Overall there are must have for me in my planted tanks.

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