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Malaysian trumpet snail problem…


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Soooooo I accidentally created a Malaysian trumpet snail sanctuary in one of my African Cichlid tanks. I noticed a few in my mbuna tank a while back after adding some new plants. I threw them in my 75g peacock tank figuring they’d do a good job churning up the sand. Now I month later there is like a billion of them…and that might be a low estimate. 

Is there anything I can do? Or do I just need to accept I screwed up and created a monster? I’ve got a couple pufferfish in other tanks but they don’t seem all that interested in eating them and I’m gun shy to add more than one at a time to see if they’ll eat them.

Any advice would be great!

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Assassin snails IMO very pretty and will eat the trumpets. They won't get rid of that many though unless you get enough that your next thread will be titled Assassin snail problem lol. 

Remember that snails only populate to the food supply. If you don't overfeed the fish then the snail population will decline over time. You can speed this up some by doing things like adding blanched vegetables to the tank and then pulling them and the attached snails out in a couple hours. I can make a trumpet snail ball by dropping in a Tetra Shrimp Wafer so you could spread a few of those in the tank and grab gobs of them out at a time. I don't see it on the ACO site so here is amazon link to what I'm talking about.

https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-ShrimpWafers-Complete-Catfish-Loaches/dp/B01MCVU5AR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O7GCNRRGNWKT&keywords=tetra+shrimp+wafers&qid=1661048660&sprefix=tetra+shrimp+wafer%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1

Edited by Cleveland M
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Thanks! The crazy thing is, I feel like I underfeed this tank the most since it’s my only tank that didn’t have live plants and I know there’s nothing to use those extra nutrients.

I’ve got two plecos in the tank and I can’t even put wafers in for them without the cichlids gobbling them up immediately 🫤


I’ll head to the co op and pick up a couple assassin snails. At least that next post will have a cooler sounding title! Haha

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On 8/20/2022 at 9:35 PM, MattHasMTS said:

I’ll head to the co op and pick up a couple assassin snails. At least that next post will have a cooler sounding title! Haha

I need to post a picture the next time I do the shrimp wafer thing. I can get a ball of trumpets about 2/3 the size of a golf ball and then sometimes there will be 3 or 4 assassins coming in to feed on them. To me it's a pretty cool sight.

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On 8/20/2022 at 6:33 PM, MattHasMTS said:

Soooooo I accidentally created a Malaysian trumpet snail sanctuary in one of my African Cichlid tanks. I noticed a few in my mbuna tank a while back after adding some new plants. I threw them in my 75g peacock tank figuring they’d do a good job churning up the sand. Now I month later there is like a billion of them…and that might be a low estimate. 

Is there anything I can do? Or do I just need to accept I screwed up and created a monster? I’ve got a couple pufferfish in other tanks but they don’t seem all that interested in eating them and I’m gun shy to add more than one at a time to see if they’ll eat them.

Any advice would be great!

The snails are good for cleanup but yes they multiply quick! Ask me how I know! lol

I like to just let them go until I just can't stand too many then use a 3/8" plastic tube on a hose to syphon some out. 

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