April Meeting

[Jim Miller]

I'm looking for a couple dozen RCS to start a breeding colony.

Also looking for 6 or so Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

jim

[scientist0724]

I have plenty of snails for you. I'll take a look at my RCS colony when I get home from PA this weekend. I may have enough to get you started.

Arlene

[DonkeyFish]

If Arlene can't cover you I for sure have cherry shrimp and MTS.

[takadi]

I actually went to my local petsmart where they are absolutely infested with trumpet snails, and they gave me a huge bag full of them for free.

[Jim Miller]

Since I'm a complete n00b at this I'd prefer to get them from a member lest I get the wrong thing.

But since you mention it are the shells distinctive enough to not confuse them with anything else?

Thanks

Jim

[takadi]

Their shells are like unicorn horns. They are pretty small and don't grow very large. They like to burrow in fine substrate. Here's a picture of them

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug_S96.jpg

Alot of snails have that shells shape but the difference is that trumpet snails breed like crazy and are impossible to wipe out once they have established a population in your tank. So in a sense they are similar to those annoying pond snails and ramshorns, but I like them because they aerate and clean the substrate. So basically the way to distinguish them is to find the snail that all your local fish stores hate and are trying to exterminate, lol. The fish manager at the petsmart I went to said she had done everything from using copper to picking them out manually. She says that every month the filtration system gets clogged because there are so many of them.

[Jim Miller]

As I understand it they burrow in and are largely unseen most of the time. Since they're scavengers and don't eat plants I would think their population would be self limiting.

Why would someone (other than petsmart) want to wipe them out?

jim

[takadi]

I ask that question all that time. It's a win win situation with MTS in my opinion. I guess the sheer reproductive abilities of these snails makes them a nuisance. But since they are scavengers, their population only rises and falls according to how large your fish stock is and how much you are feeding them

[Jim Miller]

I'll hit Petsmart in Timonium the next time I'm passing by.

Thanks!

jim

[FrannyB]

They climb up the glass and float on the surface at times. I have no idea what they are doing, but this is when I scoop them with a net and fling in the trash.