reducing MTS population?

[Nyx]

How many are too many Malaysian Trumpet snails? What is the best way to reduce my MTS population?

ETA: I just noticed I posted in the wrong section. Can someone please move this to the Freshwater discussion forum? Thanks in advance.

[irene]

Scoop them out after dark and post them FF in the classifieds?    And try not to overfeed your fish, it's hard I know, I do it too.

Irene

[presto]

Manually removing them is the only way.

Every time you clean your gravel you will expose many of them, I let them get pulled up a little and drag them into a pile before they fall out of the gravel syphon. At the end of cleaning I scoop them out and I have 50+. Then later when lights are off I will grab what I can.

Or put cucumber on the bottom and wait.

[Zoe]

- Trap. You can make a trap out of a small container like a tupperware or an old camera film case, with some holes drilled into. Weight it down with some rocks, and throw piece of lettuce in it.  Every night, after dark, pull it out and some snails should be inside it.
Alternatively, you can take a piece of cuke or zucchini, blanch it so it sinks or just poke a stainless steel spoon through it, and let it sink. Collect when covered with snails.

- Reduce feeding. MTS eat what you fish don't, so if you reduce your feeding, your snail population will dwindle.  Everyone overfeeds their fish, but realistically, all you need to feed them is what they'll eat in 20-30 seconds, once or twice a day.  Very little should be reaching the bottom.

- Depending on your tank inhabitants and size, you may find that a few small-sized loaches like burmese or Yo-Yo loaches may reduce the population of snails, but MTS are hard to eat - pointy.

- Chemicals.  You can use a copper-based chemical to kill them, but it's not recommended.

- Manual removal.  After dark, you'll notice them crawling up the glass. With a net, collect as many as you can on a daily basis. Combines with decreased feeding, this should reduce your MTS population - and it's easy, and safe.

[PrincessFish]

Hi all, a related question for those seasoned MTS lovers out there . . . what about empty shells of the dead MTS - is it important to remove them or can they be left to become a part of the substrate?  (hope I'm not thread jacking - I appologize if so!)

[Nyx]

Thank you all for your help. I'll get my hubby right on it. 

(hope I'm not thread jacking - I apologize if so!)

I don't think you were thread-jacking.

[beowulf]

Hi all, a related question for those seasoned MTS lovers out there . . . what about empty shells of the dead MTS - is it important to remove them or can they be left to become a part of the substrate?  (hope I'm not thread jacking - I appologize if so!)

Should be fine.  It would not change the pH unless you had thousands of them.

As for the OP, catch them and sell them as people are always looking for some.