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Best Native Alternative(s) to Malaysian Trumpet Snails?


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#1 WheelsOC

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Posted 18 April 2016 - 04:12 AM

AKA red-rimmed melania, AKA Melanoides tuberculata.

These tiny snails are almost always hitchhikers on plants in the tropical fish trade. Although many see them as a pest to avoid at all costs, another lot of aquarists like to have a moderate amount of Malaysian Trumpet Snails. The thinking is that they fill an important ecological function by helping break down fish wastes, eat leftover food, clean up decaying plant matter, and (perhaps most importantly) aerate the substrate with their burrowing activities. In some ways they're the aquarium version of earthworms in the garden.

 

Are there any invertebrates native to North America that you would recommend for these roles? Other snails, or maybe shrimp or crayfish?



#2 CowBoYReX

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Posted 18 April 2016 - 07:17 AM

Detritus worms work well for me and become food at times

#3 loopsnj64

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Posted 18 April 2016 - 02:32 PM

Its a matter of luck, native, substrate burrowing snails can be harder to find then say, the common pond snail, but these sand-stirring snails DO have a similar shell shape to Malaysian Trumpet Snails (At least with the one species I have seen... i don't know exactly what species they were)


"All good things must come to an end, but bad things think thats rather dull, so they stick around long after their natural end has come"

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#4 gerald

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Posted 18 April 2016 - 02:58 PM

Some of the common native snails in eastern USA  that look similar to Melanoides are Pleurocera, Elimia (= Goniobasis), or Leptoxis.  Check out http://www.fwgna.org/.  Not sure how well these do long-term in aquaria.


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel


#5 WheelsOC

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Posted 19 April 2016 - 05:48 AM

Thanks for the responses. Given how much talk there is on tropical forums about the benefits of (or methods to eliminate) MTS it's been surprisingly hard to find any information about North American native alternatives.

 

 

Detritus worms work well for me and become food at times

Interesting. I wasn't one of those who bought into the misinformation that they're a kind of Planaria (those flatworms are pretty distinctive and hard to take for something else), but other than that I didn't really know much about them. Are there any tricks to culturing or acquiring these, or do they just kind of show up without much conscious effort (eggs on plants, sneak into live food shipments, etc.)?

What about some other non-snail critters?

 

Its a matter of luck, native, substrate burrowing snails can be harder to find then say, the common pond snail, but these sand-stirring snails DO have a similar shell shape to Malaysian Trumpet Snails (At least with the one species I have seen... i don't know exactly what species they were)

I can see where collecting burrowing snails would be tricky. Would it be best to get a shovel full of muck and wash it over a screen? Or maybe look for some eggs deposited on a plant or rock?

 

 

Some of the common native snails in eastern USA  that look similar to Melanoides are Pleurocera, Elimia (= Goniobasis), or Leptoxis.  Check out http://www.fwgna.org/.  Not sure how well these do long-term in aquaria.

It would be an interesting exercise. I imagine that, even moreso than with fish, getting the water chemistry of the tank to match the collection site is probably crucial to success.



#6 CowBoYReX

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Posted 19 April 2016 - 08:57 AM

Well I found them in a creek. Find a spot on the bank that has a ton of little tiny dirt mounds and dig. They are a lot like California black worms, so the cbw might do just as well. They breed and multiply by broken segments right in your substrate, you don't have to do anything special.

Edited by CowBoYReX, 19 April 2016 - 08:59 AM.


#7 loopsnj64

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Posted 19 April 2016 - 07:12 PM

 

I can see where collecting burrowing snails would be tricky. Would it be best to get a shovel full of muck and wash it over a screen? Or maybe look for some eggs deposited on a plant or rock?

Well its less that they are burrowing (from my experience at least) and more that they left trails on the sandy surface... they were easier when they where sitting on rocks because you could actually distinguish them from dead shells
I say "Tricky" because outside of common pond snails, I have almost never seen any different species in MOST lakes & rivers


"All good things must come to an end, but bad things think thats rather dull, so they stick around long after their natural end has come"

-From an art book I read


#8 gerald

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Posted 20 April 2016 - 10:31 AM

Campeloma snails I often find buried in sand, but the other native Prosobranch snail species (Pleurocera, Leptoxis) are usually grazing on rocks or logs.  [Prosobranch snails have gills and an operculum, as opposed to Pulmonate snails (pond, ramshorn, limpets) with a "lung" and no operculum.] 

 

Loops:  Here's a guide to freshwater snails for the mid-Atlantic region (PA/NJ to MD).  Maybe you can find your sand-burrowing species in here.  I'm curious what they might be.  http://fwgna.org/FWGMA/gallery.html


Gerald Pottern
-----------------------
Hangin' on the Neuse
"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages" - M.Sandel





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