# Cohabitation



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

Any idea if the MTS can cohabitate with my black mystery snail?


----------



## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

yes it can. Mystery snails will pretty much overlook it.


----------



## ARMS87 (Jan 2, 2011)

MTS? Malaysian Trumpets?


----------



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

MTS is shorthand for Malaysian trumpet snail, which is a burrowing snail mostly noticed only by moving gravel spots, it will eat decaying matter and earate the gravel it passes through helping to keep down gas buildups.


----------



## ARMS87 (Jan 2, 2011)

Yeah got them, sold them in the thousands for years, just needed to be sure of your abbreviations.


----------



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

ok then


----------



## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Sounds like I need some.

How deep into the substrate do they clean?


----------



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

Everything i have read says that they burrow to the bottom of the gravel and that they mostly only leave the gravel at night, so you will only see them by the gravel shifting above them as they clean. However they are hermaphrodidic and if you dont have snail eaters you may get over run, i did find one website with two seperate kinds one says its slower to breed than the other but IMO thats a good thing. the site was For Sale!


----------



## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

IMHO snails only breed to the extent they have food - so if you get overrun you have too much for them to eat. But once the food overrun is gone they will die back to a balanced population for your tank (provided you don't keep overfeeding) I have MTS snails - always seed tanks I put UGF in with MTS to keep the substrate clean and open and I've never felt they over ran any tank they were in.


----------



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

Good to know Chris, in your opinion what is the best way to obtain an MTS? also what are UGF's?


----------



## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

UGF = under gravel filter. My favorite method of getting MTS is to walk into a fish store and walk around looking for them. If I spot some, I ask at the front desk if I can have some. Lots of places consider them pests and will give them to you for free, or for a nominal fee (lol). Aquabid does have them in auctions if you can't find anyplace with free ones, but I still like to gather samples of MTS populations locally just to keep the genetics in my tanks varied.


----------



## chris oe (Feb 27, 2009)

I just put a picture of a big mts in my user gallery, I don't know how to put up images inside a message, but if any of you want to take a look, its there. Mine tend to be creamy white and blend in to my gravel rather a lot .


----------



## Sravis (Mar 29, 2011)

Awesome pic! ill be sure to keep my eyes peeled and ask my LFS to call me if any come through there usually pretty good with that sort of thing


----------

