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OwassoFish
12-23-2004, 10:38 PM
Well, I've read a lot here in the past several months. One thing I didn't have any experience with was the Malaysian Trumpet Snail. Looks like I have my first infestation with these buggers. Depending on how you look at it I guess. Some folks like them but if I remember correctly they breed like rabbits. The upside is that they showed up in my twin boys 10g community tank and thankfully not my mostly mbuna show tank (no plants there). I'm a bit perplexed, as I thought if I was going to see them I would have seen them way before now. About 6 weeks ago we added some hornwort. I looked it over pretty well and didn't see any snails on it before I added it to their tank. I was looking for dark snails though. That was the last addition to the tank and I beleive the likely source. I now see a pale beige colored snail on the hornwort and probably about 30 babies all over the tank.

If I got a plant that had a pregnant female, would it take 6 weeks for her to lay eggs and the babies to hatch? Do these critters lay their eggs under the substrate? This tank gets almost as much attention as my show tank with weekly water changes. I did do a double 40% water change on this tank a couple of days ago to get rid of a piece of hornwort that died and made a mess. I also see a white mass, about 1/8" in circumference and about 1/2" down in the gravel from the front of the tank that I can't identify.

jonah
12-23-2004, 10:49 PM
If I remember correctly, mts are hermaphrodites. They can reproduce by themselves. Ususally I only see them after dark. They can be a pain, especially if you're breeding cave spawners because they'll eat the eggs.

jennigypsy
12-24-2004, 12:25 AM
there might have been an egg case on the plants that you missed..and it took 6 weeks for them to hatch & grow to a size where you'd notice them...

SGypsyMermaid
12-24-2004, 10:21 AM
no egg cases with these guys--they're live-bearers. that snail could have been hiding anywhere. i don't know whether or not the babies are born under the substrate, but that's where they hang out during the day, usually.