# Do you need mts?



## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

Do you need mts to mix up the soil? Or should I just occasionally poke it myself? My tank is a 5.5 gal if it matters.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

You don't necessarily need them but they do help. You can poke it yourself though, but the snails tend to aerate it a little better since it is being done constantly so it's up to you.


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## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

Is it difficult to keep their populations in check?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

I don't find it so, as long as you don't overfeed the tank they usually don't reproduce THAT quickly, that goes for any "pest" snail. You can use the cucumber on a string trick to remove them if you need to, that would be letting it sit overnight and then pull it out first thing in the morning to throw away the piece with the snails on it, that usually takes out a bunch of them at one time.

I started with 3 MTS in my 29 and I'm sure I have tons of little babies but I never see them at all, I only see my Rabbit snails and the occasional 1 large adult MTS I have, half the time I'm not even sure if my MTS are breeding quickly or not lol they've been in the tank at least 3 months or more.

But that's just my experience, all the food is eaten within half an hour, even wafers so there is rarely excess food for the MTS.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

What does mts stand for? Is there a list of abbreviatons somewhere?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Malaysian Trumpet Snails ;-)

I usually end up googling abbreviations which I didn't know at first lol we should have a list of abbreviations for fishy related things ^_^


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## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

So on the whole would you recommend them? My tank is pretty small but I hear these horror stories about anaerobic soil. And I'm assuming they can dig through gravel?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh you've got gravel in there for a cap? If that's the case you won't need them since the gravel provides plenty of space for air to travel though! The issue comes about when you have soil and sand or a small grained gravel on top. More than 2.5-3 inches and you get into the trouble zone where the soil (more actually the sand cap) becomes anaerobic! But if you have gravel, you shouldn't have an issue with that at all!

I would recommend them for a sand capped NPT but not a gravel one as you don't really need them unless you have 3 inches or more of substrate all together.


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## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

My gravel is pretty fine; it gets sucked up by my gravel vac a bit.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, my regular stuff does too lol, anything can get up that vacuum ^_^ but how deep is your substrate all together?


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I recommend MTS for every kind of tank - even bare bottom tanks.


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## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

Probably an inch and a half thick.

So you think I should get them, jaysee? If I did, how many would you recommend for a 5.5 gal? Keeping in mind that I will be adding a betta, hopefully some shrimp, and maybe a nerite.


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## Islandgaliam (Jan 27, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Malaysian Trumpet Snails ;-)
> 
> I usually end up googling abbreviations which I didn't know at first lol we should have a list of abbreviations for fishy related things ^_^


oh, duh...I did google...the first one was Metropolitan Transit Systems...lol


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## jaysee (Dec 9, 2009)

I think everyone should have them. For a 5 gallon I would just get 5-10.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Islandgaliam said:


> oh, duh...I did google...the first one was Metropolitan Transit Systems...lol


Oh lol, I generally add "Fish" at the end if I'm searching for fish related terms ^^


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## freeflow246 (Jul 24, 2011)

Should I get an assassin snail or two to keep the mts in check?


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