Origin.  From their name, we’ll guess the Malaysian trumpet snails come from Malaysia.  However, most of them appear as if by magic.  They come in as hitchhikers on live plants.  Most retailers don’t sell them.  Even though many of them have them hidden in their gravel.

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In a warm tank, Malaysian trumpet snails multiply explosively.

Hard to Find.  You can have hundreds of these helpful little Malaysian trumpet snails in your tank and never see one -- unless you look at your tank an hour or two after you turn out your lights.  Use a flashlight, and you’ll notice these guys and gals (along with other seldom seen tiny critters) sliding up the walls of your tank.  If you see an entire herd of these or any other snails headed for the top during the day, you have a severe water quality problem.  Or your filter system has shut down.  Fix it.

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Malaysian trumpet snails crawling up side and eating food off the bottom (with other snails).

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When your Malaysian trumpet snails crawl out of their water, you know it's time for a water change.

Incredibly Helpful.  Malaysian trumpet snails burrow through your substrate and keep it nice and “fluffy” -- the way your plant roots like it.  They also inhale all that excess fish food you shoveled in there trying to make up for the fact that you forgot to feed them yesterday.  What’s wrong with you, anyway?  Quit it out!  If your snails overrun your tank, you’re shoveling in way too many “pinches” of fish food.

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Malaysian trumpet snails rarely harm plants.

Not Plant Eaters.  Some snails raze plants to their bare roots -- apple snails and Borneo ramshorns come to mind.  Common pond snails (Physa) and ramshorns (Planorbis) will punch a few holes in your leaves.  The latter two groups are the ones that everyone fears will “take over” their tanks.  Malaysian trumpet snails will nibble on plants only in the absence of all other foods.

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Most grow to about an inch.  Theoretically they grow about 50% larger.

Adult Size.  Malaysian trumpet snails grow to about an inch.  After tunneling thru your gravel a couple years, they die and become part of your gravel.  Their shell slowly dissolves and loses color.

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Any critter that lives in a house built of lime is going to prefer hard water.

Soft Water not Appreciated.  Soft water tends to dissolve their shells. African cichlid water ought to put a smile on the face of any Malaysian trumpet snail.  These are one of the few snails that can survive in a tank of African cichlids.  Their incredibly hard shell protects them from most predators.  Even clown loaches have a hard time shucking these guys.  However, brackish water puffers can crush and eat them.  Snails also dislike salty water.

Hardy Snails.  We’ve drained tanks and let them dry out with their gravel in them.  When we added water several weeks later, the Malaysian trumpet snails reappeared.  We’ve rinsed gravel in water that felt scalding, and the tough little raspers reappeared the next day.  We’ve never tried one of the snail killers (copper sulfate) because we didn’t want to leave a bunch of dead copper-ridden snails under the gravel.  If you have more than you want, cut your feeding program in half.  Or turn off your filter.  When the snails crawl up the sides, net them off the glass.

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You can see one Malaysian trumpet snail on the left.  How many on the right?

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Can you see the little babies -- about as big as a grain of sand -- chewing on the algae?

Baby Snails.  Tiny Malaysian trumpet snails are so light you can siphon them out with a gravel vacuum cleaner.  Remember this if you need to reduce your population.  Not only are they white, they’re light enough to sluice ’em on out.  The adults hang on to their substrate more strongly.

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In a typical Malaysian trumpet snail tank, you'll see all these sizes.

What's in a Name?  We’ve heard them called cornucopia snails, horn of plenty snails, Philippine livebearing snails, and other names not at all complimentary.  Regardless of what you prefer to call them, we find them a very useful snail.

Last Word (actually ten).  Hardy.  Harmless.  Hard to kill.  Hard-working.  What's not to like?  LA

© 2004 LA Productions