L91 (3 Beacon Pleco) and snails?

PoohBear · Post by **PoohBear** » 19 May 2007, 03:51

Will an L91 eat Malaysian trumpet snails? I know this pleco is in the vampire family, and thought I could feed him some trumpet snails from my other tank.

Kostas · Post by **Kostas** » 23 May 2007, 14:23

Your L91 will probably not eat these snails as they have a very thick shell...I have an L240(Leporacanthicus sp. too,of the same final size and from the same river...)who although he manages to eat all other snail sp.,he has difficulty eating this one...He does damage their shells but only towards their tip...I have only seen one snail of this sp. eaten from him and this was recently...So maybe he found the trick how to do it...With all snails,these plecos dont have much success eating them at first,but from one point and then,they start eating them in numbers...Until there is no snail left after some months...
So my opinion is that he wont eat them,at least until some time passes...You will have much better success feeding him snails with thinner shells...

Post by **Barbie** » 24 May 2007, 08:36

It's been my experience that if you drastically soften the water and reduce the pH into the somewhat acidic range for a couple months, the snail eaters can then do much more effective damage to them, as the shells get more porous and easy to chomp. Just my own strange observation after rainy seasons and working to get my L134 encouraged to do something besides eat ;).

Barbie

Kostas · Post by **Kostas** » 24 May 2007, 09:33

Great observation Barbie!Thanks!!!

And quite logical to me as the snails dont get all the calcium they need at low hardness...So, as you said,this result in thinner and more porus shells...
I keep the at ph 6,5-7 with the help of peat and many woods so i guess my snails dont have the thicker possible shell...Still quite thick though...

Did your L134s get the message?