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My trumpet snails are multiplying like crazy and have recently started coming out of the sand during the day. Why do they come out now? What do I do to stop them?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Trumpets tend to multiply really fast when the temp is 23oC+. In my exp. these guys start out really nice but later on they get really prolific! I don't understand y ur's come out druing the day because mine(and alot of other ppl) come out when the lights go off.
I've been resorting on taking them out with my hand when they climb up my tank glass, and let me tell ya, i got over 1k in my tank!!!

I recently started a thread but I still haven't gotten a sure answer to how to get rid of em.
http://fishprofiles.com/files/threads/26968.1.htm?15#

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

Trumpet snails come out of the substrate and multiply much faster when there is lots of food. Temperature is a far second to food when it comes to increasing their population. They'd probably multiply faster in 65F water with lots of food than 80F with a slight shortage. If they are out constantly they are finding food constantly. Trumpets can't resist when they sense food but otherwise are content to scavenge the tank at night. Either you are overfeeding the tank or you are not cleaning/filtering it well enough.

Only way to successfully kill trumpets completely is to use copper and leave the copper in the tank(no chemical filtration) for at least 2 weeks. Doing so will cause a massive die off that may create ammonia levels. If you do want to resort to that I recommend seachem's cupramine. It's one of the safest copper treatments, won't leave copper behind in the tank, and is easily removed through chemical filtration. Copper kills all inverts but I had ghost shrimp in my tank within 2 days of using chemical filtration after treating with cupramine. Trumpets have a very hard shell so very few fish and none suitable to a community tank can eat them. Loaches will sneak attack some and help keep them hiding but won't kill them all. They also have a shell door so they can close themselves off water tight and sit there safely for several weeks before starving to death.

sorry, dont mean to hijack this listing

yeah i have similar problems, loaches dont really touch them.... i am thinking about mini puffers, but worried about my large angel and rummy noses. would that work to get rid of the snails and keep the fish happy??

Dwarf puffers which are the only puffers I might consider for a tank with other fish cannot eat trumpet snails. Some have actually been injured when their owners tried to feed such hard snails to them. Most other common puffers are either brackish water or are nearly guranteed to start attacking other fish. Brackish puffers love trumpets but of course those won't work in your tank. Even the dwarf puffer is recommended for a species only tank because chances are they will one day decide to at the least start nipping fins and at the worst kill all your fish over night. I've yet to talk to someone who has kept puffers in a tank with other fish for many years without them killing something. I would bet the long fins on an angel would be too tempting for any puffer to resist. I would rarely suggest copper to take care of snails but for trumpets I believe it's the only way to actually eliminate them. It just depends if you have other inverts like shrimp and if you want to risk the ammonia spike.

crap, just put a dwarf puffer in there... my tank is medium to heavy planted, and the puffer is hiding in the corner cuz i think the angel tried to eat him...

because my tank is planted well, would that make an exception to keep a mini puffer in there?? and my angel isnt a veil fin, so maybe that helps? what about my rummy nose or otos? would they be in dangeR?

Otos are usually the only fish recommended for dwarf puffer tanks because they tend to over look them but I know several people who have recently lost otos to their puffers attacks. In a planted tank the puffer might have enough to explore that it won't bother any fish for awhile but even if a year goes by there's still that risk it will change it's mind one day. Faster fish like tetras are less likely to get attacked because puffers aren't fast enough. The problem is puffers are not fast eaters any more than they are fast swimmers. I had to reach into the tank with the bloodworms in a dropper and wiggle them in front of the puffer. Most puffers never eat dry foods and some never eat anything but live foods which makes feeding them in a tank with fast fish quite difficult.