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Ned,

I saw you mention snails as a way to scavenge uneaten food (not too much of that in a Tang tank........) and reduce ammonia buildup.

What snails would be compatible with a tang/malawi tank?

Do they overtake the tank? I remember getting some snails on plants before and when I blinked there were a million of them. Little brown ones.

jm

Trumpet snails. I have them in all my (Tanganyika) tanks. They will become part of the gravel. You can see them here on the rocks. In my opinion, They do well with Fronts and Calvus. At night they come out and crawl on the glass, during the day they are nearly invisble. For some reason with certain fish, they are always invisible. Maybe because they are food to other fish?
Here is a pic, to get an idea of them on the rocks. These were taken at night. If I took some pics now, during the day, there are all gone.

Thanks for the info. That is pretty neat that they disappear into the gravel during the day. Do you find that the fish do eat them? I have seen some info on apple snails too........... They too seem to be from the rift lakes.

The second pic in the last reply was taken last night at about 10:00pm. These are the same rocks, with a pic taken right now, 13 hrs later.

I did see one of my Female Fronts tumbling something in her mouth, then spit out a trumpet snail shell. But I only saw that once. When these snails are in with Labidochromis Caeruleus "yellow labs, " I never see them come out? And they don't multiply with the labs, like they do with other species?

Lamprologus Tretocephalus
and
Chilotilapia Rhoadesii
are equiped with special teeth to crush and eat them...
all cichlids can find a way to eat them...
loaches (botia) grab thm by the neck and _ them out of shells...
snails are useful in a fry tank
(but not with fish eggs)

Ned do you carry any snails that would coexist with Tangs/Malawis?

sure..we have
pond snails
madagascar livebeareing snails
probably more