What are these in my tank?!

[LozzyBear]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently doing a fishless cycle of my tank.
When I first started I was recommended test strips to test my water quality and such. Since coming in here however, I was told I should get the API liquid tester which is fantastic!
Only problem is, the test strips were telling me I had 4ppi ammonia already, but when I got the liquid one, it was only a tiny amount of ammonia in it.
This means I've been wasting time on cycling!

Anyway, I've put 4ppi in now, (I'm following the guide on this website) and waiting for some nitrates to show s the ammonia did drop a little.
However! Algae has started to bloom on my tank, so i cleaned it off of the glass. It's come back now, and this morning when checking the ammonia levels and cleaning out dead plant leaves, (my family turned the light off when I was away so the plants are dying now ) I thought I saw a bubble of air stuck to the glass. On closer inspection it looks like a snail?!
And since I've noticed these I've noticed more, but smaller sizes. They look like snails, but I haven't added anything to the tank other than plants. I've read around and people ave said you can get the snails from live plants, which I have... Should I get rid of them or when my cycle is complete, will me fish eat them? or will they come out when I change the water?

 

[LozzyBear]

Picture of the snail-like creature...

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Looks like a ramshorn snail. Harmless and great at cleaning up plant matter and algae. The population won't get out of control if the tanks not over fed. Your fish will probably eat some of the young ones too.

 

[LozzyBear]

Thankyou
Where did they come from? Off of the plants?
I've never had fish in the tank as I'm still cycling it. How strange. Will they die off before I get te fish in?
Shall I remove them when I put my fish in? Thanks in advance

 

[Mumma.of.two]

No need to remove them unless they bother you. They won't die off and yes, there would have been eggs on some of the plants you bought.

 

[phoenixkiller]

Picture of the snail-like creature...

That looks like a bland version of my Ramshorns... I love that they keep my tank crystal clean and together with the RCS in the same tank, I haven't seen algae for months. Mine are a golden shelled, pink bodied, the type from jetajockey. He accidentally threw in 3 Ramshorns in with the random plant clippings he gave me. They're not a problem, and are great for keepin' the tank clean.

Hope I helped!

 

[LozzyBear]

Oh that's alright then
Thanks for quick reply everyone

Lozzybear x

 

[phoenixkiller]

Oh that's alright then
Thanks for quick reply everyone

Lozzybear x

Yeah, no problem. We're always here to help!

 

[Luananeko]

Any time you get live plants, expect there to be hitch hikers. Snail eggs and snails are pretty hard to completely clear off plants without killing the plants themselves. I got some regular pond snail hitch hikers when I got some live plants from my LFS and they have multiplied like crazy. My dwarf chain loaches love them as a yummy snack

If the ramshorns bother you and get too populated, pick up some assassin snails and they'll eat all the others in short order. Then you just have the assassin snails, which don't breed too much and will usually die off on their own when their food source is gone.