It's not a Mystery Snail, but the snail is a mystery...

[Wary]

It's been a few weeks since I last added any new critters to my tank, yet when I turned the light on this morning I discovered a brand-new, never-before-seen trumpet snail sucking on the front glass.





Anyone have any idea how this happened?

[mfdrookie516]

it was probably hiding in the substrate. i found thousands in my 10g tank when i took it apart. there's probably more where that one came from

[BigJim]

+1 Unless you acquired him recently, that's a big snail that probably has little ones in your substrate.

[Wary]

Absolutely bizarre. Tanks been running for months, no new props in the tank, one new layer of substrate probably three months ago, and this little freak just hiding out. Probably part of some fundamentalist splinter cell, waiting in the gravel for the right moment to pop out & take hostages... then again, maybe I'm paranoid.

[mgamer20o0]

they tend to dig and dont come out until night time that could explain it.

[DragonFish71]

Originally Posted by Wary

Absolutely bizarre. Tanks been running for months, no new props in the tank, one new layer of substrate probably three months ago, and this little freak just hiding out. Probably part of some fundamentalist splinter cell, waiting in the gravel for the right moment to pop out & take hostages... then again, maybe I'm paranoid.

[An t-iasg]

Have you added any new live plants lately? Snails and eggs can hitchhike into the tank on live plants. I try to float new plants in a foil breadpan for a few weeks before I put them in the tank so that any snail eggs can hatch first.

It's not that bizarre to see a snail appear suddenly. One time I saw a pond snail on the glass in one of my tanks four months after adding new plants. Luckily that's the only one I saw. I guess the more bizarre thing is seeing only one pond snail!

[mfdrookie516]

Originally Posted by An t-iasg

I guess the more bizarre thing is seeing only one pond snail!

Now that is amazing. In my unfortunate experience with pond snails (in two separate tanks, two separate times), its been none then the next day there's like 150,000 of them.

[Wary]

Haven't added any plants in a couple of months. Come to think of it, the last plant I added was the java moss, a couple of months back (doubtless I would have noticed hitchhikers in the java moss), and before that it was the plants I put in, all at once, before introducing fish.

(& thanks for the chuckle on that, DF)

[mgamer20o0]

they are livebearers and could be hard to see. i say it might be possible.