Little hitchhiker

[jtez]

Just found a tiny little snail exploring my tank - he's far smaller than any of my stones of gravel! Been trying to get a picture of him but he's so little my phone won't focus. I'll keep trying, with any luck i'll get him. Hope he survives my tank cycling though.

He must have come in on my wisteria the other day, unless snail eggs can last a few weeks?

 

[Mebbid]

they usually survive cycling. look up pond snail, that's the most common kind of hitch hiker on plants.

 

[jtez]

they usually survive cycling. look up pond snail, that's the most common kind of hitch hiker on plants.

*sigh* i think you might be right about it. I've heard bad things about pond snails. Shell shape looks about the same as what came up in a google search, and he has a dark red tip to his shell

 

[Mebbid]

Its all a personal preference to pest snails. I don't mind pest snails at all in my tank because they eat left over food and keep the tank clean. They can become an eyesore though if you constantly overfeed.

 

[jtez]

I'll see how this one ends up working out. My gravel has started looking a bit messy though, if it does something about that then I really can't complain!

I did manage to get a picture of him when he got on top of a pebble and posed for me- not the best quality but it was better than some of the other pictures

 

[Mebbid]

Yup, definitely a pond snail. Just a word of warning, they are hard to get rid of once they start reproducing and they will reproduce without a mate.

 

[jtez]

If I can find him again I might try and get rid of him then. If worst comes to worst, it looks like assassins are a pretty common way of cleaning them out

 

[jtez]

Just removed two of the culprits. I'm considering whether they're bladder snails?

 

[marsh]

I thought the little pond snails were adorable at one time... Looooong ago in a land far far away.

they are impossible to avoid, and if you see two, soon you will see a hundred! Oddly in 3 FW tanks they have been reproducing at different rates, some look long and pointy like assassins(but the one I bought died) so I think they are something else, then pond snails are everywhere, and then these semi-ramshorn looking ones that could just be a different type of pond scum, uh I mean, pond snail.

When I purchased 3 ornamental snails for my first Betta tank (well his second upgrade into a 29) I was soon appalled at how much poop they produce! I think the mystery snail pooped 1 as much as my single Betta, of course in a 29 he was the only fish at that time.{{{don't know where Yoda appeared from LOL "ten times as much as"}}}

So my solution came to me as a happy accident, I rescued a pea puffer from my Ex who had him in a one-gallon tank with ghost shrimp(aka dinner).

I put the pea puffer in his own 20G and put the driftwood with anubias and ferns one by one into his tank (from the solo-Betta tank, I know not sterile but both are healthy so I risked it) and he hunts down every snail baby! very fun to watch him hunt!

 

[jtez]

I have the long and pointy kind that you mentioned :/ and I had to pick out a few more last night too.

I've never even seen a pea puffer, sounds like he's a great snail culler.

I was at my LFS yesterday (the staff I've had contact with have been pretty reliable so far) and I got talking with one of the girls about snail killers. My tank is too small for clown loaches, and I wasn't overly keen on chain loaches as I'e heard they can get expensive to build a whole school of them. She said some gouramis have been known to pick at snails though. I'm planning a pair of pearls so fingers crossed I get one with a taste for snail!

 

[Mebbid]

I've never heard of gouramis touching snails so I wouldn't bet on them controlling a snail population. A small group of assassins work very very well though.

 

[jtez]

I've never heard of gouramis touching snails so I wouldn't bet on them controlling a snail population. A small group of assassins work very very well though.

Nor have I. She said it happens occasionally though, not that I completely believe her. I planned having gouramis anyway though so its just an added bonus if it turns out to be true.

Assassins seem to be particularly hard to find in Australia :/