Snail babies

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snakeapartment

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
34
I have a small tiger striped (I don't know breed=bad dad) and today I noticed at least 3 babies chilling and traveling. Although so small I can't believe how complex they are already. The hid into their clear tiny shell when I came close to the tank! Anyway, what are the odds they will survive? I have a 12 gallon live planted fluval with only 3 neons and 2 shrimp. Also if they do survive and there's more...what should my limit be? How many is too many. I'd like to have a small crew of them! Thanks.
 
Striped snails might be a few different species, not breeds. A pic would help enormously. Baby snails are well able to manage on their own from the moment of birth, but the ones you are seeing are not likely babies of the adult. They are more likely 'pest' species, bladder or ramshorn or pond snails. They will breed rapidly, at a very young age, don't need mates to do it either. Lay eggs in clear gel like blobs on any surface.

If you want a few small snails, these guys are not bad to have but they do reproduce constantly, so you have to pick some out or remove any egg masses you see. If you want hard working snails that won't reproduce, get a Nerite snail. Lays eggs, but they cannot hatch in fresh water.

Mystery snails get quite large, but lay eggs out of the water, so easy to control. Also have sexes, need both for fertile eggs, but females can lay infertile ones sometimes. Get to the size of a golf ball, in your size tank a pair would be plenty. Nerites are smaller, you could have 3 or 4 of them.

Nerites are commonly called Zebra snail, or Thorny or Horned, or Tire Track, etc. These are different species, but all do the same work, and all need salt water to hatch their eggs. Very useful snails to have, shells are quite handsome.

Mysteries come in an assortment of colours.. bodies can be ivory, gold, blue, purple, black, brown, etc., shells can be any of these plus they may or may not have stripes. Stripes are the wild form of the original snail and are often brownish or dull goldish under the stripes. They have long antennae and a breathing siphon they can stick up a couple of inches to breathe. Must have air, they are air breathers and can drown if they can't get to air periodically.

Nerites are totally aquatic, no air required, but can stand long periods out of the water without suffering. They come from tidal areas where they are exposed to air between tides a number of times per day.
 
From your description of tiger striped, it sounds like you have a nerite snail. They are great algae eaters and very attractive. Although a picture would help us tell you for sure.
Nerite snails can lay eggs that look like little white sesame seeds, but the eggs cannot produce baby snails in fresh water because they need brackish conditions. The eggs will "hatch" and you might see just the shell left behind, but the larva either don't develop or don't survive after hatching in freshwater.
It is likely that the small snails you see are either pond (bladder) snails, or ramshorn snails. They can be introduced to your tank by eggs on plants, or a single snail getting scooped into the bag from the store. Both of these kind can reproduce asexually and very quickly, and can have your tank full of snails in a couple months. They are usually considered pest snails because of this and most people prefer to remove them or squish them.
 
Also if it is a pest snail. Can I leave a few? Or is it harmful to the tank?
 
Yep that's a nerite. Any baby snails you see are not related to that snail.
You can have them but most people don't like the appearance of specks all over the tank.
 
I find I can simply ignore the eggs they lay, because they are such hard working snails. They LOVE algae, especially brown algae, and keep glass clean, plant leaves clean, etc. If you find too many eggs on one spot, they are not that difficult to scrub off, wood or rocks you can just take out of the tank and scrub, then replace them. I don't bother, like I said, I just don't 'see' the eggs. I hope to raise some one day, if I ever get the brackish tank set up.
The other snails will be bladder or pond snails.. they don't do harm, per se, but as everyone has said they will quickly reproduce and if numbers get very high, not only do they start to look a bit unsightly, they will produce a lot of waste, for you and filter to clean up. Likely best to remove them, from a tank the size of yours.
 
Thanks for all the help guys and girls, a lot of good information. I may keep a few but what is your recommendation on getting rid of them? In the words of The Band " wait a minute Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man"... How do I humanely get rid of them? Will they survive in a local pond? Or lake? Or just put em outside?
 
There are literally millions of these snails in local water ways and if you have one around, I can see the temptation to maybe put them in there. But it's likely not legal to put any animal from an aquarium into a body of water, even if it came from that body of water originally.

Laws vary from state to state, province to province, country to country. You'd have to find out what's legal or not where you are. In most places it is not legal to release anything alive into local bodies of water. This means plants too.

So releasing them is out. You can try to find somebody with fish that would eat them, or turtles that would eat them. If not, just crush them quickly. May sound a bit cruel, but it beats letting them slowly dry out from being tossed in the trash, which is what happens to many of them. Don't flush them either.
 
Best thing to do is place them in a ziploc bag and store them in the freezer for a couple of days before throwing the bag in the trash. They die very quickly in the freezer
 
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