Snail

[HanSab]

Hi,
After nearly 4 weeks of setting up our aquarium, there is suddenly a little snail moving all over the tank walls! As we're new to all this, I'm wondering if it's a beneficial thing to have in the tank? I know some snails are good for aerating the soil in planted tanks (like ours is), and some are good for eating the algae off tank walls (no algae visible in ours yet), but are there 'bad' snails to watch out for? This one is currently around 8mm long, with pointed yellow/pale brown mottled shell, with very pale greyish body. I'm guessing this one came in on the plants, or as an egg on the plants and has recently hatched.
Is it safe to leave it where it is?
Thanks for any advice
Hannah

 

[Autumnsky]

Check Ramshorn snails look like the mine in my signature, and there are many different color combinations and patterns.

Trumpet snail, like Malaysian Trumpet Snail aka MTS again, a large number of color variations

and pond snail very common and a few different colors/patterns mostly brown to black.

The dark colored one riding on the Ivory Mystery Snail is a pond snail and they can have a spotted pattern

None of these will eat healthy plants and the MTS are the substrate churners. If a snail is on a leaf of your plant it might be eating a dying or damaged portion. They are amazing cleaners, but will poop a lot, because they clean so much, lol.

I like all my snails. Sometimes there are too many which indicates too much uneaten food in the tank. So try cutting your fish feedings in half for a while, or less food but more frequent feedings.

If you start seeing many snails, one easy way to do this is stop feeding half what you normally feed and give the other half of the food to them 2x / in 2 feedings so they have a better chance to eat all of what you give the fish to eat. Some fish always act hungry so they would eat every time you walk by the tank.

You can always squish the unwanted snail on the glass and let your fish eat them.

Rabbit snails, Columbian aka Giant Ramshorn snails will eat plants. FYI

Assassin snails look kinda like a yellow and brown striped larger MTS and they will eat snails.

 

[ScotJudd]

Hi. I think common pond snails are a complete menace. They breed excessively and they eat live plants. MTS are great burrowers during the day and turn over the substrate, which is a good thing. They also do not eat live plant. Google some pictures and if it's a pond snail then squish it and feed it to the fish.


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[HanSab]

Snails

Thanks for the 2 comments above - very helpful. I'm starting to think it may be a pond snail from looking them up. There are another two tiny ones in the tank this morning too, so seems to be breeding quickly. Some say they eat the plants, others say they only eat dead plant materials - which is right? Are the mollies we aim to get in the next week likely to feast on the tiny baby snails, or will they leave them alone? Thanks!