***Snail Identification *** I need help :)

[Ant0ni081]

Hi people

I got a few new addtions to the tank as of late. These snails here......
Anyone have any idea what they are and information on them?

thanks for your help

Ant

[plecoperson]

Pretty little physa/"pond" snail-they are harmless, stay 1/2" the most, reproduce very fast with jellylike eggs.

[Zezmo]

Right now, when there are only a couple they are easy to eradicate. Later, after the population explosion it becomes more difficult. They are pretty much harmless, but a thousand of them can be an eyesore.

[travis simonson]

Dose with several African cichlids and/or loaches. Your pond snails will disappear quite quickly

[Ant0ni081]

thanks guys i kinda like them actually. But now i know they can reproduce rapidly i may think about getting a couple of loaches to help lower the numbers when the time comes.

thanks agin

Ant

[plecoperson]

Honestly, they will not usually psycho-reproduce unless there is a fair amount of extra food for them. But if you don't like 'em, Ant, do remove them now.

-Lisa (aka that "Snails Aren't Really Scary" person)

[Ant0ni081]

i think i'll keep them. I'd feel bad now they set up home and have already had a few young, if i got rid. I just bought 2 flying fox and 5 shrimp. so the snails shouldnt have massess to much on, seens i already have 1 synodontis and 6 kuhli loach, which tend to mop up the left overs also.

Thanks again for your help. I'll be sure to keep the snails in check

Antonio

[webmoose]

Originally Posted by plecoperson

Honestly, they will not usually psycho-reproduce unless there is a fair amount of extra food for them. But if you don't like 'em, Ant, do remove them now.

-Lisa (aka that "Snails Aren't Really Scary" person)

I agree with Lisa! - sometimes the snail ratio shows if there is too much feeding occurring.. "sometimes" (*millage may vary.) But I have found with some tanks that I reduced feeding and the snails did not flourish as much.

Those ones look pretty cool!

Moooose

[t3hRobG]

We had a bit of a pandemic with these little guys. 2 rode in on the back of some giant hairgrass we got from the lfs. We thought they were cute initially, even named them. Not a week later we discovered the gel egg sacs all over our tank. Probably 10 or 15 egg sacs in all. 2 months later we had removed nearly 70 snails. I still pull 2 or 3 out of the tank about every time I stop by, although the addition of ghostshrimp and a big ol' golden apple snail made a huge impact on how well they did. Our chemicals have always stayed pretty balanced and feeding to a minimum, but it seems if they are left uncontested they multiply to fill the void.

Sounds like, as long as you keep some competition in the tank, they stay under control. If you don't want them, though, get rid of them while you can still count them on one hand : )

[webmoose]

Good points t3hRobG! And the other thing is that sometimes with snails you see a few but already have 'many' (be it egg or very small hatchings)

[happygirl65]

I have had the same snails for two months (since the first addition of plants) and at first pulled the only one I saw out....there were soon more, and more. But they blend really well and have not caused any harm to any plants and they do seem to eat algae so I let them stay. I freaked out at first thinking they would eat all my plants, but the members here were right about my snails....they dont touch the living stuff.... at least these dont anyway.

[Ant0ni081]

thanks for your help all im going to keep them as i think my shrimp, flying fox and loach to keep there food source in short supply, so numbers shouldnt go crazy, i have no algae for them to grave on yet due to lots of plants. For the moment everythings just right

ant

[webmoose]

so it serves me right for posting in this thread... I have a tank with no substrate. I looked at it this evening and I see a large number of baby snails all over the tank and clutches of eggs that look like they are about to hatch... ... lots of them! Almost gross!!!

mooooooose

[joannde]

I actually breed these guys to feed to my DPs. The best way to attract them is to put a wilted piece of lettuce into the tank at lights out. In the morning you'll have a bunch of snails on the leaf. This is how I collect snails for feeding and it never fails. Do this a few nights in a row and you'll make a hugh dent in the population.

I have to raise mine in a separate 2.5G tank. I have only a few in the 35G. The mystery snails outcompete them for food - of course, I have ALOT of mystery snails so we'll see what happens when 1/2 of them relo to the other tanks I'm setting up.

As for what to do with the captured snails - find someone who has loaches or DPs and give them or ship them to 'em !

[Ant0ni081]

I'd love a few awsome looking snails, mystery, apple ect . . . im more than willing to take a few off your hands if you need to rid yourself of a few I seen some beautiful pictures in the forums of the most awsome looking snails. especially those little red ones, although i think i read somewhere they were salt water so it rules them out for me. Im just looking for a few that will leave the plants alone and that look beautiful.

Antonio

[MyCatsDrool]

Man alive...I have hundreds of snails in some of my tanks, MTS, spixi and apple, and they don't bother me a bit....


maybe i am weird...