What kind of snail is this?

by Sandman1969 Sat Feb 15, 2014 9:08 am

Just pulled this one out of the large tank & am curious as to what kind it is.

Also, what would cause 2 snails to "go at it" with each other?
As in one was moving back & forth pretty fast like for a snail while attached to the other.

Also found one snail that was all white except for a single black spot on the top of it's shell.

by **Sbenson11** Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:18 am

Sandman1969 wrote:

Also, what would cause 2 snails to "go at it" with each other?
As in one was moving back & forth pretty fast like for a snail while attached to the other.

WELL...

I'm no snail expert,

But

Sounds like they are are celebrating Valentines Day Shocked

Steve

by **Shell** Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:40 am

Hard to tell, but I'd rule out trumpet, ramshorn, and leopard ramshorn. My guess is a pond snail...

by **guppyguy** Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:44 am

Yes looks like basic pond snail that were having happy moments. Wink

by cephalotus Sat Feb 15, 2014 1:17 pm

does it have triangular "cat ear"-like antennae?

by Sandman1969 Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:14 pm

What kind of snails are normally hitch hiking on plants from stores like Big Al's ?

As for antennae, never saw any.

by **CAAIndie** Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:01 pm

Agreed on the pond snail. I've only had ramshorns introduced to my tank via plants, but I'm sure a good variety could come in such ways.

by **Shell** Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:04 pm

Sandman1969 wrote:What kind of snails are normally hitch hiking on plants from stores like Big Al's ?

As for antennae, never saw any.

The most common snails to come in on plants for us are ramshorns and ponds. I'm still guessing those are ponds you have there, based on the pic, the shape/design of the shell looks like a pond snail. They move faster than a ramshorn (i.e. ramshorns are very slow - you can watch a pond move along quite easily), and, as mentioned above, their antennas are more "cat ear" like, or stubby, not long and thin like a ramshorn.

by Sandman1969 Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:30 am

So if they are pond snails, what kind of impact do they pose on the tank?
I had a full water test done yesterday on it & ph, for this city's tap water, was good. Ammonia was .05. Rest were fine.
I am in the middle of a water change now and will also be cleaning out the 10 gallon tub filter and replacing it's floss. Will also be adding more of those pot scrubbers to it.

by cephalotus Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:03 am

Yeah I'm guessing pond snails too. They look like the right shell shape. @Shell - good observation that they are faster than ramshorns! I have found that the pond snails are way better at evading assassins than the ramshorns, which are like sitting targets!

Sandman - The pond snails won't pose any more impact to the tank than ramshorns or other "nuisance" snails. They don't eat plants and make a good addition to your cleanup crew. If you dislike the aesthetic of having snails proliferate in your tank then you may have a problem. Mine don't bother me so I leave them be.

by **Shell** Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:27 am

I'm sort of just echoing what cephalotus said in that our ponds and ramshorns have never touched live plants here - I've only ever witnessed them eat decaying ones, but even that is not a frequent occurence. As for biload, they really seem to have no impact that I can tell. I'm guessing they would like to eat any fish eggs though - interestingly enough I have never seen a trumpet snail eat a fish egg, but I have seen many ramshorns chow down on them! We've never had ponds in a tank with eggs, but my guess is they would be like the ramshorn. Trumpets are just so much more polite than the others Razz

by JayB Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:30 am

I'm definitely no snail expert but I tend to agree with everyone that it looks like a pond snail. No issues with these other than a potential overpopulation if you overfeed. As for eggs, I'm guessing that like most snails any eggs laid by your fish are potential food.

by Ursus sapien Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:36 am

it's either a physa or pond snail, but I can't see the antenae. Pond snailsare known for stacking. They all seem to hate having another snail on their shell, but they all do it.

by Sandman1969 Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:13 am

This is another snail found in the same tank.
It's different than the previous one. It does have antennae as when I put it back in the tank, it stretched out & had rather long ones.
What kind of snail is this? 25yxg0p

by **Shell** Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:08 am

Hmmm...long antennas, huh? Could be a bladder snail - and we have those here too! Really, I see no major difference between them, except for ponds are cuter with their cat ears Razz

by Sandman1969 Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:17 am

Ok since snails are not really bad for my tank, would it be safe to add a few of them to my 30 gallon tank? It's not heated as it has the fan tailed goldfish & a koi. No live plants but they are fed a 45% protein diet.

by cephalotus Mon Feb 17, 2014 11:40 am

sure, shouldn't be a problem at all!

by Ursus sapien Mon Feb 17, 2014 12:34 pm

physa/pocket/tadpole snail - long, thread-like antennae

radix/small pond snail (different species than large pond snail) - short, triangular antennae

by Ursus sapien Mon Feb 17, 2014 12:39 pm

unless you really like snails I would think twice about introducing either of these to your tanks. Once in, always in! Neither of these are plant eaters (with some exceptions - I feed my pond snails salvinia and that oversize duckweed-look alike plant) but both (especially pond snails) will add heavily to bioload and eat fish eggs.

by **Shell** Mon Feb 17, 2014 2:41 pm

This is a personal judgement call. The only pest snails I purposely introduce into my tanks are trumpet snails (to aid with aeration) and leopard ramshorns (just because I think they are neat looking!). All of the others go into our 'pest tank'. I do think that pond snails are cute, I just found it difficult to control their population in the guppy tank with only three fish. So, they were rehoused in the pest tank. For some reason, the trumpets in there don't seem to get out of control in the same way the ponds did.

by Sandman1969 Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:16 pm

Well, I used to have 4 Oto cats in that tank, til I found one hanging out of the koi's mouth. He bit the head off one. I then pulled the remaining 3 & put them into the large tank where they are happy.