Mystery Snail In Fry Tank?

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greenmumma141

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  Just wondering if anyone has any experience with mystery snails in fry tanks. They hitched a ride with the new plants I added, and I assumed they wouldn't touch any eggs I put into the tank.  2 days after adding my angelfish fry, the leaf is bare!! I haven't seen any snails on the leaf though, and the only other things in my tank are my blue pearl shrimp and a couple cherries, which I know are "fry safe".  It could be the water current is too strong and eventually blew all the eggs off the leaf, but I just want to make sure the snails aren't going to eat every batch of eggs I put in here :unsure:
 
if by mystery snails you mean apple snails which grow quite large then yes I would imagine they would have a go at fish eggs they came across. I have two and they will eat or at least try anything I put in front of them. ive never heard of them being plant hitchhikers tho. how big are we talking. most common snails to hitch on plants are pond snails which don't grow that big and probably wouldent eat the fish eggs. even baby apple snails are larger than most pond snails.
 
I have mystery/apple snails, and I know they would eat each other's eggs. I'm not sure about fish eggs, because I don't breed. I hope this helps!
 
Most snails will eat fish eggs.  I add snails to fry tanks after the fry are free swimming since snails don't normally go for fry once they are active and swimming around. I advise removing the snail until you have just fry in the tank.
 
Upon further inspection, and some research, they seem to be pond snails. There is also one trumpet and one tiny ramhorn.  It just seems odd bc I never saw a single snail on the leaf with the eggs, just the shrimp. But neocaridina shrimp are fry safe, so what gives?! :blink:

I've moved the pond snails to the big tank for a loach snack :)
 
In my experience the ramshorns and trumpet snails won't touch the eggs. Mystery snails on the other hand will happily devour any fish eggs that they come across.
 
Okay, that's good to know. I still spot a couple tiny ramshorns from time to time. 
 
Second batch of angel eggs that have 1.) gone completely bad and 2) been eaten! :angry:
 
I'm thinking it is a combination of not acclimating the eggs to the small tank, and maybe not enough oxygen?! There's no airstone but I have an aquaclear 50 going on this thing so I thought the strong flow would create enough surface movement to take care of this.  IDK...sigh.
 
Personally I have found one of the safest additons to saved fish eggs be it in a separate tank or suspended net in the parent fishes tank, is cherry shrimp. I have watched the shrimp carefully pick over and clean the egg of my corys while not actually damaging or eating the eggs. Potentially not all shrimp will be as egg safe, but I think almost any dwarf shrimp species should be safe for the job.
 
Snails on the other hand I have seen them decimate fish eggs, possibly the only snail that wont eat fish eggs is nerite snails, but even them I am not 100% sure off
 
Yep, I've got a couple cherries in my fry tank, but mostly pearl blues. I'm thinking there's got to be a couple snails left in there hiding....  
 

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