Mystery Snail In New Tank

[Dr1_veR]

Hi all

as you may know ive got a small tank im cycling (fishless).
currently on its 14 day and tonight ive noticed a little firend seems to have arrived in it!!!
how i have no idea but if sumone could identify the snail it would be great! is this a good sign ive got a snail in the tank after 2 weeks cycling. this mean the tank is getting livable! as to how it got there ive no idea

heres a pic
sorry its so small but the snail is literaly only a few milimetres in size and my macro on my camera couldnt focus it any closer lol


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

- Graham

 

[OldMan47]

It looks like a common pond snail to me. They are very tough and may well survive a fishless cycle.

 

[Dr1_veR]

its not gonna harm my tank in any way is it? I have it at 76F and and planning on putting tropical fish in it? Will it be ok with them or get eaten. Prob gonna get sum rummy nose tetra.

also im open to name suggestions for the little chap

- Graham

 

[Twinklecaz]

Lol it's funny how differently people see snails. When I saw some in mine I was like ewwwww get it out!

Do you have live plants? If so it prob came in on that. You may find you have others too. Some fish will try and eat them but I don't know about Tetras, they're maybe a bit small. and he'llhave grown by the time you have fish.

As for harming, I know some snails will eat plants but others will be fine.

Oh and call him Gary. As in Sponge Bob Square pants' pet snail

 

[OldMan47]

The snail is not a threat to any fish and most fish are safe to keep with snails. Loaches in particular are used by some people to control the numbers of their snails. Loaches eat them.

 

[BethK]

he'll be ok, may munch on plants but won't effect anything.

sorry for hi-jacking, needed to ask;


would loaches eat apple snails?

 

[the_lock_man]

At first I only saw the one common pond snail, and thought "Oh, well, whatever". I then found I had a few more, and some ramshorn snails as well. And then some more. And more. And more. I tried manually removing them, but could never eradicate them completely.

I now have 6 assassin snails, which are slowly but surely eating their way through the invaders.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you're not careful (as indeed, I wasn't) they can be an unsightly problem.

 

[B13]

*points up*

Wot he sed.

I personally like having a balanced little ecosystem, so I bought in the Assassin Snails (which are very pretty creatures) to help control the pest snails like Pond snails and Ramshorns.

They ate the lot - and were sooooo happy, they started making ickle baby Assassin snails!!!

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I think of my "pest" snail population as a minor insurance cover against slightly overfeeding my fish. I'd rather have snails munching on uneaten food, rather than having food rot and release ammonia.

I have the added bonus that both my current tanks have at least one fish species that enjoys the odd snail snack too (was more shocked about the Squirrel Loaches than the Lionheads).