Unidentifiable Snails!

[hanny93]

I've just noticed have four little snails crawling round my tank, all about 5mm, although there are two about 3-4mm.
I've just tried to identify them using the hitchhikers guide thing, but I cant really tell what they are.

Shall I just leave them in or take them out? My mum says they might have come from outside, as I keep a watering can outside that I use for water changes.

 

[mattlee]

if you have added new plants then they will have come from these more than likely. there are a lot of plants with snail eggs on them when bought.

what do they look like? do you have any pics of them?

 

[simonas]

asMatt said they often come on plants either as snails or as eggs

you need to make a quick decision becuse they tend to spread very quickly ifconditions allow

I have no problem with snails and have them in my tanks

google malaysian trumpet snail they are the most common

 

[mattlee]

snails arent always a bad thing but they can eat plants and get out of control.

there are many ways to rid a tank of snails but i added a handfull of assassin snails to my tanks and they keep the MTS under control and look cool too

 

[simonas]

do you know if the MTS eat plants Matt

 

[mattlee]

do you know if the MTS eat plants Matt

i never saw them eating my plants simon they just fed on the scraps left by the fish. they multiply like mad and 20 soon become 150 but since adding assassins my tank is under control from them. i like MTS as they turn the substrate and rid any uneaten food but and the assassind didnt rid them over night but all is good now with s decent mix of MTS and assassins

 

[hanny93]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply,

I dont have any pics unfortunately, my camera is out of battery.

The snails are sort of dark brown with black spots on them, and their shells are a spiral cone shape, but not like MTS, more short and fatter than that.

I dont want to take them out if they are beneficial, but I dont want them to be harmful.
They stay on the sides of the tank usually, and on the filter because theres a thin layer of algae that I leave on the filter case.