What kind of snail is this? Pest?

[Elisabeth83]

In 3 of my tanks I have these tiny snails. There arn't many..I usually can only spot 3-5 at a time. I tried searching on google to see if I could identify them but I couldn't. I took some pictures and this is the best one I could get.

They have flat tan spiral shells and their bodies are red. They are about 4mm in size. I am just wondering if they are a pest snail or if I can just let them be? Whenever I do a water change I find them in the sand. Maybe they are good to have as they are probably churning the sand like Trumpet snails?

http/www.lissie.scorpiondata.com/100_2448.JPG

 

[smithrc]

It's a ramshorn... will breed like mad

AKA pest snails.

P.S. if you use the tag you can insert the picture directly into the post
use the IMG button rather than the http:// button ;)

 

[3fsh]

I have to disagree... while they are considered "pests" because they eat live plants, they are also wonderful at cleaning algae off the sides of the tank, IME. They only "breed like mad" if you overfeed the tank. More food = more snails Less food = less snails. I think they are perfect betta-tank cleaners because they don't get too big!

 

[smithrc]

Algae can out grow hungry snails... which just leaves then with more food...

 

[Elisabeth83]

Are there many types of ramshorn snails? I've owned the bigger kind of ramshorn snails but these ones are different. The ones in my tank have flat shells and they spiral from the top unlike the ramshorn snails that I know of their shells spiral on both sides and the shell sticks out. Also the ramshorn snails I used to own were about 10 times larger than these guys.

Hmm maybe I can draw a pic so you understand what I mean

edit: Ok I see the Img button now...I'll use that from now on. I was wondering why I couldn't just insert the pic directly...silly me

Also the size of the snails in the pic I drew isn't relevant lol

 

[rain-]

Those in my picture are propably Gyraulus albus, white ramshorn snails, but there are several species of ramshorns that look alike and are almost the same size (0.3-1 centimetres). Sometimes they are called "planorbids", Planorbidae being their family.

They are small and sort of pretty, they can eat algae from the most fragile plants, but they might also eat the plants if their population is too large. If you keep their numbers under control they aren't that bad.

 

[Elisabeth83]

Yep rain those are them Yah now I know what they are

They are kinda pretty I think...especially their red bodies. Like I said in my first post at most I've only seen about 3-5 and sometimes I can't even spot one. I guess I have my population under control I've been picking them out everytime I've seen them as I thought they were bad to have in the tanks but as long as I keep the numbers low I can let more live.

I think they are fun to watch too

 

[rain-]

Are there many types of ramshorn snails? I've owned the bigger kind of ramshorn snails but these ones are different. The ones in my tank have flat shells and they spiral from the top unlike the ramshorn snails that I know of their shells spiral on both sides and the shell sticks out. Also the ramshorn snails I used to own were about 10 times larger than these guys.

Yes, there's several species.

Sometimes the snails keep their shells sideways, so they will look a bit like that.

Does this look familiar? It' is propably Planorbis planorbis, grows to about 1-2 cm.

This is Planorbarius corneus, great ramshorn snail, grows to about 2-3.5 cm.

This is a juvenile P. corneus:

Applesnail.net - Various freshwater snails is a good place to identify snails.

 

[Candyco]

Yep rain those are them Yah now I know what they are

They are kinda pretty I think...especially their red bodies. Like I said in my first post at most I've only seen about 3-5 and sometimes I can't even spot one. I guess I have my population under control I've been picking them out everytime I've seen them as I thought they were bad to have in the tanks but as long as I keep the numbers low I can let more live.

I think they are fun to watch too

pah...... i kept a couple of those a few months back thinking they were sweet... they killed my plants, bred like mad & i ended up completely clearing out my tank & starting again. Yes, they were great for keepong the tank clean but so are a lot of other things that don't get out of hand!!!!! Sorry, had 2 say that!

Kaz

 

[Candyco]

@ keepong! *keeping!

 

[the caretaker]

I got these a few years back they are really annoying they breed like wildfire and if you let them will get to the stage where you can't see into your tank! I got mine through buying plants with them on! I always dip my plants now before I put them in my tank, in quite hot salty water that sorts them out! I ended up using a delghtfully named chemical called "snailsmasher" did the trick just fine.