What kind of snails are these?

[julielynn47]

I have snails in my 75 gallon that just hitchhiked in on a plant. I have planted this tank with plants from my 10 gallon and 55 gallons, all except 2, which I bought because I didn't have them in either of the other tanks. I guess there were snail eggs on them because now I have snails...no fish yet...but livestock none the less.

I figured them to be trumpet snails that everyone calls pests. But now that they are larger they don't look like trumpet snails.

Can anyone identify them for me?

 

[SnailPocalypse]

PIcture please?

 

[julielynn47]

Sorry, forgot to add them

 

[TekFish]

Most likely to just be pond snails, I think they're called that. They come in on the plants as eggs. They could be Ramshorn Snails too, I guess.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Most snails that hitchhike from LFS to your tank via plants do tend to be either MTS, Malaysian Trumpet Snails or Common Pond snails
Indentifying them is pretty straight forward simply due to the shapes of their shells.

These links might help-

MTS

Common / Pond Snail

There are many species of snails for sale in LFS and most can be easily identified. The one thing I will say of snails, I have never really considered them to be pests at all, in fact I like having snails in my tanks. There are more benefits to having them than negatives imho

 

[flchamp89]

Pond snails are great scavengers. I have a few left. Mts doninate my tank. A few rams horns too. As Ch4rlie said I think they are incredibly beneficial.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[julielynn47]

I got these plants from a place online that I have ordered from before and got no snails. I don't consider them pests. I actually tried to get Pet Smart to give or sell me some trumpet snails and they wouldn't. But these don't look like them at all.

 

[Essjay]

There's also a good snail guide on this site here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/freshwater-snail-species-in-the-hobby.424364/

 

[julielynn47]

Will they eat brown algae/diatoms as well as other algaes?

Also will fish eat the snails? Because if these little critters eat this icky algae I am going to move some of them to my 55. Of course it won't do me any good if the fish are going to eat the snails.

 

[betta fish]

They are ramshorn snails, they are good algae eaters but not as good as nerites, depending on what fish you have in your 55 they may be ok as long as no loaches/puffers. You could put a couple in and see how they fair, they lay plenty of eggs in clear gel like blobs everywhere so you will soon have more if they succumb.

 

[julielynn47]

Thanks! I have smaller community fish in the 55. I have a sunset gouramie and some scissor tails. Those are the biggest fish I have in the tank

The snails are growing so fast!

 

[Byron]

I agree that the snails in the two photos appear to be ramshorn, though they are very small. As they grow the distinctive "ramshorn" circular shape will be more obvious if they are ramshorns.

Malaysian Livebearing Snails and Pond Snails and Bladder snails will not eat healthy plants. The same is usually said of Ramshorn Snails, but not everyone has had that bear out.

And as mentioned by others, fish (other than puffers, and some but not all loaches) will not eat any of these snails. They will be controlled by the amount of available food. Remember that "food" means all the organics including fish excrement. So long as this is available, the snails will be present. They do graze algae, and will eat diatoms and basic green algae to some extent and this helps to keep plant leaves clean, but these snails will not control any problem algae.

Byron.

 

[julielynn47]

They are small, but they have tripled in size in the last week. It is unreal how fast they have gotten as big as they are. I think I will catch some of them and put them in the 55. They may not completely control the brown/diatom stuff, but they sure won't starve because of the lack of it. LOL

 

[Toney]

I got snails with my cherry shrimp, what could one tiny snail hurt, got them in both tens...

Picked up some gost shrimp at walmart the other night, was three snails and a neon tetra with them.

These snails survived fenbendazole I used to kill the hydra. I seen they were still alive after a couple water changes so I put my mystery and nerite snails back, they died two days latter...