What snails do I have ?

[Sophia.Anna]

I originally bought some live plants and they must have had eggs on and I ended up with hundreds so what I believe to be red ramshorn snails and thousands of eggs all over the tank and my fish started dying .. i disovered that the snails were considered a pest and I discarded of them and had a spare tank ... boiled the gravel bought new plants from a different shop and cleaned the filter (in all attempts to clear the tank of my thousands of eggs) the new plants were kept with apple snails but the guy assured me that they laid eggs out of the water .... anyway after 2 weeks of seeing no snails I now have the original type (the ones I believe to me red ramshorn) and a new type my question is ... is this an apple snail if not what is it ? Does this snail reproduce as much as the other ones and will they kill of my fish ? I am happy to keep the 3 new ones as long as they don't effect my fish and reproduce in millions.... the first two photos are the first snails .. are they really ramshorn ? Second lot if photos are the new snail ... what type is it ?

 

[LyraGuppi]

The first pictures are Ramshorn snails, the second look like Physidae snails. (or just your average pond snail) They're both harmless, even beneficial to a tank, as they eat organic matter. They'll both stay small. As long as you don't overfeed the aquarium, their numbers won't get out of control, but they will reproduce.
Here is TFF's snail guide!

 

[Essjay]

Snails were considered pests many years ago but we now know better. They are an important part of the ecosystem of the tank.

The snails would not have been the reason that original fish died. The fact that there were so many snails rather suggests you were over feeding the fish which would have led to water quality problems - especially if you hadn't done a fishless cycle before getting the fish - and it is this that killed the fish. I have both the small ramshorn snails and Physid snails in my tanks and they do not kill the fish.

Physid snails will reproduce in your tank. They lay tiny eggs in a sort of jelly which are very hard to see.

Can I ask:
How did you start the tank, did you do a fishless cycle with ammonia or just let the tank run for a few days?
How big is the tank?
What fish and how many do you have and which fish died?
How much and what to you feed the fish?
And most importantly, what are the ammonia and nitrite levels in your tank?

 

[SeanTrollope]

i just add that i have ramshorn snails in my tank and i actually hardly see any but then i know that my tank is balanced pretty well and i dont over feed at all.

also the snails will not kill any fish.

 

[neoyyf]

The ones with spiral shell are ramshorn snails (Planorbis rubrum). The other type are bladder/tadpole snails (Physa Acuta). Neither harm fish as Sean stated. You are getting thousands of eggs because of overfeeding as stated by Lyra. When the fish are too full and cant eat the excess, the snails will eat it and then reproduce.

To help with removal, drop a piece of vegetable in the tank with a weight to sink it at night. In the morning you should have a lot of them crawl onto it. Remove it that way to keep numbers down instead of tearing down the tank. However it wont remove all of them. But it is good to keep some in the tank as they help clean up the algae