what snail is this?

[ccole]

hey guys and girls

I bought some plants off the internet about 4 months ago now, washed them through etc but the other week i noticed these snails appear in my tank....

I love the common snails that appear in tanks... you know the little brown ones that come by the hundreds but they have strangely dissapeared, was wondering if these dudes where eating them or the fish?

So does anyone know what kind of snail it is and where they come from? I know they plants came from Koreia or somwhere (apologies for spellings)

thanks for looking ans thanks for any help

cole:thumbup:

 

[Jimmy]

It looks like a type of Malaysian trumpet snail.

 

[ccole]

Cheers jimmy- don't pet shops sell them? I shall look them up! Thanks m8

 

[Mooo]

OMG its a trumpet snail get it out n tread on it and any others you find

 

[ccole]

hey moo....why am i treading on them (not that i could tread on it...would have to tread on myself....what goes around comes around belief...i will take them all out though)

I read they we're good for the tank! You totally have me worried now!!!

 

[Zebra Pleco]

My tanks are full of MTS, they help keep the sand moving and eat any food that dissappears underneath. They are no trouble at all.

 

[ccole]

cheers zebra....my blood pressure has now gone back to normal! Got totally confused because that is what i also read. cheers once again.... and moo.... i'm sending you the doctors bill! lol

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I think they are MTS as well, they are hermaphrodites do you only need one to found a colony. I'd agree with Stuart

My tanks are full of MTS, they help keep the sand moving and eat any food that disappears underneath. They are no trouble at all.

They don't eat plants or fish eggs, in fact Ingo Seidel (in the "Back to Nature Guide to ...) recommends them for egg traps as an egg cleaner.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I think it is a MTS too, they are hermaphrodite so you only need one to start with.

My tanks are full of MTS, they help keep the sand moving and eat any food that disappears underneath. They are no trouble at all.

I'd agree with Stuart, they don't eat plants or fish eggs, in fact Ingo Seidel recommends them for egg traps.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mooo]

Sorry for giving you a heart attack, I still think you should stomp on it..
I've never heard anyone that loves em before this, they will overpopulate and good luck finding something to rid the tank of them, Heard many nightmare stories of people spending hours picking them out of their tanks..I surely never want them in my tanks...

 

[ccole]

lol totaly understand where you are coming from moo... i have read threadsa aabout people being overpopulated with them but i'll keep them don't think i will be able to name them all if i get thousands though. respects and thanks. cole

 

[D-MAC]

In most cases these snails are not a problem until they over populate which means they have an abundant food source = overfeeding...Remember also that they are feeding, so they will be adding to the bioload that the filter has to contend wth, thus you have to do more waterchanges to keep the water in tip top condition for you fish.

 

[Zebra Pleco]

Agree with all of the above, if you overfeed the tanks, snails are a problem, but then I buy a few assasin snails, which I like to watch eat the MTS, helps keep numbers down.

Also, lots of people sell MTS on ebay, not bad for an unwanted pest, you can get money for them. Let them grow, sell them or use them to clean your tanks, and as a last resort.


SSSS TTTT OOOO MMMM PPPP on them

 

[ccole]

i have had my new plants for over 3 months and only ever see a handfull of these snails ...so that must be a good sign that i'm not overfeeding..... maybe i should pluck some out and breed them for ebay!!!

 

[DazSH]

i love mine keep them in order and there a tank cleaner overfeed and they start climbing all over i pick loads out and feed to a seperate tank with assasin snails in . The circle of life..

 

[bigbird]

i believe snails are in some form part of our hobby. I keep them in check, by squashing the ones I find only on the front glass panel on all of my 4 tanks and almost instantly my L333, L377, L004 and L282 go for a munch on them. Agree if you do not keep them in check, they add bioload, so just keep an eye on them as well. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Mooo]

I keep Ramshorns, as they don't reproduce as fast as the others..

 

[jessonthenet]

Snails look ugly all over the tank that is why I crush them and feed them to the fish. Used to have problems with ramshorns and pond snails which are no use to my tanks whatsoever but after a few months of crushing them have totally disappeared.

Your pic is a malaysian trumpet snail which I have loads of and not a good idea to try and crush. Also ugly looking things and hard to eradicate, only tend to come out at feeding time, especially if you put veg in. Plecs and shrimp will have a hard job eating the veg because it will be covered in MTS, depending on your infestation problem. I don't think they really do a good job turning over substrate unless you have thousands but the more you have the worse the eyesore, better off doing it yourself.

People buy them to feed assassin snails and puffer fish too but you won't get much off them , good way of getting shot of them if only to get positive feedback on ebay.

 

[ccole]

Beauty is only shell deep
Interesting opinion and I disagree with most of it because it is mostly subjective. I do agree about bio load if they infest and plecs not being able to get to food but if you don't over feed they will not get to that bad.
Respect cole

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm a snail fan, I have MTS (Melanoides tuberculata) in all the tanks, and both Bladder Snail (Physa acuta) and Red Ramshorn (Planorbis rubrum) in any of the tanks which are above pH7. They have a number of advantages in terms of cleaning up debris, grazing algae and indicating if you are over-feeding. I also think that a planted tank with a stable snail population is more stable in itself and will usually have better water quality than a snail free equivalent (assuming a similar volume of water changes). This may be due to their interactions with other organisms in the aufwuchs such as Rotifers etc, or possibly just because the presence of the snails limits the amount of gardening, siphoning and other interventions that the aquarist does with the tank. I'm fairly confident that less disturbance = more stability and more stability = better quality water.

It is the same principle as the reef keepers "Living Rock", complex ecosystems maintain stability.

If you do think you have too many snails and you are confident that you aren't over-feeding then even MTS are easy to net out at night with a baited net (prawn and carrot or cucumber works really well).

cheers Darrel