# What kind of snail i got?



## ICEAL (Sep 27, 2011)

I bought a ghost shrimp at petco and i ask the employee if they sell the little snails in their tank, she said no but she also said she could throw in some so she gave me 4.

Now i don't know what kind of snail is this. It is just as big as a plump female's belly. It is not the long spiral type just the ordinary shell type.


----------



## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Nerite? Mystery? Apple? Zebra?

Can we have a picture?


----------



## emeraldsky (Oct 4, 2011)

Im thinking mystery, thats the general snail petco seems to sell.



It would help if you could post a picture, or at least give us some colors.
Maybe look up the pictures of the snails BettaMiah posted and see which one is similar?


----------



## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Thats a good idea. 

Mystery is a good guess. PetSmart and Petco always have them.


----------



## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

I would say it's probably a ramshorn or pond snail, considering they don't sell them they are probably pest snails.


----------



## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Don't Ramshorns have spiral shells? Or am i thinking of an assasin or something? 

It could be a pond snail.


----------



## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Ramshorn :









Pond:









Assassin:









Mystery/Apple:









Nerite:









Keep in mind, there are many patterns and colors, these are just shell shapes


----------



## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

Ah, thank you.


----------



## ICEAL (Sep 27, 2011)

i think it's pond snail, it really looks like it. Thank you everyone.


----------



## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

Pond snail was my first hitch hiker. Although I don't have my original anymore, I do have some offspring popping up now and then. Thankfully my fish eat the babies but one or two always survive. Mine was the size of a grain of rice, and ended up the size of a nickle before he passed. I love my pond snails, my Malaysian Trumpets not so much.


----------



## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

Depending on your tank size...you may want to squish any eggs you find during water change to keep population down...Pond snails can overpopulate a smaller tank pretty quickly...I always have a few pond snails in my tanks and i like them.. but I make sure to squish any eggs I find during water changes to keep the population down.


----------



## Pitluvs (Jun 22, 2011)

^^ Yessss! I have mine in a tropical community tank, not with Bettas. I have population control where a Betta tank doesn't!


----------



## Trobar (Aug 29, 2011)

Thank you Pitluvs for those pics of snails. It seems I got a hitchhiker


----------



## aurasoulful (Aug 19, 2011)

I've got a few pond snails that infiltrated my tank. But my MTS herd is in the hundreds now.. o-o


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Aura, really? I don't think my MTS have bred yet and I'm pretty sure I got them from the same place as you. Unless I have a whole tribe of 'em under the substrate that I don't know about. :shock:

As a side note, nerites can't breed in freshwater so you will most likely never see baby nerites unless you actually buy them.


----------



## Trobar (Aug 29, 2011)

Early this morning I looked at the tank and I saw baby MTS, several adults as well so I'm assuming they are doing well. I think we got the MTS at the same time.


----------



## aurasoulful (Aug 19, 2011)

I've got hundreds and hundreds. I hope they don't eat all the algae before my otos.


----------



## Trobar (Aug 29, 2011)

How long do I nuke cucumber to feed the little beasties if they get out of hand?


----------



## aurasoulful (Aug 19, 2011)

I'd say 2-3 minutes should do it. more or less


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

If my MTS are breeding, they're hiding it well.


----------



## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

My 29 has pond snails.......I use to see tons of them and I would squish them, but for some reason ever since I bought my Neon Tetras I haven't seen any, and they're too small to eat the snails. Hrmmm.......


----------



## GreenTea (Jan 31, 2011)

They're probably building a bunker Sakura ;]

I saw some ramshorns yesterday at my lfs that were about as big as half of a US dollar bill. There were eggs all over the tank, huge sacks of them! There were also giant female bettas in the tank - for $3! Got a giant cellophane girl. Those snails were crazy though!


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Green Tea, :lol: Probably are. One day they're gonna just burst through the substrate in a giant horde. XD


----------



## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

Once they do, I want pictures.


----------



## BettaMiah (Sep 12, 2011)

No me Gusta Pond snails. If I ever get them, i'll chuck them in my neighbor's pond. 

His problem. Lol. 

Nah, but I wouldn't want to kill them..


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Haha, Miah, if you ever have a pond snail problem, just give 'em to Beau.


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I got some pond snails, having mistaken them for nerites. Thankfully I left them in a QT container, they got tossed on the lawn and the container went in the trash (20+ egg sacks just ew).
Now if only I could find some MTS. I have sand, and that would cut any stirring.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Those egg sacs are disgusting to look at. The first time I got one I had no idea what it was.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

*I Might Be In Trouble*

So after all this talk about MTS taking over the world, I decided to take a good look at my tank. I have reddish Fluorite topped with pale play sand so I though maybe I just wasn't seeing them. I looked and looked. Surprise! I found one! I looked some more and as I kept looking, a grim realization hit me: what I used to think were Fluorite rocks were SNAILS. 







These were just the ones I saw at the front of the tank. I shudder, literally shudder to think of how the back of the tank looks. Everywhere I looked, now that I knew what to look for, I saw little spiral shells. 

Sooo, uhm. Do you think my koi can eat these?


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

uh, off topic from the OP, but do mystery snails dig into the sand for any reason? This is at least the second time my black mystery snail has dug himself a nest or something.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Could it be laying eggs or something? I've never heard of mystery snails burrowing but then again, I've never kept one so I'm not expert.


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

that's what I've wondered. I did find what looks like a little shell... but it hasn't moved so I don't know


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Maybe it's looking for food in the substrate? Aren't mystery snails kind of like scavengers?


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

that's just it, the other two cling to the sides of the tank and the plants, this one is just odd


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Maybe it's sick and dying? Like how cats like to hide under furniture when they're sick? Maybe this one is trying to hide?


----------



## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

It isn't just cats. All animals hide when they're dying. I, sadly, have....firsthand experience. And I finally found where all the snails are. I was search for Tingle( found him underneath the driftwood) and from above, I saw literally 4 HUGE eggsacks hiddened in the part of the driftwood I couldn't see.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

You mean your pond snails? You're going to have a lot of snails, JimJam.


----------



## diablo13 (Jul 1, 2011)

I know I will......does me actually enjoying squishing them make me a bad person?


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Uhm, yes and no. XD


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

well he was injured when I bought him, had a cracked shell. Hope not. Gotta nuke some zucchini and feed the munchers.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Injured snail. Wow. I don't stop to think about injured snails. My nerite has a chipped shell where part of the tiger pattern came off.


----------



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

yea he got... "dropped" I let him have some cleaned eggshell and algae wafers for a bit before I put him in the big tank. Then he discovered live plants and veggies. why he would be sick is beyond me. These boys can MOVE slow as a snail... whoever said that never watched one of these guys in a tank


----------



## aurasoulful (Aug 19, 2011)

They're harder to see if you have a lighter colored substrate. My MTS are golden, so they show up really well against my dark substrate.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I agree. I saw my nerite snail at one end of the tank. I went to fill the bucket of water for the water change, came back five minutes later, and he was crawling up the glass on the opposite side. That's why I named mine Hayate, "run like the wind." XD


----------



## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

are there any snails that wont climb out of water? do they have a big bioload? do they help the tank? I dont really have an algae issue


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Malaysian Trumpet snails supposedly never climb the walls. I've never seen mine climb out. But they multiply just as fast as pond snails. I don't think assassin snails climb out either. As for bioload, I think it's on the same level as a single neon tetra maybe?


----------



## gidgeystartedit (Nov 13, 2011)

I think I have Ramshorn,
I had about 4 in my tank.
Now I have like 50.
Aargh.


----------



## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

I read on a website that with Malaysian Trumpet Snails, the population increases in proportion to their food. So if you're overfeeding your fish and there's a lot of excess food for the snails, they breed really fast. I wonder if that's true for other snails.

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Bug, Snails, Malaysian Trumpet.htm


----------

