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New tank and new to hobby: unexpected snails


pixlweaver
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Hello!

My husband and I started our first tank a couple weeks ago. 5 gallon Fluval Spec. Picked up some live plants, substrate, driftwood and some rocks. Added the water and a bottle of bacteria starter stuff. And now we have snails! And those snails are having babies!

From what I can tell, the 2 big snails are ramshorn and bladder. The babies are way too small yet to tell. Is this going to be a mistake later? The tank is only 5 gallon, and we want to be able to put a few shrimp and 5 or 6 tetras. Are the snails going to take over?

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First of all, you aquascape looks very good! 

Bladder snails are considered to be pests but they do eat algae. If you want the best chances of keeping your tank clean, you should keep them for now. They shouldn't bother your tank inhabitants.  Just remember that if they end up breeding out of control, you can manually remove them from the tank. 

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On 8/15/2022 at 6:08 PM, pixlweaver said:

Here's pics!

20220814_113831.jpg.e9b16d46435e70100e0877bf4ea8f7c6.jpg20220814_114059.jpg.f0200beff3453b91fd5f2f7548f2367c.jpg20220814_113925.jpg.89f061869ff670f4f1f5d97a0f3d7130.jpg

I never have paid attention enough to know the difference between pond and bladder snails but you are right, you have ramshorn and either pond or bladder. That's actually a very pretty ramshorn! They commonly come in on plants. Both are prolific breeders and can breed with themselves. They are manageable in a few ways but many people don't want to mess with it and choose to eliminate them. If you do choose to keep and manage their population the first step to that is minimizing their food source. They will only populate to the available food. Keep in mind that dead snails are a food source!  Picking out dead snails will help reduce ammonia levels and food source. 

If you choose to eliminate them there are a few ways to do so. I have never done so myself so hopefully someone can give some.better insight. I do hear using "no planaria" as a suggestion a lot. I think it contains copper which is toxic to them. 

If it were me, personally, I would eliminate the bladder snails but keep the ramshorns. I honestly love ramshorns. They will keep the tank super clean and are easier to manage than the bladder snails. They cannot reproduce until they are a decent size so are easier to get rid of if you ever choose to do so. I personally would pull some of the best looking ramshorns and put them in a temporary tank or bucket. I would then treat the tank to kill the bladder snails. Ofc, ultimately it is up to you but that's what I would do! 

I have many different colored ramshorns. If you are curious I can share some pics. 

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Yes the snails are always a debate. Good or bad. Like everyone else has said they won't harm other tank mates. And if you don't overfeed your tank well help as well. I personally like bladder snails and there very small. They are easy to manually remove as well. If you do add the shrimp they will actually eat the snail poop as well. I will be adding ramshorn snails next. But if you ultimately don't want them I think manual removal and smaller feedings is the easiest and "safest way" to get rid of them. You can also use a small feeding dish with a piece of blanched veggie like carrot green bean or zucchini. Put it in the dish and wait for the snails to pile on them just remove the dish. Love the tank!

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I really like my bladder snails, I think their "pest" status is overblown.   They're not pestering anything except algae and otherwise uneaten food.   There's a ton of them in my community tank, but at no point has it ever been a distraction or anything.  I like watching them. 

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I have hitchhiking bladder snails, ramshorns & trumpet snail. I’ve bought nertrite and mystery. 
there are like 5 species at my house. I honestly don’t get the extreme “pest” status. I don’t mind any of them and let them carry on. I quite enjoy watching the mystery snail. 

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On 8/15/2022 at 10:55 PM, ccc24 said:

I have hitchhiking bladder snails, ramshorns & trumpet snail. I’ve bought nertrite and mystery. 
there are like 5 species at my house. I honestly don’t get the extreme “pest” status. I don’t mind any of them and let them carry on. I quite enjoy watching the mystery snail. 

To be fair, the mystery and nerite snails arent considered a pest snail. 

Edited by Cinnebuns
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On 8/15/2022 at 6:23 PM, Cinnebuns said:

I have many different colored ramshorns. If you are curious I can share some pics. 

I would love to see pics!

 

On 8/15/2022 at 7:08 PM, Ken Burke said:

What a great setup!  Can wait to see it with a few shrimp. Maybe some CPDs or chili rasboras.  

How long has your tank been running? I see some signs of algae (a good thing at this stage). 

It has been 13 days. Algae is definitely kicking in but the ammonia is still really high. Trying to resist the urge to clean it!

 

On 8/15/2022 at 10:23 PM, Patrick_G said:

Your tank looks great!
I love all the “free” snails in my tanks. I even have a few tanks that just have just snails in them. 

Beautiful tank pic!

Thanks all for the responses! I feel better now, sounds like something I can manage. Will keep the snails for now and see how it goes. And if shrimp do eat snail poop, that will be an extra bonus!

Edited by pixlweaver
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On 8/16/2022 at 9:56 AM, pixlweaver said:

I would love to see pics!

Brown, some of these get a pretty copper color

20220811_222424.jpg.a227c0e7996fcaa5fd7b5965b3b261f6.jpg

 

Red/pink. I'm working on these to go orange. 

20220810_175650.jpg.2f029e9a07fcf77867d227a25ac875a3.jpg

Purple which is a red body with a blue shell

20220810_175134.jpg.9360f08916afb5649f8093959aad53fa.jpg

 

Blue which can get black or more vibrant

20220802_164843.jpg.8d9b8a9ecb0f67a639197fe3d963b503.jpg

 

Ivory with a pink body

20220802_164334.jpg.9239df86b14f51ca98a4fb6ca3f91af1.jpg

 

 

On 8/16/2022 at 10:10 AM, jwcarlson said:

Do the different colored ramshorns throw odd colors when they inter breed?

I'm no expert in ramshorn genetics but a friend and I have been experimenting with creating different colors a bunch. We have found that ramshorn color genetics is much more random than most species. I've even had a tank of full red throw a random blue. Also, purple is actually a combo of red and blue. It's a red body with a blue shell. He was trying for a very long time to make purple with a tank full of blue. Once he introduced red purple popped out. 

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On 8/16/2022 at 12:13 PM, Cinnebuns said:

Brown, some of these get a pretty copper color

20220811_222424.jpg.a227c0e7996fcaa5fd7b5965b3b261f6.jpg

 

Red/pink. I'm working on these to go orange. 

20220810_175650.jpg.2f029e9a07fcf77867d227a25ac875a3.jpg

Purple which is a red body with a blue shell

20220810_175134.jpg.9360f08916afb5649f8093959aad53fa.jpg

 

Blue which can get black or more vibrant

20220802_164843.jpg.8d9b8a9ecb0f67a639197fe3d963b503.jpg

 

Ivory with a pink body

20220802_164334.jpg.9239df86b14f51ca98a4fb6ca3f91af1.jpg

 

 

I'm no expert in ramshorn genetics but a friend and I have been experimenting with creating different colors a bunch. We have found that ramshorn color genetics is much more random than most species. I've even had a tank of full red throw a random blue. Also, purple is actually a combo of red and blue. It's a red body with a blue shell. He was trying for a very long time to make purple with a tank full of blue. Once he introduced red purple popped out. 

Awesome pics, that's quite a variety! Thanks for sharing! I'm having a hard time deciding what color mine is but maybe a bit more on the purple side?

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On 8/16/2022 at 3:52 PM, pixlweaver said:

Awesome pics, that's quite a variety! Thanks for sharing! I'm having a hard time deciding what color mine is but maybe a bit more on the purple side?

I would need a pic with better lighting to know for sure but it might be purple. Def a red body

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