Snail Identification

[TuiandLa]

Hi, so I got some new plants and a week later noticed I had a tiny stowaway snail. Its really tiny and I'd like to know if anyone can help me identify it. I'm thinking some kind of mystery snail but I'm not sure. He seems to have tiny spots.

[Whitecloud09]

Ramshorn maybe?????? If not that, definitely bladder or mystery snail. Maybe someone else can be more specific. My best guess is mystery snail @TuiandLa.

[Katherine]

I think it's a ramshorn .

[T. Payne]

100% ramshorn.

[doktor zhivago]

If you buy aquarium coop plants you're gonna get ramshorns 😄

[Cinnebuns]

Leopard ramshorn. As it ages the spots will become less obvious. 

[Whitecloud09]

On 5/8/2024 at 6:53 PM, doktor zhivago said:

If you buy aquarium coop plants you're gonna get ramshorns 😄

Have not got  one yet, oh no, I might’ve jinxed myself,I am ordering some soon lol. Never heard of leaped ramshorn… interesting.

 

On 5/8/2024 at 6:56 PM, Cinnebuns said:

Leopard ramshorn. As it ages the spots will become less obvious. 

 

[TuiandLa]

Thanks for the help, seems ramshorn is the general consensus xD but we'll know for sure when it's bigger😂🐌

[cotasm]

On 5/8/2024 at 6:53 PM, doktor zhivago said:

If you buy aquarium coop plants you're gonna get ramshorns 😄

Yikes, is that generally true (even if not guaranteed)? I only have a non-planted tank with mystery snails and platys that I set up for my son, but I already bought a bunch of things from here to set up my first planted tank soon. My next step was going to be buying substrate, plants, etc. and starting the cycle, but my understanding about ramshorn snails is that they breed uncontrollably and are difficult to eliminate (please correct me if I’m wrong about that). If that’s the case, I’ll need to find a way to avoid that from happening, whether it’s some sort of quarantining process or sourcing the plants from elsewhere (though, I suppose there no guarantee that this won’t happen with other sellers also). Thanks. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 5/9/2024 at 9:00 PM, cotasm said:

is that they breed uncontrollably and are difficult to eliminate

They will breed to the amount of food in the tank. Food being algae, detritus, leftover fish food, etc. If you overfeed you will have a population boom. If you keep your feeding and your maintenance in check they too will remain in check. That at least has been my experience over the past 4 years. 
 

My only tank that really gets wild with them is my 55 gallon grow out tank. As it’s a grow out tank, it gets a lot of food, which makes a lot of snails. And then those snails become Pea Puffer snacks so it’s all good. All my other tanks, the snails remain in balance with the food I put in and my maintenance schedule. 

Edited May 10 by AllFishNoBrakes

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@cotasm if you want snails with 0% chance of reproduction get Nerite snails. The downside to them is females will lay eggs (they can’t hatch in freshwater as they require brackish water). The eggs look like sesame seeds and are super hard to remove. All snails have pros and cons, much like everything in like. 
 

Also, you could quarantine your plants. To me, that’s just extra hard on the plants as they’ll have to convert to the quarantine tank, and then they’ll have to convert to the display tank. In addition, you would have to find the sweet spot where any eggs that might have been there would’ve hatched, but no further eggs could be laid. Still, baby snails are tiiiiiiny and there’s every chance even if you quarantine that one hitches a ride on the plant to the display tank. I guess you could do Reverse Respiration or bleach dips or alum dips or whatever on the plants to hopefully eradicate everything on them, but it just seems wild to me. I welcome snails in and keep my tanks balanced and have no issues. In my opinion, they’re extremely beneficial. But to each their own. This hobby is all about making what YOU enjoy!

[cotasm]

@AllFishNoBrakes: Thanks for the replies. Yea, I’ve had nerite snails and dealt with the little seasame seeds 🙂, and the scraping task didn’t bother me too much. I recall that they won’t hatch except in brackish water. My son’s tank has a few mystery snails that are doing great (aside from one issue early this year that you and some others helped me resolve). In fact, the first clutch we’ve ever had just hatched last weekend. Then, just last night, we noticed one of them laying two smaller clutches, though I think we’ll probably remove those because I assume handling the new ones that just hatched is going to be interesting enough. 🙂

Which brings me back to my original reply about the ramshorn snails… it’s not that I don’t want snails; in fact, my upcoming first planted tank will likely start off with me focusing only on a manageable population of mystery snails, cherry shrimp, and maybe a nerite to help with clean-up. I’m still fairly new to this, so I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a control freak (I’m working on it, though 😆), so the thought of an unexpected boom of ramshorns or similar snails makes me a bit anxious, especially after reading accounts of people having trouble trying to rid their tank of them. For some reason, the breeding of mystery snails, shrimp, and fish don’t bother me (probably because it’s more easily controlled), and actually, I’m looking forward to it. And If I end up with a ramshorn boom, I’m sure I’ll just learn how to manage it, and your insight about how they’ll breed to the level of food in the tank is helpful. Thanks for that tip. Whatever happens, I have no doubt that I’ll find whatever info and advice I need in this forum. It’s already helped me immensely. 

Edited May 10 by cotasm

[Sacah]

Snails like ramshorn are cool in a shrimp tank, gives a little diversity and the shrimp ride on their backs from time to time which is cute.

[Whitecloud09]

On 5/9/2024 at 11:00 PM, cotasm said:

Yikes, is that generally true (even if not guaranteed)? I only have a non-planted tank with mystery snails and platys that I set up for my son, but I already bought a bunch of things from here to set up my first planted tank soon. My next step was going to be buying substrate, plants, etc. and starting the cycle, but my understanding about ramshorn snails is that they breed uncontrollably and are difficult to eliminate (please correct me if I’m wrong about that). If that’s the case, I’ll need to find a way to avoid that from happening, whether it’s some sort of quarantining process or sourcing the plants from elsewhere (though, I suppose there no guarantee that this won’t happen with other sellers also). Thanks. 

He was partially joking. I have bought ACs plants for months and no snails. If you have a quarantine tank tho you could quarantine the plants and try to eliminate the ramshorns if it will make you sleep at night, @cotasm.

[cotasm]

On 5/10/2024 at 2:43 AM, Sacah said:

Snails like ramshorn are cool in a shrimp tank, gives a little diversity and the shrimp ride on their backs from time to time which is cute.

OK, see, now reading cool things like that makes me rethink my position. 😆

On 5/10/2024 at 8:51 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

He was partially joking.

Sometimes I'm terrible at picking up on that sort of thing in text. 🙂 

On 5/10/2024 at 8:51 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

I have bought ACs plants for months and no snails. If you have a quarantine tank tho you could quarantine the plants and try to eliminate the ramshorns if it will make you sleep at night

That's great to hear. My experience with AC so far (products and forums since early this year) has been excellent. Regarding quarantining, @AllFishNoBrakes's earlier comment to me about that has convinced me to forgo that option; sounds like a real pain in the @$$ (for plants, anyway; not critters). 🙂 

Thanks, all!

[Cinnebuns]

On 5/8/2024 at 5:53 PM, doktor zhivago said:

If you buy aquarium coop plants you're gonna get ramshorns 😄

Getting plants from anywhere has a high chance of getting snails. That's why you should always treat the plants first. 

On 5/9/2024 at 2:47 AM, TuiandLa said:

Thanks for the help, seems ramshorn is the general consensus xD but we'll know for sure when it's bigger😂🐌

It is a ramshorn and it won't get a ton bigger. 

[EricksonAquatics]

There’s pretty much always going to be a chance you’ll get a hitchhiker snail on plants you buy. But from my experience the Co-Op works pretty dang hard compared to other companies to keep snails out of their plants they’re shipping out. 
Apologies that this is a tad off topic.😂

If you’re okay with having snails in your tank, then just let that snail do it’s thing. But if you are trying to avoid them then I would remove that thing ASAP lolz