Plants came with Snails!

flukez88

So, I got myself some plants. . . and they came with baby snails. . . and they're TINY!
I've managed to isolate at least two of them. . . I have no idea if there are any more. . . I'm presuming there were some eggs on one of the plants.

Anyways, how long will it take snails to grow to the point where I can identify what breed they are?

onemanswarm

Given the skills of some of the people on this forum, I'd hazard a guess that you'll be able to ID them as soon as they're big enough that your camera can focus on them! More than likely, you can already narrow it down to three common species: pond snails, ramshorn snails, or Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

Boredomb

Not long maybe a week or two. The problem is depending on how many plants you have in your tank it might be awhile before you see them again. LoL Snails in my view are not a bad thing at all but very beneficial to a planted tank.

jsciacca

IF you dont want them AND you have a tank of enough size clown loaches will take care of them. if a small tank asssassin snail work well from what ive heard. but as stated earlier in a planted system snails are fine if controlled.

flukez88

To provide more detail:
10 gal tank, soon to be home to 5 or 6 guppies, currently home to 6 ghost shrimp.
I have 3 small plants. one of them is a java fern, the other two are. . . other things, lol.
I've managed to separate the snails from the rest of the tank and have them floating in a container at the surface.
They are both smaller than the end of a pencil eraser. I'll post pics as soon as they're big enough. Will keeping them well fed help them grow quickly?

Marci99205

The same thing just happened to me i so far have identified MTS, a ramshorn and one to little to tell. It took about a week for me to notice them. This should be interesting.

flukez88

Got any tips on some early tell-tale signs on what I have?

Marci99205

The cone shaped are Malaysian trumpet snails and the other round ones are either pond snails or Ramshorn. Do some Google image search on them and it might give you an idea of what you have. I am open to having a snail population in my tank, I've read that MTS are really beneficial to your tank as long as you can keep the numbers down.

flukez88

After a bit of googling of the species you mentioned, I'm inclined to believe I've got ramshorns, but Im not 100%, like I said, pics once they're bigger

Boredomb

If you have some algae discs they love those lol.