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Snails. Keep em or get rid of em?

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Peanut72 
#1 ·
I just had a question about a snail I found in my tank. Well actually I found two. I guess they rode in with the plants. Im not 100% sure what it is, I tried to get a pic of it, but I couldnt get one to turn out. I did some research and it seems to me as best as I can tell they are Malaysian Trumpet snails. They definately arent rams horn, as they take on more of a "seashell" appearance. They are dark brown and have lighter spots on them. It seems most posts I have read say to get rid of them, but wnat to make sure first. If it wont hurt anything, I dont mind to keep them. I just dont want a tankfull of them. Is that whats going to happen if I keep it? I will keep sorting through the post and see what I can come up with.

Thanks
Todd

Heres a pic os one that is very similar that I found online
 

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#2 ·
Malaysian Trumpet Snails are much longer and skinnier. I think that's a pond snail. I have some in my 10g tank at work. The first one showed up in my tank a few months ago. Now I've spotted a few more here and there at various stages of development, but there are only a couple that I've noticed that have reached a decent size. I assume the others have been eaten while still very small (like... when they're still just specks). Honestly... I'm starting to think that there's a lot of variance in how much they'll take over a tank. I have a friend who had an explosion of pond snails in his betta's bowl... one day we noticed a snail, and THOUGHT maybe we saw another one but couldn't tell for sure if it was a snail or a rock... and then the next day when we got to work, there were 8 snails all along the edges. I, on the other hand, haven't seen anything even close to that in my office tank.

Then, there's my home tank. I just got a pile of plants from someone, and they were riddled with ramshorn snails... tried to pick out as many as we could to feed to a friend's pufferfish, and I've still noticed quite a few of them in my tank. I know there is another thread on here where Inga is going insane trying to get rid of ramshorn snails from her tank.

Maybe ramshorn are worse than pond snails when it comes to reproducing at epidemic rates?
 
#3 ·
I've got a few in my 55g that I'm sure rode in on some plants. Right now it's just two or three and I haven't seen an explosion so I've been leaving them alone. If it seems like they're rapidly increasing, I'll just start squashing them.

Especially in soft, acidic water their shells are quite fragile.
 
#4 ·
I think you are right. I looked around some more and I have seen it called several different things. Pond snail, bladder snail and something else. Think Ill just get rid of it next time I see it. I already tossed one and found another in the filter. I have read too many posts about them being a PITA. And since I am leaveing for 6 months, i dont want the wife to have to deal with the problem. One less thing to worry about

thanks
Todd
 
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