I bet I'm not the first one to post this one but I've realixed this week that there's a snail in my tank. I made sure to clean all the plants I bought a few months ago but behold... there is a snail nonetheless.
How do I know that this little bugger is a good or a bad snail? It is still fairly small (less than 1/8") but I am uncertain what I should do about him... on the one hand I think it adds something to the tank and on the other, the last thing I want is for him to start eating my plants and lay eggs everywhere...
I'm in exactly the same situation. One snail... soon there will be millions I just know it. Maybe the ghost shrimp will eat the eggs, I hope. If not I guess I'll just squish em on sight and let the ghost shrimp eat them or something...
If they start eating plants they will have to go though, like you I don't know if it's a good or bad snail.
Chances are it will not eat plants. If it arrived with a plant, it is probably one of the small common snails, like pond snails, acute bladder snails or Malaysian trumpet/livebearing snails. Most of us think these are all useful. They are a part of a natural aquatic ecosystem, they eat fish food that the fish miss, they eat some algae, and the Malaysian is wonderful at burying through the substrate keeping it clean and fresh. None of these will eat live plants, only dead plant material which is also good.
They will not over-populate unless there is food; and that probably means you're overfeeding. So they are a good indicator of general health in the aquarium.
i have three babies snails i love them all of a sudden they showed up one morning but they are so cute i really cant wait to get more i think i had more but fish ate them.
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