random creatures in my tank!

Blaxicanlatino

this is hard to explain but i woke up and looked at my 10 gallon tank and when i turned on the aquarium lights, i noticed these tiny tiny tiny little white things on the glass, plants, and gravel. the are hard to describe and cant take a pic of them, but they look like scale bugs. Flat, roundish things with a red spot in the middle (organs maybe?) they dont look like snails since they seem to be an entire body rather than a blob in a shell. what are these things? they just appeared overnight! my fish seem to be doing as well as they usually are.


I checked an hour ago and they seem to be gone. maybe they come out at night? the largest one i saw was about the size of a pinhead?

jaysee

Maybe planaria?

Blaxicanlatino

i dont think so, these are oval like more than long and arenet free swimming. She slide across the glass, plants, and gravel

DanMarion

Sounds like snails to me. But not the common pond snails that you are used to seeing.

I think you have Acroloxidae snails. I have them in my show tank as well, and haven't experienced any issues related to them. They are so small that I rarely notice them there. And yes, mine seem to only come out at night, there is no sign of them within an hour of the lights coming on.

A bit of info about them here:
http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php

Blaxicanlatino

Good call! Those seem like it! Where do you think they came from?
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DanMarion

As far as I can tell, mine came in either on a Sword plant I bought, or with a group of Cherry Shrimp. Both were added about the same time, so I can't narrow it down any further.

I think that most of the time, snails come from plants. I don't even try to do anything about controlling them. They are a good cleanup crew for the aquarium. Just make sure you don't overfeed your fish, and your snails won't have enough munchies to completely take over.

Blaxicanlatino

i think it was some pennywort i added recently. It was the one time i didnt thouroughly clean the plant XD

DanMarion

I used to try cleaning plants before putting them in, but I decided it was futile : P

Seems to me that EVERYONE with a planted tank ends up with snails at one point or another. I rinse my plants off with tank water before planting them, I don't really bother with scrubbing.

1077

I usually leave plant's in a bucket of aquarium water for 24 hours before rinsing them. Seems a lot of the snails think they have found a new home and the rinsing helps remove the rest but yes,,I too have snails that I did not place in the tank on purpose, as well as trumpet snails which I did place in the tank.

Blaxicanlatino

i have malaysian trumpet snails i put in the tank but this is actually the first time ive had snails without consent. at least they arent pond snails XD