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Hitchhiker Snail, Help with ID and Info

7K views 20 replies 7 participants last post by  Lupin 
#1 ·
I bought a new plant for my aquarium about two weeks ago. My LFS said the tank was snail free and seeing no obvious snails in it I decided to go for it. Well as it turns out their definition of snail free and mine are different:



Can anyone help me ID this snail? If its a slow breeder that isn't going to get huge I don't think I'd mind him. If he's going to be a crawling plague or get to the size of a golf ball my fish get a snack.
 
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#2 ·
Looks like a pouch snail (Physas sp.) to me. Any more pics?
 
#4 ·
I'm beginning to regret for killing off the pouch snails just when more assassin snails are arriving for me.:evil:
 
#12 ·
i never heard of these kind of snails. Isn't this like erasing a problem by adding a new problem...i'm sure assasin snails also breed, and since they wont find all the snails in the tank, the pouch snails continue to breed too?
 
#5 ·
Unfortunately he stayed up in that corner for a while and made getting a better picture impossible. He's also only about 3mm in diameter. Then after my last water change he headed off for parts unknown and I haven't spotted him again, no he didn't get sucked up in my gravel vac. I don't want to hit this tank with any kind of copper meds because I would like to add a few shrimp to it.
 
#6 ·
A couple more snail pictures. He's decided to come out from hiding in the back and moseyed across the front pane of the aquarium. My betta flared up at him but like everyone else in the tank he doesn't give a crap. Poor Shark. He's also gotten quite a bit bigger from last time.



 
#8 ·
You must really like that snail to get pics just for him.:lol:
 
#9 ·
No, I just really want to find out what he is so I know whether to remove him immediately or leave him be. Sort of like my otto I'm finding out I like some fish I didn't think I would before. Well in this case he's a snail. I just don't want him or his progeny over running the tank.
 
#10 ·
I had a few snails that looked just like that in my betta tank. I took them out and fed them to my loaches. I hope they weren't some of those special snails that Lupin breeds. I thought they were regular pond snails that would overrun the tank. :-?
 
#11 ·
leave it in ure tank and in a few weeks u'll have a few hundred. check for jelly bubbles with white dots on ure plant leaves...those are eggs. Snails aren't so bad, but their poo pollutes the gravel and before u know it u'll have a dirty tank
 
#13 ·
The pics are all pond snails.lol
 
#15 ·
Ok, so I've got a pond snail. Asexual reproducer?

Do assassins need a steady diet of other snails or do they eat like any other snail just with a preference for cannibalism?
 
#19 ·
Ok, so I've got a pond snail. Asexual reproducer?

Do assassins need a steady diet of other snails or do they eat like any other snail just with a preference for cannibalism?
Pond snails and MTS are asexual.

Assassins will eat just about any species of snails except members of their own species. If their supply of snails is lacking, meaty foods such as bloodworms are good substitutes. I have five at the moment and judging from their size, 3 of them are females. Still planning to add more and my wallet is getting bare as I wait for another species, the Sulawesi snails (Tylomelania sp.) next month.:shock:
 
#21 ·
Oh darn. I forgot to add your pond snail may already have left eggs, Tyyrlym. I left a pond snail in the tank for 24 hours before I decided to move both that snail and assassins, and was surprised to see it left two egg sacs in my sponge filter.:lol: I wouldn't worry to be honest. Who knows you get assassins this month and turn out to have inadequate snail supply just like me. I'm relying on baby canas as temporary snail supply for my assassins.:cry: Then again, I have an overload of these canas and no more tanks for these brats.:roll:
 
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