Pouch Snail?

onemanswarm

I have 15 gal aquarium housing a Betta, an Apple Snail, and (as of today) the small specimen pictured below:



I temporarily quarantined the interloper in a small fish bowl pending identification. With help from this forum, I have concluded that it is a Pouch snail, but if a more experienced aquarist would confirm or correct this, I'd appreciate it.

The majority opinion seems to be that Pouch snails are the least desirable of the three most common uninvited species (behind Malasian Trumpet and Ramshorn), but that they are more helpful than harmful if their numbers are kept in check. Because I don't overfeed the Betta and I do weekly water changes, I'm thinking I should place him back in the aquarium and allow him to eat dead/dying plant matter, algae, and whatever else he finds palatable.

That having been said, the poop he took in the fish bowl suggests he's been getting plenty of food, so maybe there's more potential for infestation than I'd like to believe. Any thoughts/corrections/opinions/advice would be much appreciated!

InvertPlanet

Pond Snail ;)

They do like to reproduce rather prolifically.

If you want to sell them / get rid of them.. there are a few people in the puffer section looking for snails.

onemanswarm

Thanks for the heads-up! Based on several other posts, I concluded (perhaps mistakenly) that pouch snails and pond snails were the same. Should this revelation change my expectations? Should I worry about having them in a planted tank? If I keep up with the water changes and the Betta keeps catching his pellets, will I be able to maintain control over the population?

Thanks again for your help!

InvertPlanet

Pouch snails and pond snails are VERY similar but of different species. Same appearance, same requirements, different sizes and growth rates.

There are culling techniques... if you see eggs sacs wipe them off... etc... but 1 snail can produce dozens to hundreds of babies in a very short period of time. Pond snails are not harmful to planted tanks... I had 1000's in mine. But, for planted tank enthusiasts they are an eye sore and do get out of control.

manual control is not bad.
Chemical (copper) will work but not if you have shrimp or other inverts.
Natural predators will also work (loaches or a Dwarf Puffer) but I usually don't recommend adding to the bioload if at all possible. Once the food source (the snails have run out) then you have a new problem.

onemanswarm

Great info. Thank you again. I think I'll plop the pond snail back in and see what happens. If the population gets out of control, I'll probably stick to the blanched lettuce technique. Want to stay away from copper as I love the idea of adding additional inverts to the tank if the Betta isn't too antisocial.

Where should I look for egg sacs? Are they easy to find (e.g., on the glass) or deposited in more discrete places (e.g., substrate, plants, filter media, etc.)?

InvertPlanet

you will find them on almost any smooth surface. Tank glass is the easiest and warmest area.. plant leaves, filter intakes etc...

Look for a parch of mucus (I want to say snot) with little black or translucent dots.

Sorry I did have a microscope shot around here somewhere... just don't know where it went. You should be able to google it ;)

onemanswarm

Found the first egg sac on a leaf. Your description was perfect! I figure I'll yank the ones I see since there's bound to be plenty of unseen sacs to propagate the tank.