Snail Invaders on Pet Store Plant

So I recently bought a second CFBN, and I wanted to keep it quarantined from my first one which I keep in a 10 gallon tank with a bunch of fake plants, rocks, a turtle dock and a golden apple snail. So I put the second newt in my 4 gallon tank where I kept her for about a month and half before moving her into the 10 gallon tank with my other newt and apple snail.

Anyway, in the smaller quarantine tank I decided to try a live plant, so I bought one from a pet store, thought I can't remember what type. At first there was nothing special, but after a few weeks or a month or so, I guess some snail eggs hatched or something, because I've got about 8 small brown snails in my quarantine tank now. The plant itself is not healthy, so I didn't bother moving the plant over into my main tank when I moved the newt over a couple of weeks ago. In the mean time I've just kept the quarantine tank filled with water and the plant until I figure out what to do with these snails.

They're very small snails, much smaller than my apple snail which is about 1-1.5 inches across, the smallest are like 1/8 of an inch while the biggest is maybe 1/2 an inch or so, and they all have very dark brown shells and dark grey flesh. Does anyone know anything about these snails? Can I put one or two in my big tank? I don't have any live plants in it so I'm not worried about them being a problem in that regard. If I put one or two into my tank would they be any risk to my newts or my apple snail?

I always wash plants when I buy them to prevent snails entering my tanks at home, maybe you should do that next time.

Probably Physa sp. and harmless.

I think you might want to read the disaster stories section of what happens when people put 2 different species together. I don't remember where it is, but it is on this site.

I don't remember the type of snail specifically, but it is the kind that has a hard shell like front door (foot)that they can close when they want to. It was either a curious newt or axie that investigated one and it started to close on it, and when the person got it free, it was too late. It's throat had been cut and it bled out and died.

I just thought I would pass this along just in case you might have that kind of snail. If so, you might want to set up a separate fish tank.

Sounds like Ramshorn snails to me (just guessing here). Most snails can reproduce asexually. That is, they can reproduce very very easily with only one snail in the tank. Apple snails thankfully, do not.

Personally, I do not recommend snails with caudates at all. The smaller types, like ramshorn and pond snails can quickly overrun your tank and cause water chemistry issues with their waste. Apple snails have been known to feed on slow moving aquatic caudates like axolotls causing minor injuries that can quickly become infected and create horrible problems.


The only surefire way to get rid of snails is to treat all new plants with a COTS lime (mineral, not fruit) based plant sanitizer before you add them to the tank. This is available at most well stocked pet shops. It also kills off the eggs and things like hydra, without hurting the plants.

Once you have snails in your main tank however, you can control them, but not get rid of them unless you do a complete tank tear down (which I do not recommend!)

Also keep in mind that Commercial Off The Shelf snail killers are most often copper based and therefor FATAL to amphibians too.

There is quite a bit of information in this forum on snails and plant cleaning, so rather than providing 50,000 links, I suggest to just type "snail" into the search function.

I disagree. Snails are limited just like other animals by food source. People seem to think snails are some kind of indomitable plague that will take over your tank. Not the case if you practice good husbandry. I've actually reintroduced pond/ramshorn snails into tanks that they died off in due to lack of food!

If you do not want snails in your tanks, easy. Remove them when you see them and they soon dissapear.

I don't reccomend apple snails and other large pond species due to potential safety issues posted above and also that most sp. in the pet trade need warm water to thrive. not to mention they eat a ton and produce a bunch of waste.