Question: Snails!!!!

Hi!

I woke up 2 days ago and noticed I have about 20 small snails in my tank (which ron is not living in yet)

I'm having trouble identifying these snails, and whether they will be a threat to him or if he will eat them?

I'll try get some pics up, but any ideas? I think they hitched a ride with the plants I bought!!

Cheers, Mike.

There are tonnes of threads on this in the forums, just search "snails" and laugh yourself silly. Some folks are snail paranoids, others do not mind them at all. me, I hate the darn things and enjoy squishing them with feeding tongs.

Like Johnny, i belong to the group of 'snail dislikers'. I don't go to the extent of squishing them but i will remove any i see in the tank and toss them out in the garden pond.

Do remember that if you want to keep snails with axies, you would have to go for those that will grow to a maximum size that would be small enough for a snack but not pose an impaction risk. Otherwise, go the other end of the spectrum and get those that are humongous and cannot be ingested in the first place.

I know i sound like a nay-sayer but be reminded that snails can be a vector of diseases and parasites and do require quarantine. There is an additional problem in that it is way harder to identify sick/ill snails during the quarantine period than feeder fish or freshwater shrimps.

Snails are also haemaphrodites and can reproduce rather quickly. Before you know it, you can have a tank overwhelmed with snails.

THe upside of snails i suppose is that they can help rid of some detritus and algae. I would like to think that if you are meticulous and disciplined with tank maintenance in the first place, there shouldn't be too much of a problem with excess detritus.

Cheers.

Hi!

So the general consensus states that if he can eat them, it shouldn't be too much of a problem because a small amount of them can help maintain tank cleanliness?

Another thing, I read somewhere about cyclops'. Somebody said that the appearance of these indicates that a tank is well cycled because it can support the life of them. Does this generally ring true with snails? Does the appearance of snails in my tank indicate decent water chemistry?

Cheers, Mike.

Hi Mike,

In some instances yes in other instances it just means you have got snails. I would not follow it as a general rule of thumb

Hi!

I'm trying my hardest to take photos of them, but they aren't even half a cm long, and they seem very quick and active. I've also noticed that they hang around ABOVE the water line also.

I like snails
Mine hitch-hiked on some plants a few years ago. The population is generally small ,as when the axolotl stumble into them they tend to eat them.

Hi!

Thats great, I don't mind that. What I'm trying to determine is whether this particular breed/type of snail could be harmful to the water chemistry, or indeed, to Ron.

At that size, I would not worry much about them. As they get larger, it will be much easier to identify them. Many young snails all look the same for a while.

To agree with Ian..."You got snails!"

It happens to all of us. Took me five years and a cross-continent move to get rid of them.

Then my wife goes and buys some...

I get ramshorns that hitch rides on the plants I buy. Occasionally I will get a pond snail and I remove they as soon as I see them, they destroy my plants. I just added an axie and I saw her inhale a snail the other day and was a little worried but noticed shell bits the sand. I'd say keep an eye on the snails, plants, and axie too make sure they aren't harming anything.

I've got an ongoing and completely un-killable collection of little mini snails in my tank that hitched in on a plant, they don't seem to cause any problems - had them for ages now - and do help keep the glass clean.
My axies aren't bothered by them either.

I've had snails. Axies loved them!
Now I have just one (of another kind) that has grown from adult-axie-heads-size (when they werent adult yet) to my-god-that-thing-is-huge-size (think "soda can")
Keeps the windows clean, destroys all plant life. but nothing to really worry about

I feed my axies snails on purpose (snails grow by the zillion in my daphnia tubs). See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml