Snails snails and snails!

Hey. I have about 4 small tanks set up now. after the last 5 months I've been finding more and more snails. I just want to know if anyone of you can identify any of them and tell me if they are good/bad etc. (time for a puffer...:blink1 . but I must say, I don't really find that they are harming my plants in anyway. In fact I find more of them on my fake plants then on the real ones.


No 1. Bought 2 of these about 4 months ago they like escaping from the tank. good thing they are slow. I think they are tiger snails (can't really remember the name) Still only have the 2.


No 2. Found them in a Dam (there were millions, literally) :bigsmile:. Got 8 of them about a month ago. I don't think there are babies (fry, young, whatever snails are) yet.


No 3. These appeared in my tank 1 week after I started the aquarium thing again . Went from about 1 up to about 80 now.


No 4. These also appeared in my tank about 1 week after I started. But there are not that many. I could not even find one for a photo so got this photo from Google. there are about 20 if I had to guess.



Excuse the crappy lighting on the photos and my Afrikaans English in the post. Photos are very big but the Forum resizes them so sorry if anyone has some load issues.

 

ok sorry. resized all the pics . its allot faster now!

 

I think I can ID snail #2 and #4

I think I can ID snail #2 and #4

#2 : MalaysianTrumpet snail
If you have too many, I read somewhere it is a sign of overfeeding fish.
They live under the gravel mostly, and it is possible to almost never see them. I found just 1 perfectly formed baby shell after 6 months (seriously!). Had 2 adults in there.

#4 Ramshorn
Shaped like a ram's horn like name says. I have just 1. He came for free with the plants, grown quite sizably!

I also have snail #3 in a hospital tank I have set up -- there are about 6 in there from last check. No further breeding has occured. I have no idea what the proper name is.

 

Get clown loaches. They wil sort out your snail problem. or malawis

 

Vacuumed my gravel today. i was wrong about no 4 the ramshorn. in the gravel i found about 4 in every 7cm x 7cm patch . so there are allot

 

1. tiger/zebra nerite snail, apparently hard to breed. 2. no idea, doesnt look like my malasian trumpets. 3. pond snail, quite common. reproduce alot. 4. ramshorn. also reproduce fast.

 

Hi Franna

Just saw this thread now while reading another post of yours... no. 2 is an invasive snail from asia (I forget the name but will ask my colleague who is currently doing a study on their physiology) which causes major problems in our dams/rivers and estuaries in KZN (I would personally destroy all of them but they are very hardy so goodluck with that).

Could you please tell me which dam you found them in? thanks!

 

Its a damn right next to the Crocodile river in the Ngwenya lodge on the boarder of the Kruger park. http://www.ngwenya.co.za/NGW/ngw.htm

 

The shell of snail #2 looks quite tough. I think clown loaches will battle with that snail. They either crack the shell or some of them learn to suck the snail out. But I know they battle with trumpet snails, so I expect them to battle with this one too. Puffers can't be mixed with other fish, unfortunately. But I think a puffer may sort this one out. I don't know, I've never kept puffers. Perhaps somebody else can comment. If you don't have too many of these, just remove them manually if you can.

Snail #3 can become quite a pest but is relatively harmless. Most loaches will eat them. Their shells are fairly soft. Know as the common pond snail.

Snail #4 is the ramshorn and is quite beneficial in a planted tank.

 

Tarebia granifera is the name of snail no. 2 - Laure if I stand on that snails shell it often wont break so I doubt clown loaches will have any luck.

These little pests consume large amounts of organic matter and can sterilize a whole aquatic system.... I've seen mats of them where they are so thick you cant actually see the dam substrate.

Anyway basically they are invasive aliens and should be destroyed! ush:

 

Well best you remove them quickly before your tank resembles that dam substrate...

 

ramshorns may be beneficial, but oh.. my... word... they reproduce like mad. i eventually binned the whole content of one of my tanks plant wise as they were by far more than the reproducing guppy population in the tank... little snotterige pods of eggs all over the place. now if only i could get one single measly pod of apple-snail eggs....

 

I have apple snails if you are serious about that, how many do you want lol

i can send you the pod too if you are serious about that too, ive thrown about 12 pods away so far and hatched 1. 80 babies, 15 have survived the other fish, grown to a nice size to transport.