I find it unusual how, in each of my tanks, I have different snail types dominate.
Could you tell me what they are? They're just snails that have hitched rides on my plants.


(Click to enlarge.)

The spiral pointy like one I call 'Bruno Snails'... No idea why. They're in my Jebo and 3ft. (Top left.)
The red circular flat one occupies my 5ft. (Top right.)
The mottley coloured ones is what has suddenly appeared in my pond. (Seperate image inside the image.)

The "Bruno's" as you call them look like trumpet snails and are harmless. They dig all in the substrate and keep it turned and are quite beneficial. They are also a livebearing snail so no sticky egg masses to worry about. No clue on the others. Sorry.

AAO

A livebearing snail? Now that wouldn't be too bad. Is it just a gamble getting them? Or is there an easier way to go about it? Not too much experience with snails. I had an apple snail once that ate all my live plants, and a ramshorn snail that my clown loaches ate. Other than those two I haven't seen a snail ride in on my plants in a LONG time.

I have almost always gotten my trumpets for free. I buy my plants from a nursery and their are almost always trumpets in amongst the plants. Of course loaches will make short work of most snails. I am not sure if any LFS would carry trumpets but I know you can get them online.

AAO

I've noticed these 'trumpets', as I'll now call them, turning my gravel over. :) At the LFS, the owners apparently had problems with children being scared of the gravel moving. :lol:

I've asked what these are just for curiousity sake. :) Most of the time, I chuck the large ones out in my pond, from my 3ft and Jebo. In my 5ft, the clowns get rid of them for me. B)

I would like to have a snail infestation for some reason. I just think they would do a good job cleaning the tank for me.

Leema, Your snails are the following: top left is a trumpet snail, top right appears to be a ramshorn, if the whorls stick out it is an apple, if they do not stick out it is a ramshorn, and bottom right is a pond snail. pond snails, trumpets, and rams are all hermaphrodites. pond and rams lay eggs, trumpets give live birth. Apples, or (mystery snail), if you have them, need both sexes to breed. One male and one female. Then you get into what type of apple snail you have. And that is whole different topic.

Thanks jdizine! They're Ramshorn's - they don't point out like an apple. ^_^

I'm thinking of getting some apple snails for my pond, but I've been told it'd get too cold for them... 59F/15C would be the minimum... What do you reckon? :)

I wouldn't recommend apples for a pond. they are are more of a novelty snail!!!
Especially if you have a cana! They get as big as baseballs! But you would need a tank big enough to fit them!!
I am breeding pond snails for my outdoor pond for this spring. I hope it will minimize algae. That is if my fish don't get to them first!
My avatar is actually my brigs apple snail ol'blue! :D
I love Snails!

My pond snails just appeared! I assume they were on my pond plants. Once they appeared (in plague numbers, at that) my algae disappeared... It was a new pond, though, so the algae was perhaps just a newpond flux.

The only apple snails we have here are yellow... And like... Pink eggs... :blink:

Guess I won't do apple snails for my pond. :) Are they any good for algae, though?

When I tried to have snails my oscars attacked them. Guess I would have to get a massive one or some tiny ones for them to survive.

Livebearing snails!?! weird! :o

Check it out!

Malaysian Trumpet Snails: These relatively small snails have deeply spiraled ice-cream-cone shaped shells. An MTS snail with a ¾” shell is large. Most will be smaller. These snails spend most of the daylight hours (read as tanklight hours) burrowed into the gravel, and come out to feed after lights out. Because of this habit, their true numbers may not be obvious. If they are the only snail species you have, go into the room after it has been in total darkness several hours and switch on a light. Then you will see the true MTS population. These are the most desirable tank snails IME and IMHO. They seem totally harmless to plants but graze happily on green algae and decaying foliage. They do not touch hair algae. They are reported[ii] to be parthenogenic females, males being either rare or not seen. So these may well be self-cloning organisms, rather like summer Daphnia. They are also livebearing, producing fully formed offspring without an external egg phase. As they have opercula, a sort of trap door they can close after withdrawing their body into the shell, they are more difficult for predators without large strong grinding jaws to eat (the shells are exceptionally heavy and strong relative to their size). They are the one snail type that clown loaches may not be able to eradicate, but they will certainly greatly reduce the population. MTS burrowing is commonly exaggerated on the boards. They are sharply limited in the depths to which they can dig by the oxygen content of the substrate. Few substrates offer sufficient oxygen to allow digging as much as an inch.

oh that's hilarious! "Mommy! The gravel is alive! :lol:

that's enough to make me want a couple of trumpet snails... I think I'll see if I can't find them.

I HaVe Them! But I have learned a few, well, alot, of things.
THey CLONE!!!!!!!! themselves!!! you never see or hear of a male trumpet snail.
Apparently there are a few ????
That is is me though, looking up everything! :P

If you were in Australia, I'd send you some... They're buggers.

I had my 3ft tank, in the sun, empty with just gravel for 1 week... I still had trumpets. -_-