Snail infestation or harmless babies?

[jackmoddle]

Hey again,

Since the mystery of the missing snail was solved I have noticed some new snail babies in the tank. (I already have 4 mystery snails in there). I never saw any eggs but it has also been almost a month since I got the tank, and I am trying to decide whether these might be the horrible infestatious snails that are all over pet stores, or if they are harmless babies. There are only four that I'm aware of but I hear they can be the scourge of the tank if they're the bad kind. Does anyone know how I could tell the difference and catch it early? The tank has lots of plants that came from the pet store, btw.

Jack

[squashynose]

What do the snails look like? Can you describe the shell?
We had a couple of ramshorns in our tank, but they eat the plants, so they moved out into the pond.

[jackmoddle]

At the moment they are small and grey with somewhat clear shells. The one thing that I noticed is that the spirals of the shells seem to point straight behind the body instead of to the side like the other snails.

[squashynose]

Trumpet snails (http://www.planetinverts.com/malaysian_trumpet_snail3.jpg)?
These generally eat debris rather than plants, so they're pretty harmless.

[jackmoddle]

Not sure. The shell is definitely not that long...it is more proportional to the body, more circular. But maybe they are just young...

[squashynose]

Could you get a photo?

[squashynose]

Apple snail (http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/images/applesnail4.jpg)?

[jackmoddle]

Two of the originals are apple snails, the other two are mystery grey ones.
Here's the baby pics, I dunno if they are helpful since they aren't that clear. It's the best my camera can do though.

[squashynose]

I'd have said that's an apple snail, but I think there are many different kinds.

Did you notice any eggs in the tank?

[jackmoddle]

sadly, they are pond snails as i have found by searching...so they will be reproducing and eating, and so on...

[squashynose]

Eating your plants? Uh oh! :rolleyes:
Gonna get rid of 'em then?

[kaitlin]

"mystery snails" are actually what the snails are called... if those are what they are, the dont reproduce asexually like some snails, so i bet you have some males and some females.. they usually eat the scum off the bottom, and in my tank there is plenty of algae for them, so they dont harm my plants.. they just live in them ocasionally

[squashynose]

"Mystery snail" is a term given to a variety of different snails.

[squashynose]

From wiki:

The family Ampullariidae, common name the apple snails, are large tropical and subtropical water snails.

This family includes several genera. Asolene, Felipponea, Marisa, and Pomacea are New World genera (native to South America, Central America, the West Indies and the Southern U.S.A.). The genera Afropomus, Lanistes, and Saulea are found in Africa. The genus Pila is native to both Africa and Asia.

Apple snails are often sold under the name "golden (ivory, blue, black...) mystery snail".

[kaitlin]

ha... i work at a pet store, im not educated :)... a crappy pet store at that

[squashynose]

Depending on the type of snail, they may or may not eat the plants in the tank.

Pomacea bridgesii (http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&um=1&newwindow=1&sa=1&q=Pomacea+bridgesii&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=) (common in petstores) wont eat your plants.

Pomacea canaliculata (http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&um=1&newwindow=1&sa=1&q=Pomacea+canaliculata&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=) (less common) will.

[kaitlin]

and they are both types of mystery snail??

[squashynose]

and they are both types of mystery snail??

Haha could be :rolleyes: Any unidentified snail could be a "mystery snail". Petstores tend to call them that when they don't know what they are!

[kaitlin]

ahh i see.. this is why i come on here.. bc we are tought the WRONG THINGS about EVERYTHING.. stupid jerk boss. haha sorry, bad day at work..

[jackmoddle]

Just a little follow-up info for anyone who was reading this one...here is a good site i found for identifying most types of freshwater snails: http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php#Physidae