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Baby snail ID

Karacticus

Member
Joined
28 Dec 2022
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121
Location
Bristol, UK
I spotted this little fella this morning, who has appeared from nowhere. Guess a rogue egg on some plants. I plan to get snails - the tank is not fully cycled yet - but I don't want the kind that breed prolificly and end up everywhere.

Difficult to see - he's barely 2mm wide - but what do we reckon it is? A ramshorn? This is the clearest I can get it.

Free clean-up crew or pest?
 

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but I don't want the kind that breed prolificly and end up everywhere.
I find it's pretty much always dependent on the availability of food.

In my tank I have bladder snails, ramshorn snails and malyasian trumpet snails. I also have a high stocking of fish, and despite this, their population stays under control. I've never even had to remove any from the tank yet. I feed with the filters switched off so that the food doesn't fly all around the tank, it falls in one spot which allows my fish to finish every last bit. It seems feeding in this way prevents snails from exploding in popluation.

Do you have any other pictures of your snail? I'm struggling to ID it from that one picture alone. Could you take a few different angles?
 
Thanks, I'll see if he survives and gets bigger. It's difficult to get a better shot with my phone. But he's still roaming around. I think it is probably a ramshorn, looking at a few photos online. Thanks for the advice. I'm just excited to have life in there! 😅

Photo is about best I can do.
 

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I think it is probably a ramshorn, looking at a few photos online.
I can't really make out the structure of it's shell from the photos, but if you think it has the characteristic spirals of a ramshorn snail, then that's probably most likely. It seems the majority of snail hitchhikers on commercial aquarium plants tend to be either Ramshorn snails, or bladder snails (Physella acuta).
 
Planorbis sp. 👍

Not the exact same species as the typical ramshorns (the bigger ones that come in red, brown, blue etc), think of it like a cousin.
This species is very common in fishtanks and wont get much bigger. Free clean up crew, dont worry about overpopulation, a balanced tank wont have masses of snails 😊
 
I'd warn against the snails... I must have gotten some on a plant from someone and they pretty much took over my tank now... they clog the wave maker every few days...

Additionally, I have very little KH/GH, so they are all very brittle and not living their best lives...

You can get the black and yellow snails that won't breed in fresh water - i'd say go for these if you want to retain better population control...

 
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