Yay!

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Cool! Pond snails, or are they mystery snails? Look like pond snails to me, but I've never seen baby mystery snails, and I know you've been tryin' to breed 'em.

WYite

I couldn't even tell you. I've been unsuccessful in my attempts at breeding. I'm not sure if it's because of not finding the right sexed snails, their not being at mating age, or simply because I'm not as yet an expert at telling the difference between briggs and canaliculata (I'm finding the younger they are, the harder it is!)

Anyway, all that to say that my attempts have not worked. I bought a new snail last weekend, which spent the greater part of a few days hanging out in one of the plants. A few days later I had babies everywhere. I never saw a clutch, which may prove you right on the pond snails. Or the eggs may have been hanging out in one of my new tank buddies (cana. & nerite)

To be honest though, the more pics I look at of pond snails, the more I think you hit the nail on the head. I find that a little disappointing, since they are a harder population to control, but I could always move them to my fish tank as cleaners. Here's a more recent pic:

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The look a lot like the snails that are from the plants I pull from my mom's pond to use indoors in the winter. I don't know what they are, but I like them all the same.

I was thinking it looked a pond snail, Lymnea sp. But like I said, never seen baby apple snails.

saint_felony wrote:

The look a lot like the snails that are from the plants I pull from my mom's pond to use indoors in the winter. I don't know what they are, but I like them all the same.

What do you like about them? And have they ever gotten out of control in your tanks?

Another forum referred me to the physidae family, which is a pond snail (also called pouch snail or tadpoal snail.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physidae

http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php#Physidae

Seems about right.

I've never really looked into them all that much.

I think most of my non aggressive fish and lazy turtle tanks have them in them. If the population gets out of hand in any one tank I pull some and use them for snacky treats.

The only trouble they've ever caused is I've had one larger one get caught in the impeller of an internal tank filter and make it stuck.

I've never had any issues with 'em. Most cichlids snack on 'em. They don't seem to eat plants as bad as ramshorns and don't multiply as fast as MTSs.

WYite

Sounds good to me!

Also look at the trapdoor snail they are very common and very prolific. I had some come in hiding on plants . With in a couple of weeks I had thousands! FYI: if you want to kill there eggs in your filter and decorations bleach will not work. They can close tight enough till the bleach is rinsed off. Raising the ammonia levels slowly till its to late for them to detect.
Good luck with your new little guys.

There's always the assassin snail option should they get out of hand...

saint_felony wrote:

I've never really looked into them all that much.

I think most of my non aggressive fish and lazy turtle tanks have them in them. If the population gets out of hand in any one tank I pull some and use them for snacky treats.

The only trouble they've ever caused is I've had one larger one get caught in the impeller of an internal tank filter and make it stuck.

A little update on these little guys: they are taking over. Can relatively small goldfish digest the shell? I'm talking about goldfish from 1.5 to 6 inches.