Help identify this "mystery" snail

I have an established 10 gallon planted tank with 2 golden mystery snails (both male) and 1 nerite snail, and some fish. I recently was setting up 2 new tanks and ordered some plants from Justin's fish tanks to get them set up. I rinsed off the plants, but did not bleach or quarantine them, and the plants went to all 3 tanks. Both new tanks are fully cycled and have some livestock added. The bladder snails showed up first, about a week after setting up the tank and adding plants, and their population continues to explode. A couple weeks later I started noticing some tiny ramshorn. The 2 new tanks have loads of snails (bladder to ramshorn ratio is probably 20:1). There appears to be no bladder or ramshorns in the 10 gallon though.

Then today I see this little guy cruising along the bottom of the 10 gallon. His shell is dextral just like the mystery snail, while the bladder snails are sinistral. When I took him out to scope him out I noticed he also has an operculum. He looks exactly like a mystery snail but I don't know where he came from. Both my golden snails are males (I've witnessed them each mounting), and I've never seen a clutch of eggs laid. One picture is of him alone, and one is him next to a bladder snail for reference.

I'm thinking based on it looking very similar in shape to a mystery snail, having a dextral shell, and an operculum, that this must be in the apple snail family. Either a mystery snail that somehow hitchhiked into the tank on some plants, or an invasive apple snail that did the same.

Bladder snail

Slaphppy7 said:

Bladder snail

Click to expand...

Then why does it have an operculum and why is it dextral? Other than having spotting on it, it looks completely different than the bladder snails.

Did you even read my post or look at the pictures? It is absolutely not a bladder snail. The shell is dextral while bladder snails are sinistral, and it also has an operculum which bladder snails lack. Which is also confirmed from your source. I'm inclined to believe it's not a pond snail either because of operculum.

There are two types of snail referred to as bladder snail. Physid snails are sinistral (like the yellowish one in the second photo) while Lymnaeids are dextral. I know this link no longer has photos, but there are descriptions of Lymnaeid snails. Does the description match your snail?

Although not impossible for physa, dextral shells are exceedingly rare in the pest physa species since it only appears as a mutation. Doesn't look like Lymnaea either to me which I think has some dextral species. If you can get a side pic that would help but I know that can be tough. Given you said there is an operculum my first guess would be some type of viviparid (which often don't do well in tropical tanks unfortunately). The mouth looks very viviparid-ish and lacks the barbles of an apple snail.

Essjay said:

There are two types of snail referred to as bladder snail. Physid snails are sinistral (like the yellowish one in the second photo) while Lymnaeids are dextral. I know this link no longer has photos, but there are descriptions of Lymnaeid snails. Does the description match your snail?

Freshwater Snail Species In The Hobby

Basic Terminology for Identification Anatomy: Foot: the bottom, muscular portion of the animal used for locomotion. Siphon: a proboscis-like appendage appearing on the side of the shell in some species. Mantle: the soft tissue inside the opening of the shell. Spire: the conical part of a...

www.fishforums.net

Click to expand...

I thought lymnaeids were called pond snails instead of bladder snails. It doesn't match the description because mine has an operculum and lymnaeid lacks it. Mine also seems to have long slender tentacles. The temperature of my 10 gallon is also at 79*F which seems way too warm for lymnaeid to survive.

He either came in on the plants at the beginning of August (from friend's tank, seemed snail free) or from the plants from Dustin's fish tanks at the end of September. I'm not sure how else it could have possibly entered the tank.

Donya said:

Although not impossible for physa, dextral shells are exceedingly rare in the pest physa species since it only appears as a mutation. Doesn't look like Lymnaea either to me which I think has some dextral species. If you can get a side pic that would help but I know that can be tough. Given you said there is an operculum my first guess would be some type of viviparid (which often don't do well in tropical tanks unfortunately). The mouth looks very viviparid-ish and lacks the barbles of an apple snail.

Click to expand...

I tossed him back in the tank after taking the picture. He's good at hiding and I can't find him now. He's the only one like him though. He's also the only pest snail I have seen in that tank. I don't know if the fish have been eating the eggs off the plants and that's why I don't find any in that tank even though both of my other tanks had bladder snail population explosions during the fishless cycle.

I will try to find him and get better pictures, and also pay attention to his tentacles and whether or not he has a siphon. I really didn't pay too much attention, I just saw him crawling right in front of my gold snail and noticed like looked identical in shape and shell orientation.

Alright, caught the snail again and put him in a small pyrex dish to try and snap better pictures. The letter x in pyrex is about 5mm tall (a bit over 3/16"). I didn't get a good picture of him directly against the letter, but I would say he is a bit smaller, so I'd say 4-5 mm. He very likely came in with the plants I ordered, so he went into the tank around September 26. I did not see any live snails on the plants, and didn't see the first bladder snails appear until October 5 (9 days after plants in) so I'm thinking they were likely eggs attached to the plants somewhere. I didn't notice this snail until recently, but looking back on older photos of the tank I can locate some of these tiny dextral snails in late October. I have also identified several more like this one in my 20 gallon (though the vast majority are actual bladder snails). I believe the plants were grown in an outside/greenhouse environment in Kentucky.

The first picture is when I tipped him upside down and you can see the operculum pretty well. It was difficult to get a good picture, so this took several attempts.

The second picture you can clearly see the operculum while he's fully opened and crawling around.

The rest are just the best shots I could get from various angles. I did not see a siphon - I don't know if it's absent, or just not out, or I'm just unable to see it. I am also unable to see much detail in the mouth area at all.

Is this a faucet snail? Bithynia tentaculata.

ShrimplyTheBest said:

Is this a faucet snail? Bithynia tentaculata.

Bithynia tentaculata - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with that genus and so not sure on the specific species but the Bithynia genus looks more promising than my original Viviparid guess. Viviparids typically aren't speckled when small and I've not seen one with the points on the sides of the front of the foot like yours shows. However, at least some Bithynia pictures do show that foot shape and also the speckling.

EDIT: the speckling I'm refering to is what's visible through the translucent shell, not the coloration on the foot (many vivs have speckled feet).