A Stow Away Snail!

[aspuded]

i was trying to watch x factor tonight when my silver dollars alerted me to something new in my tank! i think from reading the species guide above its maybe a bladder or tadpole snail. its around 1cm long and looks like the picture in the guide. only other thing ive noticed is its really fast for a snail! im assuming he's sneaked in on a plant or maybe the bog wood i bought a few weeks ago. i dont know a thing about snails so im having a quick read up but can any one else give me some advice. ive just read the article about problem snails and im really concerned im going to be over run with them in a few weeks. i'd like to keep him but is he going to be a nusance? do i need a special lid to keep him in, or will he climb out? an will he be suitable with my fish? i'd be extremly grateful for any advice, hints and tips!

40 gallon
6 sunset platys
6 danios
5 cories
1 pleco
6 silver dollars

 

[Gankutsuou]

keep him IMO if it's only one. If it is multiple, destroy all but one. I like to leave one survivor per stow away species

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

off convo but itsnt 6 dollars abit overstocked for a 40 gal?

 

[Gankutsuou]

Discus - that does belong in a 55, but we don't know if they are juvies or adults, so we can just hope they are child dollars.

 

[guppler]

I'd probably keep the snail. I'm not sure how fast that kind can multiply alone, but I have had a single snail start a family of hundreds. Aparently I bought her pregant, but different species have different ways of making babies, apparently.

I got my first snails on purpose to help clean stuff up. They were free. Later I got more, some on purpose, some not. I have 4 species now. All are interesting, but the rams horns and the ones I call pond snails are everywhere. i have to keep taking them out of most of my tanks, but some critters like to eat them. I have a few trumpet snails, which have never been out of hand, and "mystery" snails, which I like. I once had an unusually large snail of one of the pestier species in my goldfish tank. i sometimes called it Hoover. I don't know if it died of natural causes, but the goldfish usually eat snails that they can get in their mouths. I got my first mystery snail for them. now they are so big I don't let them have mystery snails, because they would probably eat them. (they have eaten baby ones.) I do give them snails that I have too many of. That way I don't have to just smash them all, and they are less likely to find their way into the wild, andthey're prbably a good snack, but if some live, that's OK too.
I have had to sort of give up on trying to keep certain types of plants because of snails eating them too fast, but I can still keep some kinds of plants.
I'm surprised the silver dollars don't eat the snail. I haven't kept silver dollars, but I'm sure they get big enough. Maybe they're more vegetarian? I think the reason I noticed Hover was because the goldies ate all their smaller snails, but one got away and managed to grow big enough to be harder to eat.