Is this a baby snail?

[Coolysd]

I just saw this tiny thing moving up the glass eating the diatoms in my 5g quarantine tank (where the 3 baby Platys live). It looks like a baby snail. What's weird is the plants that are in there came from my 75g tank. However, I've never seen any in that tank where my 6 Dojos and 5 Platys live. Maybe they ate them? Or maybe they haven't shown themselves yet? Another new experience in my Fishkeeping journey!

 

[Colin_T]

yep, looks like a young Malaysian livebearing snail. Kill it before it matures and releases more babies.

 

[Coolysd]

Thank you for letting me know!! Since their in the small tank, I think I'm going to let it do it's thing just out of curiosity. I think I actually saw another one. The only snails I have ever come across are the one's outside on the sidewalk. So this should be interesting. Since the 5g will be cleaned out soon anyway. I figure, why not?

 

[seangee]

I have these in all my tanks intentionally so personally I would ignore @Colin_T who is a known snail hater . But if you don't like them do as he says and get rid of it quickly. They don't even need a pair to reproduce. IMO they are good for cleaning the substrate and if you see too many (usually at night) its a good sign you are probably over feeding - although when it gets hot they do reproduce like crazy. If that happens just wait till an hour after dark and pick them off the glass - or you can lure them out with a lettuce leaf, well any food really.

 

[Rocky998]

I have these in all my tanks intentionally so personally I would ignore @Colin_T who is a known snail hater . But if you don't like them do as he says and get rid of it quickly. They don't even need a pair to reproduce. IMO they are good for cleaning the substrate and if you see too many (usually at night) its a good sign you are probably over feeding - although when it gets hot they do reproduce like crazy. If that happens just wait till an hour after dark and pick them off the glass - or you can lure them out with a lettuce leaf, well any food really.

Yah, just be careful not to overfeed to keep the population low... I love snails. Even if they are considered "pests", their actually very beneficial when you keep their numbers down by not overfeeding

 

[Coolysd]

Thanks for y'alls info. I'm not too concerned about the 5g, which is the one their in now. If they happen to be in my 75g, I'm pretty sure my 6 Dojo Loaches would take care them.

 

[Byron]

Malaysian Livebearing Snails stand a better chance of surviving when there are fish that would normally eat them, such as loaches. This snail has what I've seen termed a "trapdoor" that the botine loaches cannot get "open," so the snails stay down in the substrate. Dojo loaches are much larger and this may not apply in their case, I don't know.

They are extremely helpful though, in any aquarium. The eat organic matter which breaks it down faster so the waste bacteria can more readily get it. And as they can get everywhere, including throughout the substrate aerating it, they are well worth having. Unless of course you do not like snails, like my learned colleague.

 

[biofish]

how do livebearing snails give birth exactly? Pooping out a human baby seems hard enough, without the shell and absolute ridiculously high numbers. I have Japanese trap door snails, and when I first noticed trap door babies they weren’t the smallest baby snails I’ve even seen…. So how does it happen exactly?

 

[seangee]

Malaysian Livebearing Snails stand a better chance of surviving when there are fish that would normally eat them, such as loaches. This snail has what I've seen termed a "trapdoor" that the botine loaches cannot get "open," so the snails stay down in the substrate. Dojo loaches are much larger and this may not apply in their case, I don't know.

When I had dwarf chain loach they developed a technique to eat the small ones using teamwork. This was effective and reduced the numbers but did not eliminate them.
Years ago I kept clown loach. The tank was heavily planted and I never observed them eating MTS, they may have, but the population grew anyway. That was when I had a single large tank, the snails in all my tanks today originated there - well at least their ancestors did.