Mystery snail identification?

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I'm sorry it didn't work, but so nice that you went to all that trouble and effort to save a snail!

I wonder whether ordinary pond snails might be a better idea for the basement tank? They're adapted for the cold - the ones living in my outdoor goldfish pond survive even when the pond freezes over in winter - and they can reproduce enough to handle several hundred gallons of territory. You'd have to buy or breed a lot of mystery snails to cover that much ground.

I'd reach out to goldfish and pond keepers in your area, and get some normal pond snails as clean up crew I'm sure most would be happy to give you a bunch, I certainly would if someone local wanted some, there are plenty in my pond.

 

[Jim Sinclair]

I'm sorry it didn't work, but so nice that you went to all that trouble and effort to save a snail!

I wonder whether ordinary pond snails might be a better idea for the basement tank? They're adapted for the cold - the ones living in my outdoor goldfish pond survive even when the pond freezes over in winter - and they can reproduce enough to handle several hundred gallons of territory. You'd have to buy or breed a lot of mystery snails to cover that much ground.

I'd reach out to goldfish and pond keepers in your area, and get some normal pond snails as clean up crew I'm sure most would be happy to give you a bunch, I certainly would if someone local wanted some, there are plenty in my pond.

It's a living being, and I took responsibility for it, and caused it distress by not doing my own research before bringing it home. The best I can do for it now is the least that I owe it.

I used to have pond snails. They apparently stowed away on some plants I bought, before I gave up buying plants. They multiplied a lot when my fish were small, but as the fish grew bigger, they apparently began eating the smaller snails until only the largest ones were left. (I never saw my fish eating any snails; I only assume this is what happened given what I know about snail reproduction and goldfish appetites.) So eventually when those oldest, biggest pond snails lived out their lives and died off, there were no more snails. I guess I could check to see if any local people have LARGE pond snails, big enough to be safe from my fish (who are now even bigger than they were when I previously had snails), they'd like to rehome.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Strange! Yeah, maybe the pond snails in my pond are large enough not to get eaten, 'cos there are some large goldfish and shubunkins in there. But there's also a lot of plant matter in the pond, so maybe that's how they avoid being eaten, or maybe just a less appealing species, lol

 

[Jim Sinclair]

Strange! Yeah, maybe the pond snails in my pond are large enough not to get eaten, 'cos there are some large goldfish and shubunkins in there. But there's also a lot of plant matter in the pond, so maybe that's how they avoid being eaten, or maybe just a less appealing species, lol

Probably your small snails are hiding in the plant matter. My goldfish population control strategy is not to have anything that eggs can be hidden in. Fish spawn, then immediately eat all the eggs, and so nothing hatches.

A couple of years ago I made a mistake and used a filter bag with too course a weave, so eggs could hide and hatch in there. I ended up with about 300 baby goldfish! Some of them are still here and still in need of rehoming. Lesson learned: Don't put anything porous into a goldfish habitat! Presumably that also works for population control of snails.