Snail Creatures

[ElusiveMuffin]

I found this little creature in my bettas tank:

I'm figuring it's a pond snail and I must have gotten it from the plants I got at petco.
There are more of these things that I've noticed, but I've only noticed two tiny ones and this is the biggest I saw.

Good or bad? Advice?

Thanks

 

[Truck]

leave it there all good, they get rid of algae. just dont over feed and theyll be fine

 

[azulfire24]

just watch to see if they start multilpying, i thought there were a nusiance sience the small ones can get sucked and muck up filters, the babys will look kind of like clear snott stuck to the glass ornaments plants, as the eggs get bigger they look like snot with little brown dots in it.

 

[Netty]

 

[Night61]

please don't listen to truck. while snails are useful pond snails or the "hey were this random snail come from" are not very useful. what good they can do will be cancled out when they overrun your tank.
don't get me wrong my friends don't call me the crazy snail lady for nothing, if you are looking for a snail for your fish tank that will not multiply like crazy and take care of extra food, then go with the apple/mystery snail. they can grow fairly large and are great creatures, the downside is the bettas might attack your snail. my bettas were particularly fond at nipping at there tentacles so it would be something you would have to look out. the other snail i would like to suggest are a little harder to find, they are called Nertie snails and all these little buggers do is eat algae. pop two in your Betta tank and kiss any algae problem you may have goodbye. my bettas will flare at them but for the most part leave them alone. they don't have anything waving around to attract the Betta to nip at them.
both snails don't breed easily so they are unlikely to become pests.
anyways good luck with the snails
~the crazy snail lady

 

[danni_69]

dude! I've got them in my tanks.. they start out at one or two, then in a few weeks, there are absolutly hundreds of them. last count in a 22 litre tank, over 300! they lay eggs EVERYWHERE.. filter, filter media, plants, subsrate, anythin they can get to. if u can get rid of them, DO. they are a nightmare...

my hubby also said u could go for some assasin snails. they will eat the other snails without harming the betta, unlike any snail eating fish may do, i.e. clown loach, pakistan loach, or any other member of the botia family.

good luck gettin rid of them

 

[pammy172]

I have these in my currently cycling tank courtesy of some plants I didn't clean off first!! Lesson learned!

They've been in there for about 2 weeks now. Each time I see one I get rid of it - never squashing it but nudging it off the glass or plant with a net and letting it fall in - then off to the bin. I must have removed about 12 from miniscule size to about 5mm. They keep just appearing. I'm hoping they vanish because they're not getting fed although they seem to like the plants.

We found what I think might have been eggs around the top sucker for the filter intake - just above the water level - removed when we did a water change and wiped off with kitchen roll. I'm hoping this regime will eradicate them from the tank. If not I have some Flubenol in the form of Discus Wormer which will kill all snails and worms but is hamless to fish and plants and luckily bacteria.

My tanks's looking like a right zoo at the mo with everything other than flippin' fish. I've got snails, those little white wormy things and what look like little white jumpy wormy/fly like things(hope you like the techy talk ). I must have got this wrong as I thought it was a tank I was getting ready for fish - not creepy crawlies - lol

 

[Amunet]

I loved having pond snails actually. They did lay alot of eggs, but the baby snails never survived for some reason *shrugs*. But they ate the algae on the sides of the tank and just were really cute.
In a betta tank, you shouldn't have any problem w/ overfeeding so really shouldn't have a problem w/ them multiplying too much.
That's just my experience with them at least.

 

[GSD]

If i were you id get rid as quickly as possible, i started off with two or three and ended up overrun with the horrrible little things

 

[mellyville1985]

yeah get rid..... im always careful to pick the empty shells out dont want them rotting away in there! if you find you become over run once you have fish then use a trap (i have mentioned this many times on other threads) i have got rid of most of mine by popping 2 traps in every night and the bait will bring out any loaches you may have to gobble the little uns up! you can also try cucumber or courgettes and lettuce.... i used cucumber for a few hours in one of the screw things you can buy for feeding loaches. dont get as many as with traps though the first few nights they were full to bursting with a queue of snails waiting to get in lol

 

[ElusiveMuffin]

Thank you all for your replies they were all informative and helpful. I got rid of extras, but there's 2 in there (visible to the eye that is) I do not overfeed, because I feed by hand and I rearranged and cleaned off my plants. In the future I may go for a an apple or assassin snail if needed

 

[Syphoniera]

You may find your betta will eat the pond snails and/or eggs; some do, others won't.
My pygmy cats seem to eat them, although I have a couple of bettas I really don't think I'd want to put those in with.
If there's no predator in the tank, the pond snails will multiply very quickly - but on the plus side, such small snails can clean off smaller plant leaves, which larger snails such as Nerites and Brigs can't.
I couldn't get the Ramshorns and Malasian Trumpet Snails I wanted, so after a lifetime of picking these little guys out, I wound up deliberately putting them in and I rather like them, although they do propagate...

 

[ElusiveMuffin]

I think I saw him eat one today