Snail ID and questions

[Valkyrie_Lips]

I recently got a lovely surprise with my elodea plants, anyone know what kind of snail this is? I'm thinking ramshorn. Will it reproduce in my tank? I literally know nothing about snails. So far I only see the one but I really don't want an infestation since the tank is only 5 gallons. No idea how he/she survived the salt treatment I was doing in the tank for over a week, but my betta hasn't noticed it yet or doesn't care. It's so tiny but such a poop machine my god, I swear it defecates more than my betta.

Any special care instructions? I don't clean my plants often so it's been munching away on the algae on the big leaves. I have both real and fake plants btw, mostly anubias hastifolia. I saw it the other day and put some bug bites in front of it which was gobbled right up. Will it have enough to eat with the algae on the plants or should I add a little bit of extra food once and a while for it? My betta eats one granule at a time so I don't have any wasted food in the tank.

Oh, another question! I saw a little bubble inside of it's shell since it's transparent-ish, is this normal?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I think it's a ramshorn too, from the shape, and I'd expect that where there's one, there's more! It's usually that people find they reproduce like mad and they can't get rid of them, rather than having to add extra food for them

I'm really not a snail person, but have read bits about their shells becoming transparent when they're lacking in calcium, is your water quite soft? Have heard of people adding some cuttlefish bone for them, but you'd need to be careful about how much you added, especially in a small tank, since that could affect your water parameters. I think @Essjay would be more use to you here!
I do think it's adorable how much you care, this post really made me smile

 

[Essjay]

Pest snails often do have see though shells. The tiny ramshorns are often red as that's the body colour showing through. If you could take a photo from the side, it would help with a definite ID as I have physid snails (aka pond or tadpole or bladder snails) with the same specked shells as yours - and yes, mine are semi see though. But I think ramshorns can also be that speckled colour.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My current species of bladder snail starts out rams-horn shaped, then turns into a more conventional shape as they grow. Maybe one of those? Either way, I never feed my snails on purpose. They seem to find their own grub just fine, and they are a great addition. I encourage snails and other assorted inverts in all my tanks. Don't listen to @AdoraBelle Dearheart .*

*About snails. About everything else, she's a genius.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

My current species of bladder snail starts out rams-horn shaped, then turns into a more conventional shape as they grow. Maybe one of those? Either way, I never feed my snails on purpose. They seem to find their own grub just fine, and they are a great addition. I encourage snails and other assorted inverts in all my tanks. Don't listen to @AdoraBelle Dearheart .*

*About snails. About everything else, she's a genius.

I like snails! Don't get me wrong. I deliberately added MTS to my sand tanks for their usefulness, even though I have a love/hate relationship with them when they produce hundreds of tiny snails I really like the bladder snails though, they're cute! And helpful.

I like having some snails in my tanks, they are useful! And trying to wipe them out isn't usually good. I just try to keep numbers in check

 

[Byron]

To your question about feeding it...don't. Most aquarists would be amazed at how much natural food is present in any aquarium with fish. I don't mean excrement from the fish, I mean algae that you cannot even see until it becomes more of a nuisance, and microscopic critters that fish sometimes eat but snails too. And of course any leftover fish food that even those of us who feed extraordinarily minimally will still provide. They break organic matter down faster so the various bacteria can deal with it, all good. The small snails will graze every surface and in the substrate, providing a service that is frankly not possible to achieve without tearing the tank down, and we don't want to be doing that.

The snails will reproduce, and at first this will likely seem a real catastrophe. But as things settle, the reproduction will be in line with the available food--keep that in mind, the more snails you see the more food they are finding and you want most of that food removed so they are doing it.
Most of these small snails do not harm healthy plants. They will graze algae from the leaves which helps the plant, they will eat dead and decaying plant matter which helps the biological system, but they do not eat healthy live plant tissue. Having said that, more than one member has reported ramshorns eating healthy plants. Keep an eye on it; mine never did.

 

[CarissaT]

I have little tiny ramshorn snails in my tank, they never get very big, probably because my water is too soft. But they don't harm any of my plants for sure. Those who keep saltwater tanks usually add a "cleanup crew" on purpose consisting of snails and other small detritus eaters. As long as they aren't harming your plants it's a good thing. If they start to reproduce too much, that tells you that you need to keep the tank cleaner.

 

[Essjay]

There are several species of Planorbid snails. Some grow large while others stay tiny. The pest ones which arrive on plants are usually the tiny species, while we have to pay good money for the larger species.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

It's super interesting to watch since I've only had fish. Sorry @AdoraBelleDearheart but I think I like him .

I kinda figured I probably wouldn't have to add extra food. I'm also going to throw in an additional weekly WC because wow poop machine.
I have a lot of large leafed plants that grow some algae on them so that should be good. He/she is currently making the rounds on all the plants. On the bright side I won't have to manually clean them anymore lol. I can't for the life of me see another snail... hoping it is just the one hitchhiker..

Here's a sideview:

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

It's super interesting to watch since I've only had fish. Sorry @AdoraBelleDearheart but I think I like him .

Haha when did I get a rep as a snail hater?? lol! I'm glad you like him! Also hope you find a few more appearing because you like him and they're useful.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Haha when did I get a rep as a snail hater?? lol! I'm glad you like him! Also hope you find a few more appearing because you like him and they're useful.

Haha. Shhh not so loud, Gary might hear that I'm talking to a snail hater!

When I first noticed him/her? I purposely put some bug bites in front of him and just watched him chow down, it was really neat. The snail is going to be spoiled if it's the only one in the tank, plenty of plants and things to munch on. When I do my WC later today I'll be on the lookout for more.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

I feel bad now that I didn't know it was in the tank when I did the salt treatment for my betta's cloudy eye. Poor guy must not have liked that at all, but luckily it wasn't a super high concentration.

 

[Essjay]

The side view looks more like a ramshorn, but not one of those tiny ones I have as they're reddish. It may be that you had an egg/newly hatched snail of one of the larger species. You'll have to wait and see just how big it grows

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I think ramshorns are the coolest looking of the common aquarium snails. I've never been able to get them (or mystery snails, for that matter) to live very long. It's a shame, because I really like how they look. Pond/bladder snails, trumpet snails, and assassin snails all seem to go on forever in my tanks, though. Must be some weird issue with my water chemistry; I don't know.

I also can't keep cherry shrimp or bamboo shrimp alive for more than a month, but I've had amanos live over five years. Maybe the same issue? No idea. Yours sure is cute, though.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Oh man I just found another one about the same size.