snails

[MasterDrummer]

I bought my first live plant and it has been in the tank for 1-2 hours and I found a little spiral shelled snail. I can't see any others, so should I take it out or leave it.
Should I be worried about an infestation? And what do the eggs look like? Thanks.

 

[scott1000]

Sounds like a Malaysian Trumpet snail to me. They will multiply in your tank farily quickly, because IIRC they are a-sexual (is that even the right term???). If you have a sand substrate they are very useful for "turning over" the sand and keeping it from compacting. I think they reproduce in the substrate, so you'll probably never see eggs. They don't eat live plants either.

It's up to you if you wanna keep them or not, but as with most snails, they will reproduce.

 

[Jessieh]

You could buy a Snail Poison for fish tanks.

Anyway, snails in ur aquarium wont cause that much of an uproar, provided they dont populate the hell out of ur tank.

The snail eggs ive seen look like a little pack of translucent jelly with little cloudy balls inside. THe whole egg patch is approx 0.5 of a centremetre.

 

[Dragonslair]

Snails can be a problem. If there's one you can guarantee that there are others. Unless you have fish that eat snails, such as puffers then I would destroy it. The best way is to pick out out and squeeze between your finger and thumb.( wear latex gloves if you're squeemish)
Jessieh is right about the eggs.