# Snails



## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

So about a month ago I noticed a single snail in my tank. No clue how it got there. Obviously spontaneous generation is not possible, months ago it must've been a baby and attached itself to a fish I bought or something, I don't know. Now I have like 20 small snails. I'm not looking to get rid of them, they keep the algae on the glass minimal. 

A couple of questions:

1.) When I completely restart my tank, will they survive in unfiltered water for a few hours before I put them back in? 

2.) They don't seem to be like any snail I've seen in pictures. Should I wait until they grow older until I actually know what they are??

If I have any other questions, I'll post them later.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Im guessing pond snails. In that case, you will never kill them. They live through everything. They will keep multiplying as well..They never stop breeding and it looks kinda gross with millions of snails in a tank.

They can breed by themselves, I believe.


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

It seems like it did asexually reproduce, ZebraDanio, but it's not possible for animals (snails are animals the last time I checked) to asexual reproduce.


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## CoryDee (Aug 26, 2014)

Pond snails do asexually reproduce, as long as you don't overfeed you shouldn't be overrun with them


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Ok that's cool. I wanted to keep some anyways.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

They don't reproduce asexually, but many species of snails have both male and female sex organs, so they all lay eggs. There are some snails like Malaysian trumpet and related species that produce live young rather than leaving egg clumps all over the tank. The 3 most common aquarium hitchiker snails are ramshorn, Malaysian trumpet, and "pond snails", though "pond snails" is a generic name for any number of random species, usually Physa something or other.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

I guess the real question you need to ask yourself is - how many snails do you REALLY want? You're gonna get more snails than what you bargained for no matter what.


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Well if the time comes where I have too many I will just discard them I guess, right?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

you could always sell them as puffer or loach food...


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Hmm. That's interesting to know Loha, except the fact that I don't know if even my local store (who I have very good relations with) would take them to sell. And I also wouldn't feel like I would be able to mail a live animal the right way either, haha.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

snails are hard to kill. I believe people do sell them by the hundred on aquabid.com as food. A local fish club is the easiest place to rehome fish, snails and plants if you are lucky enough to have one convenient to you.


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

This is the largest snail in the tank, sorry if it's too small. Just to make sure: is this a pond snail or just a certain snail I've never observed in pictures online??


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## big b (Aug 17, 2014)

well why dont you keep them until they can be identifies properly then you can see if you want them or not?i got a couple BABY ramshorn snails that way.on the first plant that i bought that was not in it's own little special package from petco/petsmart i got some snails.i was raised with a big gold mystery snail in the tank always so im ok with snails,heck i love em'


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

that isn't a ramshorn. How big is it?


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Only a couple of centimeters, emc7.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

Looks like a different species than the local "pond" snails, but similar shape of shell. Nothing particularly special or valuable IMO.


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## big b (Aug 17, 2014)

new species?


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## bullseyejoey (Aug 30, 2012)

Not likely, evil wizard.


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## big b (Aug 17, 2014)

meh,it would be cool it it was.


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