Hitchhiker ID – Stripped Snail

[redfishblewfish]

I have a four year old established tank with nothing new added until a number of months ago…added two new plants. Today I see two of these snails in the tank. I have to assume these came along with the new plants as eggs. I’m not into the snail thing…so what are they? Good or bad?

http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp271/psh54/IMG_0283.jpg

[petluvr]

Asolene Spixi, it really depends on the good or bad thing. The pure spixis are not plant eaters and really are not much different than a diffusa (brigg); however, they can mate with the Marisa which are voracious plant eaters. Bad thing is you can't really tell if they are pure or mixed until your plants start to disappear. On a side note they are illegal to ship across state lines so you may sell them but only within your state.

[redfishblewfish]

Wow, that was a quick response! Thanks petluvr.

Why are they illegal to transport across state lines?

In the mean time, I’ll google them and see what I can find.

Thanks again.

[petluvr]

Because they can interbreed with the Marisa which are plant eaters.

[Rugh1982]

nice snails.
you should always disinfect plants before u plant them, gets rid of pests.
u can use Potassium Permanganate or bleech
http://www.aquajake.com/blog/planting-the-tank/preparing-a-plant-for-planting/disinfecting-plants-before-or-after/

[deeleywoman]

i just got me a hitchhiker asolene today, too :D i got a bunch of floaters from another ACer and found a humongous snail in with the greens, along with TWO clutches of eggs :D fortunately, he only lives a few hours away from me in the same state, so we didn't transport them illegally lol

i'm completely new to apple snails, having only dealt with them when i was a kid, and that was a looong time ago >.> i have MTS, rams, and pond snails.... does this guy need anything different from them?

[petluvr]

i just got me a hitchhiker asolene today, too :D i got a bunch of floaters from another ACer and found a humongous snail in with the greens, along with TWO clutches of eggs :D fortunately, he only lives a few hours away from me in the same state, so we didn't transport them illegally lol

i'm completely new to apple snails, having only dealt with them when i was a kid, and that was a looong time ago >.> i have MTS, rams, and pond snails.... does this guy need anything different from them?
Treat them the same as you would an apple snail, after all they are in the apple snail family.

[deeleywoman]

i have no idea what "treat them the same as you would an apple snail" means.... >.>

actually, though, after reading up on them last night and hearing (reading?) many, many tales of spixis eating ponds, rams, etc, i'm thinking it's time to finally get the invert tank i've been dreaming of for forever up and running. i know i bought my snails as fodder for the scoots, but i've grown rather fond of them and consider the ones in the fish tank to be among my wet-pets. i don't want to throw a snail (let alone however many may emerge from those clutches) into a tank full of defenseless pet snails, nor do i want to put a flesh-eating snail that would sell for a pretty penny in a tank with a turtle who has recently discovered an affinity for escargo. :D