ID this pest snail?

Looks similar to an MTS, but adults are only 1/4th the size. The biggest one I've ever seen (they've been in my tank for a good 4 months) has been about 1/4th of an inch in size. I have seen them breeding when they have been about the size of a newly hatched cherry shrimp. They are NOT bladder snails, ramshorns, mysteries, or MTS. I am sure of it. I have about a hundred of these tiny snails in my fluval edge, but try as I might, I cant get them to becomes established in any of my other tanks. The only real difference between the Edge and my other tanks is the Edge has gravel substrate and the others have sand. They do NOT burrow into the sand. I had some in my puffer tank before I put the fish in and none went into the substrate. I actually would love to know how to get them into my other tanks because my dwarf puffers LOVE hunting them, but its the biggest PITA to try to get them out of the edge because of its small entry area and enclosed top.

I tried getting pictures, but they suck. The snails are so tiny its really hard to snap a good picture of one, but see if you can get anything from these.


This snail is one of the largest of its kind that I have seen.


A couple of them on my Hydor mini-heater. The one on the left is about med-large sized. Picture takes up about 1/2 of the edge, so 4.4 inches.

Any info would be great! Would love to have more than enough for my puffers. They're so tiny though, my puffers could probably eat about 10 without getting full.

tolawdjk said:

No thought on ID, but have you tried the ole letuce trap?

Click to expand...

The shrimp and ramshorns end up eating it before morning. Tried a fat piece of zucch and that was gone too. Sometimes I can get 10-15 out that way, but usually its just a nice snack for the rest of the tank. I dont mind having them in there, I just want them to be in a tank where its easier to scoop them out too. My main issue is not being able to establish them in any of my other tanks.

unfortunately, I'm at my tank limit and I really dont want to convert any of my other tanks from sand substrate to gravel. Hoping that if I get an ID on these guys I might be able to do something to one of my other tanks to increase their survival chance and reproduction.

Bladder/pond snails are WAY larger than these guys. I have some of those too.

here is a slightly clearer photo of one of the snails. This is one of the larger guys, but is still smaller than a sharpened pencil lead. he is about 1/5th of an inch, give or take a few millimeters. He's actually same size as the larger one on they hydor mini heater in the pic above.