discovered snails in cycling aquarium

[fern1knits]

I noticed a few snails in my aquarium and am curious if these are desirable or undesirable snails.

I am currently working on cycling my first tank (so, newbie). It's a 55 gallon planted tank - - I've got a java fern, anubius nana, and pogostemon helferi that were 'tube plants' from PetSmart, as well as cabomba, hornwort, wisteria, watersprite, and two moss balls from liveaquaria. I washed off the plants, but perhaps not enough, so the snails may have hitchhiked on the plants, otherwise I don't know where they came from.

I am interested in eventually getting a snail or two, but I was thinking more along the lines of a ramshorn snail. Is this snail I have (and I saw at least one other) a potentially beneficial snail or a pest? If a pest, what is the best way to get rid of them?

Not sure if this is important information to know, but I'm a little over 4 weeks into the cycling process and am starting to register nitrites. I do 30-50% water changes at least 2x a week or as needed because I have 5 black skirt tetras (sorry, newbie, and I got my fish before I completely understood the cycling process, so now I'm just trying to manage it responsibly), and dosing with Prime during water changes.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Welcome and good for you to be on top of the cycling process! You'll be fine with the 5 tetras in there with your current water change regimen, just feed very lightly. I believe Petsmart plastic tube-o-plants are "guaranteed pest/snail free", so maybe they came in with the Liveaquaria order? Either way, little snails are a good thing. They don't contribute largely to your bio load and they help break up waste in/on your substrate. They're a GREAT indicator of if you're feeding your fish too much as well. Lots of snails = too much food being dumped in the tank.

I've had the tiny pond or bladder? snails in some of my tanks, but don't notice them anymore. I had introduced Malaysian trumpet snails with a LFS bought plant and have those in 2 of my tanks. I like them.

In regards to the Petsmart "tube" plants, I still have every one I've ever bought! They often take awhile to take off, but once they do.. they do!

 

[FreshyFresh]

Welcome and good for you to be on top of the cycling process! You'll be fine with the 5 tetras in there with your current water change regimen, just feed very lightly. I believe Petsmart plastic tube-o-plants are "guaranteed pest/snail free", so maybe they came in with the Liveaquaria order? Either way, little snails are a good thing. They don't contribute largely to your bio load and they help break up waste in/on your substrate. They're a GREAT indicator of if you're feeding your fish too much as well. Lots of snails = too much food being dumped in the tank.

I've had the tiny pond or bladder? snails in some of my tanks, but don't notice them anymore. I had introduced Malaysian trumpet snails with a LFS bought plant and have those in 2 of my tanks. I like them.

In regards to the Petsmart "tube" plants, I still have every one I've ever bought! They often take awhile to take off, but once they do.. they do!