Dang, Vampie. The thread was already bad enough talking about these cute little snails.. then you had to post pictures of them so we could see how adorable they are too! Jeez.
:banhim:
:banhim:
Does anybody remember the "Mini-mystery snail"?
- Thread starter vampie
- Start date
Not a Ramshorn, which is a wonderful snail nevertheless.
They're not babies, though I can definitely see the resemblance.
Yeah, they are pretty cute now that you mention it.
I'm still pretty surprised this snail seems to have disappeared from our hobby.
I am leaning towards Bithynia again, if not tentaculata, perhaps leachii. Can't really say for sure though..
How can you be sure they're not juveniles? Vivs grow extremely slowly, and the snout/tentacle shapes are fairly distinctive in the photos you posted.
Hm. I'll keep looking around to see if I can find a species that matches your photos exactly.
Hm. I'll keep looking around to see if I can find a species that matches your photos exactly.
I'm sure they're not, because as long as people have been keeping and breeding them, no one has recorded them being bigger than around 5mm.
Compare with Bithynia tentaculata and B. leachii. Definitely full-grown specimens and not juvenile Viviparus; photos of eggs at the links.
Yes, I was thinking it was one of those two.. leaning towards the latter if only for size comparisons.
I was looking up the links to the AppleSnail site, and some folks there suggested that it is Amnicola limosa. The shell shape looks like a better match (to my eyes) than the Bithynia tentaculata (the picture with the shell alone), and the adult size maxes out at 5 mm, which also seems a better match, IMO. The picture (link below) is a very light colored one. I've gotten a few of these guys (talked the LFS owner into fishing them out of a planted tank for me) that I think hitchhiked in on plants from FL. I've gotten a few babies, and a few of them have a lighter color like the one shown below.
http://nature.ca/rideau/b/_sidebars/pop01_b5e-e.html
But, then again, both of the Bithynia have those nice spots in the picture, although it doesn't seem to be inherent to the shell itself, as shown in the shell-only pictures. But, OTOH (again!), young ramshorn snails have those spots as well, which they grow out of upon reaching maturity.
Also of note, is that I believe I've seen their eggs now - laid in a straight line, sometimes 2 or 3 (occasionally up to 5) ganged up like train cars, sometimes with a gap, and then a few more. This is apparently an Amnicola trait. With no other snails in the tank, I saw eggs appear where the day before there had been none, so I'm pretty sure it was from these little guys. And they were in a nice straight line (really hard to see!). So, now I'm thinking Amnicola again.
Of course, while I had been keeping them mostly to themselves, with only shrimps to compete for biofilm and algae, I just read that its thought in their native ranges, they're preyed upon by fish and crayfish. D'OH! I just put several C. shulfeldtii in there with them! Oops. Time to set up another tank... I need more space to keep everyone separated.
The picture of the shell here isn't the greatest, but the information is pretty good on them.
http://spinner.cofc.edu/~fwgna/species/hydrobiidae/a_limosa.html
And this is an excellent picture, even showing the greyishness of the shell color:
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=157284
In the ones I've been observing (yep - morning coffee finds me with my 5x magnifying glass pressed up against the tank) the "step" of the shell is quite discernable, whereas in the Bithynia, it looks too smooth and conical, with more whorls, as well.
My observations follow along the ones over on AppleSnail, that these guys really show no interest in fish food or algae wafers. I'm going to try them on veggies and see if there's any interest there. When I first got some a few years back, I thought I lost them because of an intolerance to heat. But if they're coming out of Florida, they should be pretty tolerant of the heat, so now this makes me wonder if they simply got out-competed by other critters.
Anyone else come across any of these lately? Or want to give your 2 cents to help me stop arguing with myself, LOL? They're such a cute little thing, and so wonderfully algae-focused, I'm really wondering why we're not seeing as much of these as the ubiquitous pond snail.
-Jane
http://nature.ca/rideau/b/_sidebars/pop01_b5e-e.html
But, then again, both of the Bithynia have those nice spots in the picture, although it doesn't seem to be inherent to the shell itself, as shown in the shell-only pictures. But, OTOH (again!), young ramshorn snails have those spots as well, which they grow out of upon reaching maturity.
Also of note, is that I believe I've seen their eggs now - laid in a straight line, sometimes 2 or 3 (occasionally up to 5) ganged up like train cars, sometimes with a gap, and then a few more. This is apparently an Amnicola trait. With no other snails in the tank, I saw eggs appear where the day before there had been none, so I'm pretty sure it was from these little guys. And they were in a nice straight line (really hard to see!). So, now I'm thinking Amnicola again.
Of course, while I had been keeping them mostly to themselves, with only shrimps to compete for biofilm and algae, I just read that its thought in their native ranges, they're preyed upon by fish and crayfish. D'OH! I just put several C. shulfeldtii in there with them! Oops. Time to set up another tank... I need more space to keep everyone separated.
The picture of the shell here isn't the greatest, but the information is pretty good on them.
http://spinner.cofc.edu/~fwgna/species/hydrobiidae/a_limosa.html
And this is an excellent picture, even showing the greyishness of the shell color:
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/objectdetails.aspx?oid=157284
In the ones I've been observing (yep - morning coffee finds me with my 5x magnifying glass pressed up against the tank) the "step" of the shell is quite discernable, whereas in the Bithynia, it looks too smooth and conical, with more whorls, as well.
My observations follow along the ones over on AppleSnail, that these guys really show no interest in fish food or algae wafers. I'm going to try them on veggies and see if there's any interest there. When I first got some a few years back, I thought I lost them because of an intolerance to heat. But if they're coming out of Florida, they should be pretty tolerant of the heat, so now this makes me wonder if they simply got out-competed by other critters.
Anyone else come across any of these lately? Or want to give your 2 cents to help me stop arguing with myself, LOL? They're such a cute little thing, and so wonderfully algae-focused, I'm really wondering why we're not seeing as much of these as the ubiquitous pond snail.
-Jane
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