what kind of snails

[tetra_girl]

I am wondering if anyone can tell me what kind of snails are in my tank.

They hatched after a month of putting in some plants and obviously hitched a ride. The only snails I can find any decent pictures of are trumpet and apple snails (which they're not).

There are two types in the tank, both are still very tiny after two months. They both range from 1/16th to 1/8 th of an inch in diameter and are round in shape. The coil is not very pointy on either, although is a little more so on the darker ones which have a brown iridescent color. The other ones are rather translucent with a brownish cream tint and have brown ticks going around them. They also have thin little antennas.

They do not eat the plants, but do appear to graze on the algae growing on the piece of wood in the tank and broad plant leaves.

I thought they were babies, and would get bigger, but after only a month of hatching I think the bigger 1/8th" translucent ones started having babies- I've seen them pair up together and there are lots of tiny tiny little snails again (there were only originally half a dozen).

Anyone have any idea what kind of snails I have? And are they going to get any bigger?

Thanks for any info!

 

[fishhead]

I can't really tell for sure from your description, but it sounds like you have some species of Physa, commonly called Pond Snails, or Tadpole Snails. They have greyish or brownish football shaped shells typically dotted with lighter spots. There are lots of species in the Physidae family, Physa acuta is really common in aquariums, but getting the species pegged with certainty for these guys is not especially easy (unless you happen to be a biologist, in which case perhaps it would be easy). This is a fine site for identifying freshwater snails:

http://www.applesnail.net/content/snails_various.php

There are a lot of pics so hopefully you should be able to pick out your snail.

If they are Phusa they can breed young, but keep slowly growing for a long time. While most in my tanks are about 1/8 of an inch, a few well fed oldsters reached amost half an inch after about a year though they eventually became loach victims.

 

[tetra_girl]

Thanks for the info and the link!

Turns out the snails that appear to be having babies all over the place are discoidal (round flat coiled shells) and a link off the applesnail.net site seems to suggest they are juvenile Ramshorn snails.

There are only a couple of the other darker/non-flat ones and I haven't seen them lately, so I'm not sure if they are Pond snails or not yet (need a closer look).

Seems many snails grow quite slowly, so I guess I will just have to wait and see how big they will get and what color the juveniles will turn!

Thanks for your help again!