summersquash

I have two large golden mystery snails. The last few days I have found lots of little brown snails in my tank. Could these be baby mysery snails? They are not the same color. Do they turn yellow as they get older, or possibly is this snails that came off some of the plants I put into the tank recently? I have been removing them from my main tank and putting them into a smaller breeder tank because they are eating my plants. This is something the two mystery snails have never done. Also what should I do with these snails. I hate the idea of killing them and surely don't want to throw them outside. It would be my luck they would eat all my outdoor plants. Help

SWilkins

I don't think those are mystery babies. I am pretty sure they are pond snails...pain in the behind and hard to get rid of. They could be ramshorns but if you think they sorta look like your mystery snails that is why I think pond snails. They probably came in as eggs on your plants. Now I am not a mean person but those little monsters will drive you bonkers. My fish on the other hand love them...just take a credit card or something and smush them and the fish eat them up. Pretty much like raising your own fish food.

summersquash

Should I wait till they get a little bigger, just to be sure what they are. They are about the size of a pea.

Lucy

I have snails in one of my 10g's that hitched a ride on a plant from way back. I throw them in an old 5g hex I have (it's all stratched up).
Almost everyday I find a snail or 2, into the 5g they go. (I can't outright kill them either lol)

coffeebean

mystery snails lay big clutches of eggs above the water line. you would have noticed it im sure.
sounds like they are nuisance bladder or ramshorn snails. i have tons of them in most of the tanks. i squish them when i see them and feed them to the fish. a couple i did let grow big cus, well, i like snails, i just like my plants too

summersquash

I just planted my tank a few weeks back and it was really growing great. I used bleach and water to prevent unwanted snails. The only thing I manged to acheive with the bleach and water was to kill off a few of my fish. I really rinsed the plants well after using the bleach water, but soon after planting the tank I lost two gauramis and 3 red eye tetras. That was the only thing I could think of that woould have killed them. Now I still have to deal with these pesty little critters.

SWilkins

Well you could get an assassin snail they munch up the little pest snails and if you only have one they can't multiply.

summersquash

Really? Or are you just pulling my leg. I have never heard of them. How do I hire one?

SWilkins

Now that was a good one. I needed that today. No I am not pulling your leg. You can get them on Aquabid and sometimes on Ebay. They are not the cheapest of snails and it takes a male and a female to have babies. I want some just because they look really neat and I have a tank or two that is overrun with snails. The scientific name is atenome helena (spelling). And one more thing...they don't seem to bother our Mystery snails from as much as I have read on them.

I have not gotten any yet...still waiting on just the right deal. I gotta find that right deal soon...I want some of those little buggers really bad.

summersquash

Glad I could give you a laugh. I wasn't sure if you were serious. Now that I know you are I am going to try to get one, and only one. I have been throwing the little varmints over in my llittle breeder tank, because it is hard for me to kill them, but if they keep eating my new plants who knows, I may get a kick out of it. Is it possible to get rid of them just by removing them one by one?

SWilkins

Well you can try but I think they multiply faster than you can get them out. Now if you wanted them to grow for a puffer or some other fish for food you probably could not get them to grow. I think I am gonna get 5 or 6 of the little assassins and let them go to town....going to Aquabid now. I know Chromes03 I think it is, he is a really good guy, he is on the invert site I go to and he raises them...from what I understand he takes really good care of his pets and I am going to try to get them from him.

summersquash

I may have a look on aquabid. I have never won anything off of there, but I have bid a few times.

scatty

I agree. The same thing happened to me and they turned out to be pond snails. It's not hard to kill them. didn't think I could do it either, bet they multiply so rapidly I soon managed - and the fish do like to eat them. Is a mystery snail an apple snail? You can tell if you have a male and female apple snail that are breeding because the female goes really dark around the tip of her shell when she's ovulating. Pond snails are hermaphraditic and just keep on laying eggs. These assasin snails - will they hurt my apple snail? and when they've cleaned up all the pond snails, what will they eat then?

SWilkins

Well I didn't think I could kill them either until they were just EVERYWHERE then I started smushing them. It can be quite a stress reliever if they have made one of your plants look like by covering it with eggs. Yes a mystery snail is an apple snail. Sometimes you can tell male from female like that but I would not rely on it. I have read one account of assassins ganging up on a mystery snail but it seems the mystery was not in good health or something like that. The one thing I did read about was a mystery running them over and cleaning them. I would not be afraid to put them in with my adults but I would not put them in with the babies. I am sure your local LFS will donate all the pond snails you want to feed the assassin.