Snail Picture ID dictionary

All photos are from me or sourced by forum members with their permission!



So I see a lot of threads asking for Snail ID. I love snails and have many types of freshwater snails. I figured I would make a thread on them for all to see.

Category 1 - Pest class snails (They can be useful given the right circumstances)

Bladder aka common pond snail

-They reproduce via egg sack and quickly. The egg sacks are clear and have small dots in them. Finding them can be hard and thus can cause them to overpopulate quickly. The main benefits are eating algae and being used as live food.


Picture credit - Cheesepuff



Picture credit - Cheesepuff


Ramshorn

- They are hermaphroditic and only take any two to reproduce. They can be colorful and interesting looking so some people keep them. They eat algae and can also be used as live food. They lay eggs.


Picture credit - Cheesepuff



Picture credit - Cheesepuff


Malaysian Trumpet Snails

- Of all the pest class snails this tends to be the favorite, especially for those who have sand as their substrate. They will burrow under the sand and release gasses that get trapt beneath the surface. They give live birth under the sand, so one day you make wake up to dozens in your tank seemingly out of nowhere. They grow to be about 1 inch in length.


Picture credit - Shadowfish

Mystery snails

The Mystery snail can describe a few sub classes of snail, some of which get mixed up with the Apple Snail (a true apple snail can grow HUGE and can be illegal to transport across certain state lines)


Picture credit - Bijou88




Mystery snails come in several common colors

-Gold

Picture credit - Cheesepuff

-Ivory

Picture credit - Shadowfish

-Black

Picture credit - Bijou88

-Blue
-Jade (green)

Picture credit - Cheesepuff

-Purple

Picture credit - Shadowfish

-Chestnut (brown)

Picture credit - Bijou88





It's worth noting that colors can have slight variations to them, and don't have to be solid. Many have stripes.

They get about 2-3 inches in diameter and love to eat algae off your glass and ornaments, but their diet should also be supplemented with high calcium foods to aid in shell growth. They reproduce via eggs even in fresh water, however the eggs must not be submerged in water and must remain moist in order to come to fruition.





Picture credit - Cheesepuff

Nerite snail


These guys are popular for their diverse colors and patterns and will not reproduce outside of brackish water. Their size depends on the type, and well as shape features.

Common types are

-Tiger

Picture credit - Bigou88


-Zebra

Picture credit - Cheesepuff



-Olive

Picture credit - Cheesepuff



-Horned

Picture credit - Cheesepuff



-Black Racer

Picture credit - Cheesepuff

-Batik

Picture credit - MongooseALaMode




as well as a few that are not so common.

Some, like the Tiger and Zebra can grow up to about 1.5 inches in diameter, while others like the Horned only get about a half inch in diameter.


Because of the large variety of snails that fall under this class, pictures are best googled on a per snail basis.

 

Large Cone type


Unlike the Malaysian trumpet snail that is cone shaped and reproduced quickly, there are a number of large cone shaped snails that do not reproduce quickly.

Rabbit aka Elephant Snail (Sulawesi)

These guys come in several skin colors and shell colors. They grow to about 3 inches in length and will dig trenches in your sand which will help release harmful gasses that get trapt under the surface. They will eat left overs from fish so long as its bottom feeder type food, but also eat some algae and will munch on plants. They reproduce slowly, and lay very few eggs at a time.


Picture credit - Cheesepuff

Picture credit - Cheesepuff


Black Devil Spike and Lava (Faunus Ater and Faunus Magma)


Picture credit - Cheesepuff



Picture credit - Cheesepuff




Picture credit - Cheesepuff


Considered the big cousin to the Malaysian trumpet snail, although no direct relation, the BDS has a shell size similar to that of the Rabbit snail, but has a distinct spike shape. The Lava snails are part of the same family, but have a red huge to them. These guys like to munch on plants. They are also known to be more active than Rabbit snails.

Other types


Japanese Trapdoor snail

They can come in slight color variations and some have been known to grow to the size of an Apple Snail.

The reproductive rate is moderate. They give live birth, so there are no eggs involved.


Picture credit - Cheesepuff







Assassin Snail


This type of snail gets its name for doing exactly what it says - assassinations. They are heavily carnivorous and will eat snails of just about any other kind in the freshwater category. It has been known that if the victI'm snail is large (like a Mystery) multiple assassins will gang up and take on the victI'm together. They have a great sense of smell which helps them hunt down their victims. They will force the victI'm into its own shell and eat them alive from within. They do lay eggs, but require a male and a female. Their reproductive rate is slow compared to most and they do not lay a single clutch when they do. Instead, the eggs are spread out one by one over the tank. It will take weeks to months for baby assassins to hatch, at which point they burrow under the substrate until they are just barley large enough to see with the naked eye.



Picture credit - Cheesepuff





Picture credit - Cheesepuff

 

Thanks for taking the time to write this up! The only thing I would add/change is how bladder/ramshorn/mystery lay eggs, as in mysteries lay them above water in little pink clutches that look like long raspberries, bladder under water usually on leaves or glass and theirs look like thick blobs of clear jelly, ramshorn lay eggs under water on plant leaves and glass and they look more like flat blobs of a think gel, they're flatter and less jelly/almost more silicone like than bladder snail eggs.

Also, mystery snails aren't really algae eaters, they need fresh veggies and fish food

Also, if you'd like I'd be happy to take pictures of my mystery, nerite, bladder and ramshorn for this so there are tangible photos instead of links, just let me know!

 

that would be great for photo help!

there was pictures, but they were taken down due to possible copy write violation. I was hoping by citing my sources that it wouldn't be a problem, but I was wrong :-\

 

Great post!

Also make sure to capitalize genus names. So it should be Faunus ater and Faunus magma.

 

Great post! Worthy of being a sticky after Bijou88's and TexasDomer's stamp of approval.

 

Nerite snail
...
Some, like the Tiger and Zebra can grow up to about 1,5 inches in diameter, while others like the Horned only get a few centimeters in diameter.
...

You might want to edit your measurements for horned nerites. A "few centimetres" could well be bigger than 1.5 inches, given that there are ~2.5cm/inch

 

You might want to edit your measurements for horned nerites. A "few centimetres" could well be bigger than 1.5 inches, given that there are ~2.5cm/inch

Should have said millimeters. That's what I get for making this at 5 in the morning. Lol

 

Or just say 1/2" since that's pretty close and slightly less vague, lol

 

Sounds great. =)



A message to the mods -


any new pictures in the original text will now be exclusively owned by forum members and myself to avoid copy-write issues.

is this thread sticky worthy? I've been trying my best to get pictures for everything.

 

A message to the mods -


any new pictures in the original text will now be exclusively owned by forum members and myself to avoid copy-write issues.

Just checking....all the above pictures were taken by you of your snails?

 

yup. I've taking pics of my snails (of which I have many) and any I don't have I've traveled to my LPS and got permission to take a picture of their snails.

So far I have yet to have anyone send me pics to use, so its just been my pictures thus far.

 

Thanks for all of the information. Great reference source!

After a while, I'll clean the thread and delete the chat.

Ken

 

OK!

Big bladder snail:


Herds of red ramshorns:






A mountain of MTS:

 

Nice pics!

I think we should stick to the kind of format I set up though.

I could use a good photo of an mts and a black racer. Also, more colors for mystery snails would be good.

 

Mts if you want it or did you mean with a black racer

Sent from my SM-G360V using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

Mystery snails. ...

 

Ramshorn, mystery and bladder

 

Oh, oops, you want portraits of individual snails.

Hang on, don't have many of those...







Oh wait, that second picture is of a mass of snail eggs

 

Tiger/tire track nerite.

 

here are some pics of my purple mystery snail,I hope you can use them

 

Very nice pictures! I'll update the thread soon



Cool. Got the photo's needed in the OP.

Looking for the pics of the rest of the colors of the mystery snails

as well as a black racer and a black devil spike,

 

Fwiw, my "gold" snail is actually ivory, lol, feel free to use him as gold though since that's what he looks like in the photo. I did give you a photo of a red one as well. ..

Ok, I'm going to do back to back posts so bear with me (the app won't let me label them individually)

Ivory and red



Dark plum and blue and Black

 

Oh. Looks so yellow in that one pic. But the new ones are fantastic!

 

Eh, just use him for gold, it works. I included it partly because you could see his breathing the well and people always ask about that, lol.

Great! Hopefully those will fill out your colors a bit more! It seemed easiest just to scoop them and take pictures in my hand rather than in the tank, less confusing that way I think since I have so many.

 

huh...I have to think for a minute.

Your red looks like a Chestnut (brown)

and your dark plum looks like a black

and your blue looks like an Emerald (green)

and your black does indeed look like a black.






edit -

also, does the choice for purple look...pink?

Grape would have been a great poster snail =(

does mysteries come in pink?


I must be going crazy here. lol.

I changed some of the pictures around based on how they are looking on my monitor. Does it look right to you?

I swapped your ivory back to my gold for contrast.

 

The purple one looks purple, and it is, shadowfish got it from me.... I can take a couple pictures of purples tomorrow if you want different ones but I think this one is just fine. There are ones they sell as pink but they're usually just ivory with a pinkish hue, my older ivorys have gotten this.

The red is probably what they call chestnut, I don't know anywhere that refers to them as "brown" though, so maybe do red/chestnut instead of brown?

The only real difference color wise between the plum and black is the black is highlighted with brown and the plum with purple, giving them the plum color, they both have dark feet too.

The blue is blue, lol, there aren't technically green mystery snails tmk, they've just got a bit of algae growing on them usually, the blue ones come in a number of different shades from blue/gray, blue/green, kind of muted gold, and almost solid gray, all with dark feet, everyone's blues are slightly different I've noticed (much like the purple/magenta ones).

The one you put under black isn't black, she's plum.... trust me, they're completely different colors.

Awwww, put Gustav back up please! He needs to be immortalized in a sticky!

 

my monitors must not be that great.

I remember my purple (grape) was a very dark purple. It took me by surprised that the shell was such a pretty pinkish color.


I can always use Gustav as a main picture

Changed pictures around again.

also, I've seen emerald for sale before. Very hard to find.

here a pic from a google search. Someone on ebay sells them too.

 

I'm pretty sure that's not a mystery snail though, the eye stalks and antennae are wrong. Also, it appears to be on dry land so I'd guess it's not even really aquatic....

Yay! Gustav thanks you! (He's one of my two remaining old guys)

The color on his purple is slightly lighter than mine that are still here, it may be his lighting and the snail may just have changed color a little as its grown. I'll take some of my teenagers tomorrow and you can decide what you want to go with. I would include the plum one though if you're going for all the colors, they're not super common but they're out there.

Did a Google search on green mystery snails, the ones that are in fact mysteries look to be dyed imo, that doesn't look like a natural color....

 

good point on the picture.


I know I saw an ebay listing and it had emerald in it. Its the off season so I can't find it, but I'm almost positive they exist, just very rare.

FOUND IT!

its not emerald, its Jade.

 

I can't see either of those because they both say the listing has ended. ..

I'd still guess the green ones are either dyed or a slightly greener version of a blue mystery. One of my blues is like a slate gray color, including his foot, there's a lot of variety in them.

 

I can see it!

should I try for underwater pics of my ivory and my red/gold?
my blue is kinda crummy for some reason right now...

I think the problem with Bijou88 's pics is that they are not underwater and have almost no lighting

 

Yep. I assume the green one is the far right? To me that looks more brown than green.... I'd still say it's just a variation of blue personally, lol. Either way, it doesn't necessarily need included in this since you never see them out there, it's not likely needed for reference as much as the others imo.

 

Brown? Huh.

This is only semI off-topic technically, but does anyone remember that picture of the dress that people couldn't decide on which color it actually was?

 

They actually are underwater and have lighting, they just don't have as much lighting as they would on the bottom, lol, they're just near the surface of the water.

 

This is one of my purple mysteries as a youngster:



I don't know if it's normal but the purple seems to have become less intense with age.

 

Brown? Huh.

This is only semI off-topic technically, but does anyone remember that picture of the dress that people couldn't decide on which color it actually was?

lol I remember the dress...

I think the snail your talking about is a jade,but the lighting is bad.









here are some more,I know you have a zebra nerite but I added that in case you want it.

if you want to use your pics that's fine,but I think that you should get close ups (in the water,since its better to see details) of the mts and the bladder/pond snail since they are kinda hard to see...just my :

 

If you want one showing how they funnel at the top for food

 

heres a mts,there are a few kinds/colors of mts just so you know,and the next two is a pond or bladder snail (bladder I think)

 

Mts in my son's tank the snails actually sticking out

Sent from my SM-G360V using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app