what are these "terrorist snails" called?

Question

When I bought my hornwart home I noticed it had a couple of snails that hitched a ride....

So I asked on here about them....and everyone said "Get rid of them! they will take over your tank!"

And for teh record, I listened, and now I have 4 snails in a jar, that I was thinking about putting in a 2.5 gallon tank I'm not using and was thinking about making into a snail and shrimp tank anyhow.....

But what are they?

They are tiny things, but one has managed to get quite large in the last 2 weeks. The largest is a little smaller than a hearing aid battery, and the smallest is the size of cupcake sprinkle.

They have brownish-red shells and dark grey bodies....

No distinctive "sworl" patterns to the shells yet....

Any guesses?

They are in a 1/2 gallon jar with some of the broken stems from a hornwort.

I put in a flake or two of food in there every day, just because I dont know what else to feed them....

Answer 1

These snails will not take over your tank IF you're not overfeeding. If there's not enough food in the tank for all of them to eat then some of them will die off. If you start to see an overwhelming amount of these guys then you need to cut back on your feeding. There isn't really a need to take them off unless you don't like the looks of them. To me it sounds like you have pond snails, its what I have in my tank from when I bought a few aquarium plants a while back.

As far as feeding goes, I would feed them some sinking shrimp pellets and/or algae wafers. Just throw a little bit in the tank and when thats gone put in some more.

this is my best guess:
http://fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/r90020.htm

Answer 2

They are most likely Ramshorn Snails (Malaysian Trumpet Snails would already have a definite point to their shell; as a side note MTS can reproduce asexually or sexually), which proliferate like no animal I can describe (with the exception of Malaysian Trumpet Snails). They [the Ramshorns] make a great cleanup crew and do a good job of keeping algae under control, but can soon overpopulate a tank to the point that you will want to exterminate them. If you like them and you think you could stand having a few hundred of them (which can easily be removed a few at a time using lettuce and string), there is no reason not to add them to your tank. If you find them attractive, leaving them out of your tank seems silly!

Soop Nazi

Answer 3

The three most common types of snails that hitch rides and invade your tank are:
1) Gilled snails (hermaphrodidic) Typical snail shell coming to a point out the side of the shell
2) Ramshorn Snail (hermaphrodidic) No point on the shell, has a pattern of curling in on itself.
3) Malayan Trumpet Snail (Live bearing, sexual) These are the hardest to kill, but they'll burry themselves in your gravel which can be good. They're nocturnal and very hard to get rid of.

I personally have all of them in my planted tank, I don't mind them so much since they're serving a purpose and not wreaking havok on my bioload because of the plants.

Go ahead and put them in your tank if you want, they will multiply out of control, but if you like 'em go for it. When you want to get rid of them, the lettuce method works fine. Other natural ways to eliminate them are Clown Loaches, Skunk Loaches, YoYo Loaches and miniature puffer fish, and sparkling goramis I've all found to be effective at eating them. Some people say that Angelfish are good at eating the babies and the eggs, I haven't really noticed that one.

Answer 4

Ask the vet.