22 replies to this topic

[Moontanman]

Yesterday I was picking up after my dogs and found a large snail shell in the middle of my yard, it was one of two big snails I had in a vat last summer but they crawled out and vanished. I figured they had just died, but to my surprise, after several frosts and even 21 degree nights the snail was still alive and is now chomping happily on some of my aquarium plants, is this odd or par for the course? 

[littlen]

That is odd, especially if it is an aquatic, tropical species.  Do you know what it is?  Something local?

Malaysian trumpet snails are pretty indestructible but that isn't the case here.

[Betta132]

Could it be an amphibious species? I assume there are amphibious snails. 

Is it possible that it's actually a land species that can survive submerged for a time but escaped because it didn't want to be in the water? 

[Moontanman]

Supposed to be one of those huge snails that look like mystery snails but eat everything, aquatic goats I've heard them called... 

[littlen]

An Apple snail?...which is tropical and shouldn't have survived freezing.

How big is it and where did you acquire it?

[gzeiger]

Probably Bellamya chinensis... nasty invasives, and virtually indestructible. Livebearers, amazingly.

[Moontanman]

An Apple snail?...which is tropical and shouldn't have survived freezing.

How big is it and where did you acquire it?

 

The snail is bigger than a golf ball but not quite as big as a baseball, I got it from a hobbyist from Lake Waccamaw... 

 

Probably Bellamya chinensis... nasty invasives, and virtually indestructible. Livebearers, amazingly.

 

I googled it, I can't tell if it is an apple snail or a B. chinensis.

 

I was hoping for babies but I guess i need two to tango. I do have one colombian ramshorn snail that i found in an old pond, one of our members sent me a bunch of eggs, I thought none survived but one did.

 

I also have something laying what appear to be sterile eggs on the glass, weeks pass but nothing hatches out, the eggs remind me of freshwater limpets but bigger and they never move...  

[Betta132]

The critter laying eggs is probably a nerite snail. They only breed successfully in brackish water.

Edited by Betta132, 27 January 2016 - 11:47 PM.

[Moontanman]

The critter laying eggs is probably a nerite snail. They only breed successfully in brackish water.

 

 

I think you nailed it! Some gave me some several months ago! 

[centrarchid]

Physa spp. (Pond Snails) and Heliosoma spp. (Rams Horn Snails) are a major pain in my butt.  I have tried a range of approaches to kill them yet only prolonged desiccation of pond bottom seems to work.  Having a pond drained over winter yet with mud that freezes solid down at least 6 inches does not kill them.  This problem I figured out years ago.  In later years when monitoring swamp bottoms supporting mole salamanders and spring peepers I found those waters froze solid and into the mud as well. It is those habitats the snails I am concerned with naturally occur.

[Matt DeLaVega]

This article mentions that mystery snails are great escape artists.

 

http://www.aquariumc.../mystery-snail/

[Moontanman]

This article mentions that mystery snails are great escape artists.

 

http://www.aquariumc.../mystery-snail/

 

 

I have seen them crawl out as well, but how did this tropical snail survive 21 degree nights and at least 8 months on land... He is way bigger than any mystery snail i've ever seen... 

[Matt DeLaVega]

There are many ponds and lakes here in Ohio that have mystery snails. Golf ball size easily. If you are not 100% certain of what they are, are you certain they are not mystery snails.

[gerald]

Matt -- the "mystery snail" name is applied to several kinds of unrelated snails.  The usual pet-shop mystery snails (Pomacea bridgesi and related species) are in the apple snail family Ampullariidae, and are egg layers.  The Japanese and Chinese mystery snails (genus Bellamya or Cipangopaludina, sold as trap-door snails for ponds and aquariums, and widely escaped all over N. Amer) are live-bearing snails in the family Viviparidae.  Similar in shape to Ampullariidae, but quite different in biology.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Those would be what we have, and they are quite large. Cold temps would not hurt them much, so it seems likely to assume that is was Michael has? The ones I find are livebearers. Cooked some up when I was a kid, and while cleaning them found quite a few almost marble sized young.

[Moontanman]

Those would be what we have, and they are quite large. Cold temps would not hurt them much, so it seems likely to assume that is was Michael has? The ones I find are livebearers. Cooked some up when I was a kid, and while cleaning them found quite a few almost marble sized young.

 

 

I wonder if they store sperm? Be cool to have babies, I was under the impression they were the giant apple snails lovingly referred to as goats with shells by someone on this list... I wanted them to see if feeding them heavy would cause the water in my daphnia vat to stay green. I am rather fond of snails, the MTS are cool but I like the nerites and columbian ramshorns as well... Nerites would be cool if freshwater hermit crabs were ever introduced into the hobby... Too bad we don't have big freshwater limpets... 

[gerald]

The livebearing trapdoor /mystery snails (Bellamya japonica and B. chinensis) eat algae, dead leaves, dead fish, and also filter-feed on suspended particles.  They dont usually eat live growing plants, which is why people like them for planted ponds.

[Moontanman]

The livebearing trapdoor /mystery snails (Bellamya japonica and B. chinensis) eat algae, dead leaves, dead fish, and also filter-feed on suspended particles.  They dont usually eat live growing plants, which is why people like them for planted ponds.

 

 

I think I have a "goat with a shell" 

[gzeiger]

Bellamya chinensis can store sperm. Not sure of the others.

[gerald]

I think I have a "goat with a shell" 

 

Then maybe its a true apple snail - thay are voracious plant eaters.