56 replies to this topic

[Michael Wolfe]

Those are nice... they are coloring up outside as well.  We saw some nice ones in Macon last weekend.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

What type of snails are those? I see them in pet store aquariums all of the time as hitch hikers, but they're not river snails with the long, pointed shells that I catch.

[Matt DeLaVega]

You referring to the ramshorn snail? I think people regard them as more of a pest than pond snails. I have not ran into them in flowing water that I recall.

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Is that what they are? Ramshorn snails? They're considered pests in the aquarium trade. I remember my father's tank had bunches of them. Never got bigger than half the size of a garden pea. He always crushed them and the angel fish would eat them.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Google it and sure what I am suggesting is what you are referring to. Ramshorn snails often get quarter sized or nearly. Pond snails are common hitch hikers too. They are not as pointy as the river snails I think you are talking about, and have more delicate shells. There is crap for freshwater snail references out there.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Try this. Above the fish. Top snail looks like what I know as a pond snail. Just below it is a ramshorn snail. The snails common in moving water in Ohio are similar looking to a Malaysian trumpet snail, I don't know what they are. Like to know. 

 

Apologies to OP for getting off topic, but it happens, one question leads to another.

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[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Yes, the ones I find in the river look much like the Malaysian trumpet snail, just not as light colored. After I searched "pond snail" I pulled up a bunch of different types and it seems that what I am referring to is called Physa Acuta or, Acute pond snail, or bladder snail, tadpole snail. Said that they're considered a very difficult pest in the aquarium trade/hobby. So I think I have my answer. Page is below.

 

Chris M

 

http://tinyurl.com/y42dresp

[Doug_Dame]

"Pest" is what way? 

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Considered a pest because they take over a tank rapidly. The wild Elimia river snails here in Ohio are separate sexes, these Physa are both sexes in one, so if you have two in your tank, they can both drop eggs together and your tank explodes with them. Just one is enough as it is. I have a hard time keeping the Elimia snails in my tank. Darters are effective snail slayers.

That said, these snails have thin, brittle shells, so my father just crushed them in the tank and the fish ate snail for dinner. He never could get rid of them all without emptying the tank. They came in on the plants.

 

Chris M.

[Matt DeLaVega]

I think Doug means there is a way to tell the pest snails by the way the shell twists. I don't remember it. Pest left?

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

Seems like "pest" snails are the hermaphrodites that need only themselves to reproduce. At least that's what I have read, but all other types can become a pest if left to breed uncontrolled.

Anyhow, I am sorry to have hijacked this thread.

 

Over and out!

 

Chris M.

[Michael Wolfe]

to continue the hijack, I think some of us would say that snails cannot take over a native tank that has either sunfish or darters as both love to eat snails and will do so faster than they can reproduce... and despite their bad reputation, most will only eat decaying plant matter, not live growing plants.

[Doug_Dame]

In my tanks, I tend to think of the mystery biped who drops in all the food as the pest, and the hard-working crew of janitorial escargots who deal with that, tedious day after tedious day, as being the silent heroes of the story. (But I won't know the truth of the matter for sure until Ken Burns makes a movie about it.)

[Fleendar the Magnificent]

 I have brought home about 25 Elimia snails from the river with them going away for the winter in the river about December and as of now, I have perhaps 6-7 let of they 25 in my tanks. The Elimias are single-sex requiring 2 snails to reproduce, so it looks like I need to bring more home once they come back out. The rainbow darters seem to be snail-slayers while the banded, fantail and Johnnies ignore them. I also want more to help with algae. Tank scrubbing is one of my least favorite tasks. Maybe I need SpongeBob's snail, Gary.

 

Chris M.

[Ken Kilby]

I haven't posted a long while.  My aquarium is still doing good.

Have had this Stoneroller almost two years now and he is still going strong even with the fat lighter stump in there.  It was about an inch long when caught.

 

 

 

Also, I accidentally kept a misidentified fish last fall that was in with a half dozen yellow fin shiners.  The pale fish without a distinctively colored lateral line.

 

[UncleWillie]

Very glad to hear to tank is still going well and your fish are growing and happy.  That pale fish you speak of looks like it could be a bluehead chub - a favorite among some other Georgians here.

[Ken Kilby]

I’m fairly sure it is a Bluehead Chub,  I had a hard time finding juvenile pictures.  I had let the Ludwigia get a little out of hand and when I pulled it all out and reset it the chub had appeared as if from nowhere.  It increased its size probably ten fold over a two month period.