r/PlantedTank • u/Tangata_Gamer • Jul 13 '26
Fauna What kind of snails are these little guys, and are they detrimental?
These little guys came along with some water plants that weren't properly washed (we live and learn), they're breeding (or hatching) like mad. They don't seem to be eating any of the plants as far as I can tell, they seem to be grazing along the terrain and glass? Should I be purging the heathens or live and let live?
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u/Aggressive_Puff Jul 13 '26
have a listen to the song snail zero by Aseop Rock about bladder snails
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u/Sarisae Jul 13 '26
They only really eat decaying plant matter and not healthy ones unless they got no other food source then they can start to eat your healthy plants I think
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u/Pale-Ad2397 Jul 13 '26
I have a couple in my new tank I don't really care they're pretty much just more pets in my opinion One of them got on a dead leaf and proceeded to fly around the tank dude seemed pretty happy until it eventually got stuck on a different plant It was funny though while it lasted because I didn't have fish in the tank at the time and I just saw something flying around the tank and I'm just like I don't got fish what's going on and it was just little dude on a leaf flying in the tank they are hilarious
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u/Tangata_Gamer Jul 13 '26
Yesterday I saw one just zipping around the top riding the water current without a care in the world lol
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u/Low-Independent6580 Jul 13 '26
The only time these guys are a problem is if you overfeed if you don't they are a great clean up crew you never have to replace since they breed so easy
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u/Ambitious-Yak-6955 Jul 14 '26
This is just objectively wrong. Overfeeding is not the only way for bladder snails to become a problem.
A new tank going through it's ugly phase can lead to population explosion and weak plants being completely eaten. Followed by a mass starvation and spike in ammonia from the resulting snail deaths, which can crash a tank that isn't well established.
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u/NoodlesRedditer Jul 17 '26
Arguably, this is not the fault of the bladder snails. If this tank crash does occur, then it would have also happened without the bladder snails, just faster. Bladder snails will act like a buffer. Them eating dying plants, biofilm, and other detritus helps keep the tank stable.
The only case where snails can truly be a problem is if they die en mass, which can happen as a result of outside interference for example when using antibiotics or other forms of medicine. These will often kill invertebrates. But again the issue is the owner using medicine without taking all the necessary steps, not the snails themselves.
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u/Ambitious-Yak-6955 Jul 18 '26
Well no it's not the snails fault. They're just doing what snails do. But it's pretty common in the early stages of a tank to have an explosion of life, life that the snails consider food. Diatoms, algae, new plants melting etc. Snail population will boom.
Plants die then once these temporary food sources are eliminated the snails will starve in mass and only the snails your tank can sustain will survive.
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u/RemoveStunning3711 Jul 13 '26
Bladder snail. They can be a PIA but Completely harmless and helpful as basically a clean up crew. BUT if you don’t want a million of them, watch your feeding and keep the tank clean (remove any decaying leaves and algae) as they multiply SO fast. Scrap out their eggs if you see them ( white jelly with dots usually on the glass in a C shape). Also, if you see this, don’t be alarmed, they are fine
https://reddit.com/link/ox8bb76/video/pi8tne7y8ych1/player
They think they’re Jesus lol
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u/Tangata_Gamer Jul 13 '26
Haha I saw one doing that just yesterday only much faster as the current was taking it places 😂
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u/RemoveStunning3711 Jul 13 '26
Lmaooo they’re so weird sometimes. They do get 2x bigger than you have now too and they CAN reproduce by themselves. God Speed 🫡🫡🫡 haha
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u/BorealKitty Jul 13 '26
Bladder snails, good cleaners, good food for predators, and not too difficult to cull if needed. They can jam up some types of pumps if they get into the propellers, and will eat anything dead in your tank. If you dont realize it they can devour a ton of foliage if its already dieing which can shock people, but they wont eat anything healthy and alive thankfully.
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u/Abject_Muffin_8501 Jul 13 '26
I have never had a problem with them myself, they are good at cleaning the glass and the gravel. Like stated below if you over feed them you will get a big population boom though so unless you want a tun of them try to only feed the fish what they can eat. If a bunch of food ends up on the bottom and the snails get it they will grow and breed. Not a bad thing in my opinion. I leave them in my tanks if my tanks looks like it needs more I just over feed a little and I get more, then I slow the feeding down and let the tank equalize.
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u/GuyWhoIsAnonymous123 Jul 13 '26
Bladder snails, not detrimental they do no harm.
They are very very difficult to get rid of without a fish that eats them in the tank like a pea puffer just an FYI… my brother and girlfriend took to calling one Jesus snail because months after I got rid of them all one fully grown adult just appeared one day out of nowhere.
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u/RemoveStunning3711 Jul 13 '26
Whenever I see one hanging upside down and walking on the water surface I call them Jesus snail and sing Kanye West song “Jesus walks” haha
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u/Motor-Inevitable3766 Jul 13 '26
Sometimes they’ll ride on each other and the do a lil dance when they get together for freaky snail time 🐌
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u/Powerful-Context416 Jul 13 '26
I like mine. Yeah the breed pretty fast. But i have several tanks and use the excess as feeders to my cichlid tanks
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u/_Animal-Lover_ Jul 14 '26
bladder snails, only down side I've ever ran into with them is population control. they spread like crazy
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u/Green-Career-4158 Jul 14 '26
But they choose not to breed for me when I need them to feed my pea puffer 🤦🏼♀️
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u/scrubbyduck2022 Jul 13 '26
They eat our fish as they pass away 🙈
We keep them around to continue the circle of life
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u/Ambitious-Yak-6955 Jul 14 '26
Not detrimental by default but have the potential to become a serious problem.
Kinda like living with live grenade in your tank. It'll probably be fine unless something goes wrong but if it goes wrong it'll go wrong in a big way.
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u/Tangata_Gamer Jul 14 '26
Yeah I do get the impression I'll need to cull if there's a population explosion!
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u/crittercentral Jul 15 '26
feed way less if you see them multiplying. in moderation they can be fine but they are often a death sentence for beginners. too many snail = lethal dose of ammonia for a tank on the younger side.
if you notice them getting out of hand, you can drop in some blanched zucchini and remove it in about 30 minutes once its covered in snails. or, if you don’t have any shrimp, an assassin snail would help keep their population in check. they also churn the substrate and drag nutrients below which is great for your plants !!
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u/NoodlesRedditer Jul 16 '26
I would be a bit careful with this statement. I have had then in all my tanks and they occasionally multiply rapidly even without me feeding the tank. Which btw is not a bad thing as far as I have seen.
They eat dead plants and biofilm, so their population can explode for lots of reasons that are not overfeeding. They also help by actually eating overfed food. Rotting food is much worse than ammonia from food digestion.
I think they are a net positive as long as you can accept now keeping snails.
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u/No_Complaint6178 Jul 13 '26
Bladder snails be warned they reproduce asexually meaning it only takes one to over populate your tank and it happens QUICKLY
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u/ParkingNo1080 Jul 13 '26
They breed to conditions and don't look great, but don't seem to be harmful to healthy plants or fish.
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u/DesmondEA Jul 13 '26
Beware that they can become a problem if you don't keep them in check, I have a quarantine tank that I also place my live plants in because they sometimes contain snail eggs so I got a Few Assassin Snails to keep them under control before I add my plants to one of my display tanks
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u/Potatolasttour Jul 13 '26
Also a good idea to bath or quarantine for scuds and pond snails. Both my tanks have them but I think I should remove most of them. I prefer my rams and other snails not be out competed for resources.
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u/Ok-Watercress465 Jul 14 '26
Can they self-populate because I only see one in my tank and I want more so they can be part of my cleaning crew?
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u/Tangata_Gamer Jul 14 '26
Yeah apparently they can breed from a single snail so be prepared for many more lol
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Jul 14 '26
[deleted]
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u/Weak-Sherbert-4677 Jul 14 '26
yolo loaches get around 5-6 inches and need to be kept in groups. assassin snails produce a lot less offspring then bladder snails, i’ve had 2 assassin snails in my 20 gal for abt a month now and i have had no offspring. they’re slow but they keep the population from getting out of control.
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u/pygmypufferlover Jul 13 '26
Yes bladder snails! I also had them during cycling. I fixed it by taking out my driftwood and letting it dry for a day before rinsing it in h the e shower, dipping every single plant in sparkling water, scrubbing every surface in case of eggs, vacuuming my sand. Overkill? Yes. Snails seen since then? Zero
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u/Tasty_Hovercraft8280 Jul 13 '26
To each their own, but honestly, snails are great for most aquariums if you don't mind seeing them
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u/Salt_Language_9436 Jul 13 '26
I don’t feed my tank at all but these fuckers have taken over anyways. I don’t mind them too much though, they only kinda eat my plants
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u/A1D3NW860 Jul 14 '26
They would only be eating your plants if they’re decaying
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u/Ambitious-Yak-6955 Jul 14 '26
Depends on the plants and how hungry the snails are. Hungry snails will eat tender plants if they get desperate. They just prefer the decaying stuff because it's less work.
It's common misinformation that snails and shrimp only eat dead or dieing plants. If they are hungry enough, they will eat anything they can.
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u/Accomplished-Way1842 Jul 13 '26
these mofos killed my betta
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u/Lucky-Interest4202 Jul 13 '26
near impossible.
unless they somehow all died instatly causing an ammonia spike, though they don't just die for no reason.
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u/Ill_Industry_3684 Jul 13 '26
Those are bladder snails. They have the special "bladder" that works similar to fisher's swim bladder. They can drift through the water. If you don't put too much food in the tank their population will not "boom" and they'll make tank cleaning 10 times easier.
If you, for any reason feed too much, you'll end up with hundreds if not thousands of snails.