Quite a lot of aquarists beginners face the problem of how to control snails population in a tank (melania snail, ramshorn snail and snails from Physidae family), when their number becomes too big.
So, two questions rise simultaneously: how to get rid of these snails and where did they come from?
Well, if you haven’t put them into the tank on purpose, they could have got into it together with the bought tank plants whose leaves might have had snails eggs on them.
Aquarium snails are everywhere in aquarist’s live – they inhabit in all types of tanks and sometimes they appear in the places, where it seems to be impossible.
Let’s try to make a long story short and gather some information about the snail kinds described earlier, so then you can choose what’s interesting especially for you.
Apple or mystery snail (Pomacea bridgesii) is a large, bright and very popular tank snail. In aquarium husbandry these snails can be also called: mystery snails, golden snail, ivory snails, inca snail and so on.
In addition, besides the most common name the snail has – golden apple snail; since it can be of different colorings, correspondingly it has different names. There also exists a snail that looks a lot alike golden apple snail – it is zebra apple snail (Asolene spixi), however it belongs to another snail kind.
However, don’t be confused with such a variety of names. All snails species despite their differences in appearance are alike in their behavior and care.
Ramshorn snails (Planorbis rubrum) are good for any freshwater tank. Red ramshorn snails feed on algae and feed leftovers which are dangerous for fishes health.
Also, these snails server as some special indicator of a tank water quality – if all ramshorn snails have raised up from the tank bottom to the water surface, it means that there’s something wrong with the tank water and it’s time for water renew.