Help! Snail ID!

**georgelam** · 8th Dec 2014, 00:40

Hi, found this snail in my tank. Must have hitchhiked from my new plants. Any idea what kind of snail is this? My main concerns are if
1)it is a pest and will reproduce and take over my tank.
2)Will it eat my plants?
3)i have cherry shrimps in my tank, it is a cause for concern?
4)should i remove it immediately?

**georgelam** · 8th Dec 2014, 00:41

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1417970465.356406.jpg

Size is about a 10 cent coin. Or slightly bigger.

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**Urban Aquaria** · 8th Dec 2014, 01:40

That's a Clithon Corona (aka horned nerite snail), they are one of the smaller variants of nerite snails. They are a very good algae eater and one of the few creatures which can be effective at eating green spot algae on tank glass and plant leaves.

These snails don't eat healthy live plants (their diet is mainly algae) and they are harmless to fishes and shrimps. They are very peaceful tank inhabitants.

They have male and female genders and the females do lay eggs in tanks (even without males present), but their eggs don't hatch in freshwater (the eggs and larve need brackish water to hatch and survive), so there is no danger of population explosion with these snails in freshwater tanks.

Only thing is their eggs (look like small white sesame seeds) can be quite tough to scrape off tank glass and hardscape.

It's quite lucky that you found one hitchhiked in with plants... these snails are popular amongst planted tank keepers and most people have to pay money to buy them.

**georgelam** · 8th Dec 2014, 02:08

Haha thanks UA for the information! I was googling around and guessed that it was a horned nerite snail too! But I had my doubts because my snail doesn't have horn.. It's just a round smooth surface. Is it normal?

Anyway. Since I found it in my tank in the afternoon it's has been busily crawling around ever since. The color is really eye catching and it somehow matches with my German Rams..

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**Urban Aquaria** · 8th Dec 2014, 02:57

Originally Posted by georgelam

Haha thanks UA for the information! I was googling around and guessed that it was a horned nerite snail too! But I had my doubts because my snail doesn't have horn.. It's just a round smooth surface. Is it normal?

Anyway. Since I found it in my tank in the afternoon it's has been busily crawling around ever since. The color is really eye catching and it somehow matches with my German Rams..

Its possible as these snails may have had their horns or spikes naturally broken off or eroded away, it's just a static defense mechanism and isn't really an issue if they are missing.

For my horned nerite snails, i actually use a nail clipper to snip off their horns (or at least trim them shorter)... the practice came about because i encountered an odd incident when one of them crawled out of the tank and i almost stepped on it (they are tidal snails in nature so they do sometimes crawl out of the tank to explore for short periods of time, most of the time they know how to crawl back into the tank, but in some rare cases they continue crawling out in the wrong direction and end up drying out on the floor).

I also discovered that shorter horns allow them to crawl into narrower spaces amongst the plants and hardscape to access more algae easily, so it improves their efficiency too.

**Ingen** · 8th Dec 2014, 11:01

It's the only snail I would want in my tank haha. The rest are can have a population explosion if not careful with feeding.

**georgelam** · 8th Dec 2014, 12:13

Cool. Now I feel like getting more snails to clean up the gsa on my tank walls. But I think ill see how this snail fares first.

Ingen I know what you mean. I also have the common snail in my tank. And they are impossible to get rid of. But since they are rather small and don't really affect my tank I just leave them be.

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