Hi!

I'm new hear, and I'm worried because my snails have some creatures on them.
I have pond snails, and other small water snails. I've recently noticed a lot of small animals on their body (they didn't climb on their shells). They look like small worms, they are transparent, thin, and less than one cm long. As far as I can tell, all of my snails are alive.
What can I do? I'm afraid they will harm my snails...
Please help!

keszi
from Hungary

My snails had that...little wormy things playing peek a boo. :ph43r: As far as I could tell they didn't cause any harm. Do they have a extra little 'fingers'..could be hydra.

oh yeah, they do the same :D
Well, the snails don't seem to be bothered...I'm not sure about the extra fingers :unsure:
For some reason the worms didn't "attack" my apple snails.
What do you mean, your snails "had" that? Now they don't, or you don't have snails anymore?

Thanks for your help


keszi
from Hungary

When I tried to overwinter some hyacinths I had brought some pond snails into the aquarium, they've finally all died.

If you can get a photo of the worms on the snails, that would help.

In general, parasites will be attached to or inside their hosts and not free swimming or just "driving" over a snail (or any animal). The fact that you say they're only on the flesh of the snail and not the shell though makes me worry a little bit.

If the things are attached and waving, they can be hydra as SadieMay said. If they are driving around free, they are probably some sort of worm. Small white worms in aquaria are often planaria. They mostly eat leftover foods and won't harm snails. Like most animals, snails have their own set of parasites, most of them are internal such as intestinal worms which are long. I've not heard of ones that feed off them externally. If I had to guess, I would say these things are not parasites but I could be wrong.

If the snails seem fine, it's probably ok. Most chemicals you could use to kill worms, hydra, etc. would also kill or harm the snails so those are out.

Good luck!

Hi!

I wrote, that my wormies had gone... Well, after a few days one of my biggest pond snails died. I thought, he/she was too old. But since then, the others have died too. At first, I was sure, my apple snails had eaten them, so I tried to isolate them, but it didn't help.
Now there is only one big pond snail left. If they didn't like it here, why did they lay so many eggs? Because I have hundreds of them, and I also have a lot of small snails. What should I do with them? I mean if there is something in the water, I should get them out...but it's so hard to find them :(
The rest of my snails are all right, they don't seem to be sick.

keszi
from Hungary

I'm sorry you lost some of the big snails. Are they species native to Hungary? If the little snails seem okay, I wouldn't worry too much about them. The big ones may have been older, been attacked by some predator or parasite, or there could be something wrong with the water. If the other animals are okay, it is less likely to be a water problem.

Hi,

I have NEW small things in my aquarium.... They are 1 cm long, grey, and they have a lot of legs. They active during the night, and they move very quickly. It is almost impossible to catch one. As far as I can tell, the live at the bottom, but when it's dark, they climb up on my plants, and attack my snails. Ok, I know it sounds like a horror story,but this is what they do... I don't know, if they do any harm, but my apple snails are annoyed. They shut their doors, when one of these things climbs on them. None of my snails is sick or dead, so maybe I should not worry.
But these creatures breed very fast. Not too long ago, there were only 2 or 3 of them, but for example last night I counted more then 30!!!
I have a lot of baby snails, so if I simply clean out their home, a lot of them may not survive. The water is clean, and I didn't bring anything new in the aquarium for a long time now.

Do you have an idea, what they might be?


keszi
from Hungary

p.s: the "old" creatures have dissapeared. I haven't seen any, since my big pond snails have died.

Yikes! It does sound like a horror story. I don't have a clue what has a lot of legs and moves fast in an aquarium. Are they walking/running or swimming? If swimming, then for some reason scuds (a kind of shrimp) come to mind but they won't bother snails. They might be some kind of insect larvae. Are they actually "attacking" the snails or just climbing on them? Can you take digital photos of them?

Hi,

if I don't try to catch them :D they are walking on my plants, or on my snails. First I tried to grab them with my fingers, but I didn't have any chance. Then I tried a nippers (I think that's the name of it), but they are too fast. Every time I get near them, they simply jump and begin to swim down to the bottom. So I'm sure they can swim as well... I catched one, when it climbed on my snail. I simply got the snail out of the water,and the creature didn't jump off, it tried to hide in the snail's shell instead (!!!), but it was an applesnail, and it shut the door. :P
So I washed the little creep down from my snail...

I will try to do this again, and this time I will take a photo of it.
I don't know, what they're eating, they might be harmless, but I'm worried about their increasing number. They running all over, and my smaller snails are afraid. The wandering snails shake their shells, to get rid of them.

keszi,
from Hungary

I await those photos. You sure find with some interesting animals!

Hi,

I finally found out, how I can catch them. Unfortunately, there are too much of them, to get rid of all. I can remove them from the aquarium with my plants. When they are scared, they try to hide. So I can catch those, who hide between my plants.
These are the photos... As I told you before, they are 1cm long.
The other sad thing is, that I saw hundreds of little ones (2mm long) as well.





keszi
from Hungary

I think they're amphipods (scuds which are shrimp). They look a little different than the scuds I've seen in the US but they may be scuds. My section on scuds is at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/shrimp2.htm#scud

Does anyone else have ideas?

When I first saw the photos, I recognized them right away from having done stream survey identifications (of preserved animals) years ago but I couldn't remember their name from that so I'm still not 100% sure.

Hi,

thanks for your answer. If they are scuds, according to your link, they are harmless... I already feel sorry about the ones, I killed :(

I saw the photos on the link you sent, and they seem to be the same as my little creatures.
I don't know what to do...Maybe I should leave them alone. :unsure:

keszi

Keszi, I don't know anything about your bug friends but don't feel to bad about the ones you killed. I killed a few dragonflies when they were little fellows that were in my pond b/c I didn't know what they were! Now I know better. :)
The pictures that you took are really nice! I can see lots of detail. Good job!!

Yeah, don't feel bad for having killed some because it seems you have plenty. They are pretty harmless, so if you don't mind them, they can just be part of your aquarium.

Thanks guys!! I felt bad about them, but you are right...Anyway, I will keep an eye on them :P , but they seem to be friendly.

keszi
from Hungary

If you ever decide you don't like them anymore, or they got too overpopulated, you should buy a fish that will eat them all. Goldfish might eat them if the size is right, maybe a few bigger-mouthed catfish too. Cichlids definately will.

Hi guys!

I just cant believe what happened today... I still have some of "my little bug friends", but a few of them are not friendly any more :(
A few weeks ago, i have found a bug, which looked a bit different than the others, but still had a lot in common. It was thin, like the ones on the pics i sent, but it was 3cm long, and had a lot longer legs. I was a bit scared, because i thought this is what my bugs would become. :unsure: But i have seen only one in the aquarium, so i have almost forgotten it.
BUT today, when i was sitting in my room, an even bigger bug was simply running around on the ceiling. It looked very similar to the bugs in the water, so now i think THIS is what they will finally become. It had a lot of legs about 3-3,5cm long, and its body was almost 6cm!!! :blink: I wanted to take a photo of it, but my boyfriend removed it very quickly, so i didnt have the time.
Anyway i think it is high time i try to get rid of them.
It seemed to be unable to fly, but who knows? A few more weeks, and they will take over my room...

keszi
from Hungary

I went back and looked at your photo. The creatures in the aquarium are called Asellus, commonly referred to as waterlouse. They are crustaceans related to the terrestrial criiters called sowbugs or pill bugs. They are harmless. I suspect that what you saw on your ceiling was a small Scutigera, the house centipede. It looks as you describe--long, thin, with many long legs. They move very fast. They are in no way related to the Asellus in your aquarium. You can handle Asellus all you want, if you can catch them, but don't try to pick up Scutigera as they have fangs and can deliver a painful bite.

Don

Hi!

Thank you! You are right! I saw the pics of Scutigera and this is what i had..
As the little ones in the aquarium are harmless, i will let them live :D
At first i thought they might be something like mosquitos. In their first "state", they live in the water, and then they come out...

So thank you for the information, i was interested in, what i have seen, but as i told you, i didnt have the time, to take a photo of it. I didnt even dream about that somebody can tell me what it was, based on my not to good characterization :rolleyes:

keszi
from Hungary

Don beat me to it! He's just so smart. I was going to suggest it might be a centipede as well on your ceiling. I'm not familar with Hungarian species but here we have centipedes in the house all the time. They are huge, with long legs, and move super fast.