Huge WC Mystery Snails

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TroyMIfishkeeper

TroyMIfishkeeper

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2015
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Troy, Michigan USA
Went out and caught some wild mystery snails in a nearby pond... And yes, I'm in Michigan lol. The city I'm in has a lot of man-made ponds connected to a naturally formed river. Sadly most of them are very polluted, and filled with invasive species like these, along with koi and goldfish (and many others I'm sure). Too many kids letting their pets go in their neighborhood ponds. The ones that can survive the winters eventually start breeding, but thankfully most of them coexist with the native species quite fine (exe koi and carp or red-eared sliders and painted turtles).
Anyways, these mystery snails get full size when they're in these big ponds, so I collected some for my turtle tanks lol (needed snails that were big enough to not get eaten). They seem to be digging my setups so far.image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
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Nice find, it is nice to have a few snails playing clean up in a tank. Even though people should never pet release, its kind of cool being able to catch something most people have to pay for.
 
Great catch! I'd be weary about putting wild caught creatures in my personal tank. Never know what kind of parasite you could unintentionally introduce to your aquarium.
 
I live in MI as well, I just grabbed some of the same snails from around Flint. They to a pretty decent size, I want to find for Banded Mystery Snails that are invasive to MI as well. They look pretty much the same just smaller and have darker brown bands following the spiral of the shell.

Cool find by the way! :)
 
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Are you guys sure these are mystery snails ? True mystery snails (apple snails) have a breathing siphon, that they use to take in air at the water's surface. Does your snail have a breathing siphon ? If it does not, it is not a mystery snail.
Here is what the mystery snail siphon looks like.
 
Th
The Dave said:
Are you guys sure these are mystery snails ? True mystery snails (apple snails) have a breathing siphon, that they use to take in air at the water's surface. Does your snail have a breathing siphon ? If it does not, it is not a mystery snail.
Here is what the mystery snail siphon looks like.
Click to expand...
I believe they did... The siphon just wasn't always visible.
I don't have them anymore, some of them I knew had died because I found them hanging open, but others just closed up inside their shells and never came out for over 2 weeks, so I assumed they were dead as well.
However, I do have a freshwater clam who I collected later from the same place, and he is thriving :D
I have been on the lookout for more wild snails lately and happened to find a lake that's a bit of a ways away from me that has lots of smaller snails that look similar to light-colored ramshorns... Someday I hope to make the trip back there to collect some.
 
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A great test is the sniff test, dead snails and clams smell horrible. Snails can remain it their shell floating for long periods of time. As far as your clam goes, they are filter feeders, so try to make sure there is a slight current in the tank. And or stir things up once in a while to make sure they are getting food. They eat suspended debris / food. good luck with everything.
 
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The Dave said:
A great test is the sniff test, dead snails and clams smell horrible. Snails can remain it their shell floating for long periods of time. As far as your clam goes, they are filter feeders, so try to make sure there is a slight current in the tank. And or stir things up once in a while to make sure they are getting food. They eat suspended debris / food. good luck with everything.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice! It's so hard to find info on clams lol.
And I will have to start using that sniff test, I'm glad I tossed them back in the lake I found them in in case they were still alive because they very well could have been lol
 
Never had much luck with freshwater mussels, they would live4 to7 months then die, maybe not enough zooplankton?
 
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