# Can someone identify this for me, please?



## Spidergrrrl (Oct 11, 2006)

Hi all,

I have a 12 gallon Eclipse tank, doing well with a betta, some cories, a couple of ghost shrimp and some snails. Mostly pond snails with a few MTS. I noticed that I have two snails that look like pond snails on steroids! They're huge compared to my others.

Here is the snail, next to a "regular" sized snail:









A close up of the two snails:









And a close up of the large snail:









Is this just a larger variant of a regular pond snail? Just curious, since I haven't seen one this big before. I don't plan on getting rid of any of them, since they seem to be doing a good job of clearing up junk and algae.

Thanks.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

When I had rampant GDA my pond snails grew to that size. They had a royal feast eating algae and apparently it is good for them. Since then no monsters have shown up, and my Yoyo loaches eat them all anyway.


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## Spidergrrrl (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks, hoppycalif,

Didn't think there was that much algae in there, but apparently there's plenty to keep them happy.


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

yeah, there are lots of variants of the "pond snail", which are the Physa family. If you look closely, the ones that tend to stay smaller also have darker bodies, and their antenae are longer, and skinny. The larger ones have nearly clear/white bodies, and their antenae are wedge, or triangle shaped, and stay short.

They seem to be two different types that do not interbreed.
-Jane

here's a very simple guide to some snail characteristics:
Various freshwater snails


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## Xema (Mar 24, 2004)

Lymnaea truncatula can grow up so large...




























Can be golden or black shelled


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## rain- (Dec 16, 2005)

Lymnaea species aren't Physidae (which are also called pond snails, although I think that they should be called bladder snails to prevent confusion), they belong to family Lymnaeidae. Physids have narrow tentacles and are usually much smaller than Lymnaeidae snails, which usually tend to have lighter coloured body with bright whitish specs. Physids have sinistral shells, Lymnaeidae have dextral shells.

It's possible that the snails are the same species, but for some reason you just haven't had any adult sized ones before. I have common pond snail, _Lymnaea peregra_, in my tanks and the biggest one I've measured was 2,3 centimetres long (almost an inch).


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