Invader!

[aemaki09]

Yeah looks like a pond/bladder snail.
As long as you dont over-feed, you wont be over run with the snails though. They wont reproduce unless there is plenty of food available for them.
I've only ever seen like 4-5 in my 26 gallon that they happened to hitchhike into.
As long as your PH is above 7 and you provide some calcium supplement once in a while you should be okay.

AS for shrimp. I'd suggest getting ghost shrimp first just in case your betta eats them, that way you dont lose too much. I've got ghosties in 2 of my tanks and none have been eaten, they can get away pretty fast, but for the first few days the betta's do stalk them thinking about having a taste to see what they are.

[homegrown terror]

Originally Posted by Syriiven

They are hermaphrodites, the best thing you can do is watch for more. But re-homing him would be best to avoid the worst of it. I'm not sure about a snail's life cycle and just when they begin to reproduce, but best to try and nip it in the bud. I had a couple hi-jackers on my plants too.

The thing is if they die, it's a huge ammonia spike to your tank. So if you find them or not, it's a gamble. Keep an eye on ammonia levels and just watch for more. Can even try taking your plant and doing a thorough rinsing.

haha unless your fish like to munch on em. our sorority doesn't have a snail problem anymore since the girls decided snails are a tasty snack.

[Kwomais]

Alpha seems pretty mellow; he bumped the snail once or twice on the glass & then swam away and hid once it moved, haha! He was VERY interested when I reintroduced the snail to the bowl because I used his bloodworm spoon lol.

I keep a very close eye on my ammonia because he's in a bowl right now but I'm guessing the plant and my every-other-day 25% water changes are helping to keep it down as it's never reached higher than 0.01ppm.

How can I supplement calcium? Little pieces of cuttlefish? Or I have some real shells that I could boil; would adding one of those to the bowl for a day or so a week be enough?

[LadyVictorian]

If you have more than one put them in a separate little temporary tank and you can easily rehome them on here. Some people LOVE snails (slowly moving from a shrimp to a snail person myself. Snails seem to clean better and are more fun to watch.) Though i love me some mystery snails and assassin snails ramhorns and other varieties are starting to catch my eye as well.

I am actually wondering if you can crush up and boil egg shells as well. We feed eggshell to our chicken so we collect them over time xD. They are good on calcium. We feed them to our hen so she has good eggs when she lays with strong shells.

[Syriiven]

Pet Stores have cuttlebone for calcium supplements for snails, but I do believe seashells would dot he trick as well. Not entirely sure.

[LadyVictorian]

Originally Posted by Syriiven

Pet Stores have cuttlebone for calcium supplements for snails, but I do believe seashells would dot he trick as well. Not entirely sure.

Gah when i went to petsmart today to get my baby snail boy his goodies I couldn't find any of this T.T. Do they only sell it at fish specific stores or something?

[Syriiven]

Uhm~ not sure. It's a possibility. If they sell snails they should have cuttlebone...I think PetSmart has it....but I'm sure if worst comes to worst you can order some.

[Kwomais]

Thanks for all your help everybody! Fingers crossed that I just have one Boo (which is the name I decided on, because Boo was a surprise!), but if I end up with many, you can count on seeing them available for adoption on the forums!

[Syriiven]

=) Hope it's just the one too, they're kind of hard to get rid of if it's an infestation (which I highly doubt you have, lol!). Good luck!

[ravenwinds]

I would imagine Petsmart carries cuttlebone....sometimes you just have to check other areas:)
I would look in the bird food/treat section!