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Small (?) native (?) snail


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I got these snails more by accident than planning a couple of months ago when I went on a bit of a fish/ shrimp/ snail hunting trip to a creek on the way to The Narrows (north of Gladstone near Mt Larcom), apparently they where hidden in either the sandy and rocky creek bed or in the weed beds. I only discovered them after putting the Pacific Blue Eyes, Flyspecked Hardy Heads and shrimp into a holding tank to be sorted and inspected for disease or obvious parasites.

In the time I have had them they don't seem to have grown any huge amount and annoyingly being true to form of other natives that I have caught and show no real interest in any prepared foods.

I have no idea what snail they actually are, but they have a slight notopala look in their turban shaped shell.

I thought I might keep a photographic journal of the snails to see as they grow and if they suddenly become more identifiable. Because they are so small and potentially easily lost in whole tank for now they are in a floating baby tank with some subwassertang in one of my tanks that all the Pacific Blue Eyes seem happy enough in.

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Ignore the MTS underneath the snail in question

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So far I still haven't been able to get a decent photo of their underside/ mouth parts or antennae.

 

 

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If I include the nerites from Gladstone then I believe I have 4 species of native local snails. I have no idea if the little snails in the photos above will get bigger or if they are actually a small species of snail, I do know that there are quite a few species of tiny snails and its entirely possible that these little guys are not actually known about.

I was interested to see in the last photo the white and seemingly long antennae on the snail, which to my mind puts these snails out of the notopala family since all the notopalas that I have seen all had thicker stumpier antennae.

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I have snails that appear to be identical to these. No idea where I collected the originals from, could have been anywhere from Melbourne up to Brisbane. I know they are definetly in creeks of Brisbane as I saw some there last weekend, could possible be where the first ones came from.

I was wondering if they were 'micro snails' or just babies, still not 100% sure but I have had them for nearly a year and still haven't seen any bigger ones. A couple must have found there way into one of my African Cichlid tanks which is very alkaline, and the population has exploded.  

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Vadnappa do you have any photos of the "micro' snails that you have? Especially any underside shots? I have one of these little guys but sadly my camera is just not suitable for doing really detailed macro shots of small things like tiny snails or small shrimp.

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One thing that I find really odd/interesting of these guys is the eyes.

I would have expected these guys to have grown a bit in the time I have had them and was sort of wondering if they weren't seeming to grow because there was some element in their dietary needs that my tanks are not meeting. I guess time will tell if they are a micro snail or just babies of some species.

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Just took another picture of one of the little snails.

P1130948_zpsgczhaqix.jpg

And also this snail that apparently also came from the narrows, at a glance it looks like the standard MTS but its shell is black and much pointier and has sharper edges than the MTS that I have thriving in my tanks. It is how ever different to the huge black spiral shelled snails that I got out of the Fitzroy River at Rockhampton.

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I will try and get a photo for you. I also have some snails that at a glance resemble mts. They look similar to these pics but have small Spurs along the ridge of the spiral. And they have the long noses (?) like a mts. 

I also have a new type that's popped up, I was getting what looked like scale insects on the glass in one tank. I had been squishing them. I've left them alone and now I'm finding a snail that has a low dome like shell and white/translucent flesh, sort of like a pond snail in size and shape but lower and less of a spiral. (Just checked aquagreen, may be blonde snail, may need to remove from that tank before my plants are all gone)

And had a nice surprise today with my other native I have, might be essington snails, have been breeding. No idea how many babies but the ones I saw were a decent size. 

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I was playing around with my camera settings this morning and then edit options on the computer and got these photos of the small Narrows snails with turban shells.

I knew these guys had a little trapdoor but at least now I can see more clearly just how the trapdoor fits to the shell as well as the shell openings shape.

These little guys have really got me stumped on what exactly they are and even where to look for correct identification, aside from sending some off to the Queensland Museum and hoping somebody there can identify or confirm if they have been described previously.

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Opening up after being disturbed

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And Vadnappa, congratulations on the possible breeding of the Essington snails, I did have some at one point but alas they didn't like my tanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Early this morning I was able to get a side on shot of one of the little turban shelled snails from the creek near The Narrows. He was on top of the leaf but as soon as I turned on the tank light he hightailed it underneath the leaf.

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Its very different to the baby notopala snails I have seen in my tanks their shells tend to be white and flatter.

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Is there not a bit of risk adding snails from wild in with fish?

They tend to be infested with at least one trematode........  not trying to spook you mind!

Just something I have always been wary of.

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I did keep the snails separate for a few weeks prior to adding a couple to the tank, the tank also houses the Pacific Blue Eyes that I  got from the same creek, so I am guessing that any nasties the snails might have the Pacific Blue Eyes probably already have.

There probably is some risk with liver flukes, but I think they are generally a more southern issue. I am not really sure if you can really "treat" snails for any pests they maybe harbouring, not without doing some potentially long term damage to the snail.

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