Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Trapdoor snail success!

About 2 months ago I put 6 trap door snail in 2 of my 110 gallon recirculating tanks. I raise bg fry in. I noticed they were doing a great job cleaning up the algea and fish food. Today when I drained them to move my bg to there larger tank I noticed 4 babys about the size of a marble. I know they give live birth but could not belive how big they were in 2 months. They do a great job of cleaning the FA in my tanks and are quite expensive to purchase. I wounder how many it would take to keep a 1 acre pond cleaned up of FA? Heck if I can get them to keep doing what there doing there's money in them there snails Anyone on here try to breed them? I read they don't carry north americas snail parasites, and since the from japan they tolerate cold water well. RES could get mighty big eating these guys.

I brought home a gallon ice cream bucket full of them from my lake house. hope they do ok in my pond. I do have snail eating koi, redfish and one sheepshead........ they could be just eating them for dinner though.

I live in Ohio and the pond has grass in it and it make it hard to fish . would like to get some grass eating carp. can you tell me the best one to get and where thank.

White Amur aka: grass carp are widely considered the best most if not all states require they are tripaloid "sterile" they do a good job on most stuff, but they eat there favorite stuff first.

From Bill Cody in a duplicate question in another thread. I deleted the duplicate questions in the other threads and I am combining them here so the answers aren't scattered all over the place.

cliff - what part of OH do you live in? Region or area will help determine where the better and closest places are to get the grass carp. Also you should know what species of weeds you have that are most abundant. Grass carp will not eat all weeds with the same zeal or effectiveness. Sometimes a pond needs 6/ac to 24/ac depending on weed species and abundance. Too many usually make the pond murky and denudes all weeds - often bad for numerous reasons. First place in OH to try is call your local county Soil & Water Cons district office and ask if they have annual fish sales. That is usually the simplest method.

Those snails do get huge... I was walking the bank of the Potomac River looking at all the dead snail shells washed up on the shore. Some had to be close to 4" long.

Would these snails be good to put in a pond to help feed fish?

Are those snails any good eating?

Not sure....this video talks about putting them in
ponds for cleaning purpose and that fish like to eat them.
The guy in the video says catfish love them.

Trapdoor Snails in ponds

Very cool video,Thanks Mark.

Ken....this guy sells them by the hundred with free shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-Live-Trapdoo...=item3cae7bf64f

It's good to know they can take hot and cold water.

I cleaned out the 110 gallon tanks a few days ago for winter that had the 6 trapdoors in it. I have 73 now. Most over one inch. They do a good job cleaning up the mess.

If anyone wants some, come to the Potomac River here in VA, MD and DC. There are hundreds of thousands of their shells everywhere along the banks and many more floating dead on the water surface in the summer. Look under the water and you will see thousands of live ones.

I ordered 100 of these for pond. I hope it works out. Have not heard any negative affects of them.

They are kind of expensive.

Jwwann:

You might want to research them a bit more. Missouri considers them an invasive species. I don't know what the penalty is for releasing them into an outdoor pond...

Here's a clip taken from the Mo. Gov website.....

Human connections: Mystery snails have been imported to our country by the aquarium industry as well as for Asian food markets. Some releases were probably from hobbyists, and others may have been deliberate in an effort to create a local food source. They can transmit diseases to humans and clog water intake pipes.
Ecosystem connections: Chinese mystery snails can serve as vectors for the transmission of parasites and diseases to our native aquatic species. They also compete with our native snails for food and space.

Don't turn me in. If one of these snail can travel half mile to nearest creek without being eat in' that would be crazy.

That would explain why the guy at fish store said he could not get them anymore. He wasn't happy about it. Said they are the best pond / aquarium snail.

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/chinese-mystery-snail
All I can find is they are invasive. No laws pertaining to them.

When your fish start having parasite issues of worms, grubs and black spots in your fish fillets then thank your snails and waterfowl. As a general rule, the more snails that a pond has the more parasites that will develop in the fish flesh. Fish hatcheries consider the large mystery snail (trapdoor) a nuisance which is an indication of their overall benefit for a recrational pond. What the pet shop guy didn't tell you was he ment ""they are the best pond / aquarium snail...."" for lily ponds, backyard ponds and aquariums not recreational ponds. Few aquarium shop employees are well versed on the ecosystem functioning and ecological balance of plants, animals, and water chemistry found in fresh water lakes and ponds.

Thanks Bill, but these snail are live bearing and only eat plant life.

Jwwann: If it is not too late I would cancel the order.

If I do decide on not adding to pond I have aquariums I can put them in.

BILL every fish in our Natural lake in WI has tons of these in the meat and skin. THe lake has loads of musscles and snails. are these parisites of some sort?

Jwwann...let me know how it goes. Mine went in several months ago. I have not seen any of them since I threw them in. Hopefully the catfish didn't eat them all. A couple of days ago the guy building our log cabins caught a nine pound catfish. This weekend when I'm down there I'll ask him if when he cleaned Mr Whiskers if he saw any snails in the belly or any evidence of the dreaded and feared parasites.


this company has some info about them, and this company also sells the less invasive, but hard to find papershell crayfish:

http://www.smithcreekfishfarm.com/p-114-giant-trapdoor-snails.aspx

Aren't mystery snails a different animal than trap-door snails?

I was wondering the same thing. Everything I read about them was good including this thread untill i posted. Now I'm half scared I'm going to mess up my pond with parasites. I don't really care to add worms and black spot to my fishes flesh. Their already ordered so I gotta do something with them. I have space in aquiriums to house 25 or 30. Guess I will feed the rest to stray cats around my house if I decide not to add to pond.

Mystery snails are a different name for Trap Door snails from what I read. Live bearing, plant eating doesn't matter, they are an intermediate host for parasites that spend part of their life cycle in fish. The only way to disrupt the life cycle is to remove one of the hosts. Take your pick from Fish, Snails or Waterfowl/Herons. What would be easiest to keep out of your pond? If you want to swim in your pond, the same hosts are in the Swimmers Itch life cycle.......

Bobby:

Yes, some of those parasites that you see are from snails, some are from bivalves. RES won't live in upper Wi. due to the cold winters. The only other fish that could control those parasites are Pumpkinseeds, which will survive colder water than RES.

Thanks Esshup and Bill, you all have yet again prevented me from making a major mistake. What about my Koi in aquarium right now growing out? If I put some trapdoors in the tank will it infect the koi which intern will infect all my fish when released in pond. I think I might be over thinking all this.

After a casual search, apparently there are several names including scientific names available for these snails. There are at least two strains one in China and one in Japan. USGS lists several scientific names for them that are taxonomic synomyms (different names for the same species). Evidently they can consume lots of attached algae per snail probably due to their relative size. The Indiana reports they eat phytoplankton and zooplankton. Attached algae (periphyton) is an important part of the food chain for producing fish biomass.
If you can believe Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mystery_snail
USGS Factsheet:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=1046
Some good information from Indiana DNR.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/files/CHINESE_MYSTERY_SNAIL.pdf

If the snails that are going in the aquarium were outside and exposed to bird feces, then it's a possibility. If you have snails in the pond now, then when the fish are moved out there, it's a possibility.

Read this

and this (more pictures and details)

Holly crap balls! Those dang herons feasting on my fish can crap snails into my pond too. Just one more reason to 3S those things.

You pay shipping and there yours. Not sure what it would cost to two day them.
Anybody know if its legal for a supplier to ship a species to state where they are considered invasive? Maybe I can follow bings advise and get this shipment aborted.

I just sent message to seller asking for refund because they are invasive in my state. Not sure how this will work out with it being eBay. I looked at status and it says not shipped yet.

The fact that you bought it on eBay works in your favor. The seller is likely responsible for knowing the legality of what he is selling. If they aren't responsive, and if you used a credit card you can have it removed from your bill. EBay also has a buyers protective policy that you can look into. Your seller will likely want to work with you because you can also give him a negative rating on eBay which sellers hate to get. One way or another you are in the drivers seat.

jwwann, here in Missouri, our conservation laws are "Restrictive", meaning if any species is not made specifically "legal" it is illegal!

The seller still has not contacted me or shipped snails. Missouri was not on his list of forbidden states on eBay page. Hopefully I hear something soon.

Called missouri department of conservation and they are indeed illegal. The seller then told me they are bred in missouri and are legal. I then called missouri department of conservations fisheries biologist. He said do not bring those things into this state. Then contacted seller again and got order canceled. He wanted phone numbers to the people I had talked to because he could get in lots of trouble shipping them here. I gave him the numbers. Thanks again everybody for not only stopping from making a huge mistake, but an illegal one. Wow!

Money officially refunded.

Cool! Glad that it worked out in your favor.