Having spent a good deal of my career focused on fish, and the enforcement of the local, federal and international regulations related to those critters, I found out this morning that I bought a potential invasive species to hang out with my perky little cory cats.
I was mortified that I had unknowingly made this questionable purchase. [I was almost as upset as when I discovered that the cool see-through fresh water fish with the colorful streaks near their dorsal fins had actually been injected with some sort of gel. Those poor little guys did not survive very long, because they developed infections based on being tortured......]
There were a couple of snails to choose from. Some big chunky ones whose name I could not remember, and a smaller onw with a nice yellowish shell, whose common name was "Trapdoor Snail". I googled the common name this morning, and found that the actual lineage of the little fella is Bellamya chinensis, or the Chinese mystery snail.
One cool thing about it is that it has a behavior that can be an early indicator of bad water quality. If it senses unhealthy water conditions, it closes itself up so that no more water can get into its shell. This can help you save all your fish by giving you a heads up that something is wrong. It can also use this strategy to survive a short dry period in its environment (i.e., waiting things out until the rainy season brings it some more water).
The last snail accident we had was back in Massachusetts, when we first started setting up freshwater aquaria. We were putting plants in with our danios (in the friendly tank) and with the closet killer upside down catfish (who hid under the small decorative log chunk during the day, and came out and hunted down his smaller tank mates at night) in what was supposed to be the semi-aggressive tank. Apparently catfish do not adhere to research and advice that one finds at pet stores and on the internet, or we were not looking in the right places. [in fact, we spoke to a pet shop person recently who commented, "oh yeah, you always need to have two upside down catfish in one tank, so they will keep each other in check."
I was mortified that I had unknowingly made this questionable purchase. [I was almost as upset as when I discovered that the cool see-through fresh water fish with the colorful streaks near their dorsal fins had actually been injected with some sort of gel. Those poor little guys did not survive very long, because they developed infections based on being tortured......]
There were a couple of snails to choose from. Some big chunky ones whose name I could not remember, and a smaller onw with a nice yellowish shell, whose common name was "Trapdoor Snail". I googled the common name this morning, and found that the actual lineage of the little fella is Bellamya chinensis, or the Chinese mystery snail.
One cool thing about it is that it has a behavior that can be an early indicator of bad water quality. If it senses unhealthy water conditions, it closes itself up so that no more water can get into its shell. This can help you save all your fish by giving you a heads up that something is wrong. It can also use this strategy to survive a short dry period in its environment (i.e., waiting things out until the rainy season brings it some more water).
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| borrowed from B. Chinensis article on wikipedia.org |
But back to my guilty conscience over the harmless looking snail. When she reads the e-mail I sent early this morning, I know my friend Robyn will also inform me that this snail is illegal in Oregon, because they are clogging water intake pipes. AAAAGGGGHHHRRR!!!!
I may have to go out and kill some purple loosestrife to make myself feel better.....
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