Physa snail in an aquarium: benefit or harm

A common sight in many aquariums is the Physa snail. These microscopic critters frequently make sudden appearances while hanging out on decorations or plants. While some aquarium owners view them as beneficial cleaners, others consider them to be pests.

It is well known that Physa snails reproduce quickly and with great tenacity. They are a difficult species to control because they can live in a variety of water conditions. But do they actually help your aquarium, or are they just a problem?

We’ll discuss the function of Physa snails in your tank and the benefits and drawbacks of keeping them in this article. Understanding their effects is crucial, whether you’re thinking about purposefully increasing their population or trying to control an unintentional one.

Physa snail – description and characteristic features

There are two varieties of Physa aquarium snails: bubble and pointed. Small members of the animal kingdom, these have an ovoid shell that is twisted to the left.

1. Physa fontinalis is distinguished by a brown or yellow-brown shell twisted by 3-4 turns. In nature, this mollusk reaches 10 – 15 mm, and in an aquarium even less: 8-9 mm.
2. Physa acuta is a larger specimen, up to 17 mm in size with a pointed shell twisted by 5 turns. These are beautiful creatures with dark grey, speckled body showing through pink or brick coloured shell.

These humble members of the gastropod class are these. They consume "fish table scraps," decomposing plant remnants, and aquarium wall plaque.

Crucial! The Physid genus of snails is hermaphrodite. They can have children without the assistance of another person. They lay eggs quickly and reproduce.

Certain fish species consider snails to be delicious and enjoy consuming them. Physid family members, however, proliferate swiftly and are never transferred.

This is fascinating! Pulmonary mollusks known as physids require oxygen for respiration. Every now and then, they crawl to the surface to collect some of the air beneath the shell.

Sticky threads allow mollusks to move; similar to spiders, they attach these threads to plant or aquarium points. Snails can travel across this underwater web as a kind of bridge.

In aquariums, Physa snails can be both a boon and a bane. Eating algae and leftover food, they keep tanks clean, but their quick reproduction can quickly cause overpopulation, which could upset the ecosystem in the tank.

Pros and cons of keeping in aquariums

In an aquarium, the Physid snail has advantages as well as disadvantages.

• The benefit of these mollusks is that they are cleaners of the territory in the aquarium. By destroying the remains of fish food and plants, freeing the glass surface from slippery, green plaque, they clean the environment. Physids look picturesque behind the glass of an aquarium;
• the harm is that in addition to garbage, these representatives of the class of gastropods are not averse to feasting on aquatic plants. They cause a lot of harm to the eggs that the fish have thrown up. Moving throughout the entire space of the aquarium and on the fish eggs, physids cover everything around with mucus. As a result, the surface of the eggs laid by the fish is destroyed, and the offspring die.

It’s fascinating to watch snails in aquariums; they make amazing displays.

Take note! It is impossible to say with certainty whether the physa snail is beneficial or harmful. These creatures have a right to exist provided the aquarium is well-maintained and the population is kept under control.

When physa reproduces actively, it has the power to upset the aquarium’s entire microclimate. To prevent an imbalance in the aquatic environment, the number of mollusks must be managed.

Necessary upkeep requirements

In the wild, physa is prevalent in warm reservoirs found in northern Africa, Asia, and Europe. inhabits lakes and ponds with stagnant water as well as slow-moving rivers. Selects areas with enough vegetation to provide food and clean water. stays above 1.5 meters below the surface.

These gastropods are inconspicuous, but they need certain conditions to survive.

Water parameters and temperature

If you want to keep more than one specimen, then you will need a tank that can hold up to ten liters. For one specimen, you will need a container that can hold about one liter. Keep the water’s characteristics in line with those of the reservoirs in their natural habitat:

• make sure that the water temperature does not fall below 20 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the life processes of the snails will slow down and they will hibernate;
• control the acidity of the aquatic environment. These representatives of mollusks prefer a neutral or slightly alkaline environment, do not reduce the indicators below 6.5 pH. Use baking soda to increase the acid-base level;
• keep water hardness at a medium level of 8 to 12 hD;
• carbonate hardness should be at least 4 hD.

Crucial! The aquarium water used to maintain phys should be hard and have an adequate concentration of calcium carbonate. Because of their decreased hardness, the shells are more likely to break.

These gastropod representatives have easy-to-maintain requirements. The most important factor is that there is an adequate amount of vegetation and aquarium occupant waste.

Compatibility with other aquarium inhabitants

It’s crucial that various representatives of an aquarium get along when housing phys snails and other inhabitants.

• phys can be kept together with other plant snails;
• they should not be bred together with predatory mollusks and fish;
• Aggressive fish from the exotic cichlid family pose a threat to adult specimens;
• young snails and eggs are loved by the catfish – ancistrus.

You can control the equilibrium by settling species separately or in combination based on how well-suited they are to each other as representatives of the aquatic ecosystem.

Feeding

These mollusks don’t bother eating anything fancy; instead, they tidy up any leftovers from previous aquarium occupants. Add this to the menu, though, if you wish to feed them:

• finely chopped greens and vegetables;
• chalk crushed into powder or crushed eggshells – they contain calcium, to strengthen the shell of the mollusks.

Crucial! Finely chop all food additives. Physically, snails are tiny animals.

They can be fed cuttlefish, crushed meat and bone meal, and daphnia.

Breeding of mollusk

With aquarium snails, reproduction happens year-round.

These animals’ numbers are increasing quickly.

You will have to take these creatures out of the aquarium yourself if you don’t have any predatory fish that enjoy crunching on snails.

Sexual differences

Physa is a hermaphrodite organism, meaning that a single specimen possesses both male and female sex organs.

These organisms do not differ in terms of sexuality.

Caviar and offspring

1. One pair of gastropods is enough to produce offspring. Adult snails are fertile and regularly lay eggs.
2. They lay eggs in the form of a bunch of grapes.
3. One transparent sac – a clutch contains 20-25 eggs.
4. Physa will lay the next clutch in a couple of days.
5. The development of embryos lasts 2 weeks, after which baby snails appear in the aquarium.

They feed on bacterial film initially, then scrounge food scraps from the aquarium floor.

In your aquarium, physa snails can present both opportunities and difficulties. By consuming algae and decomposing plant matter, they contribute to the tank’s cleanliness, which is beneficial to many aquarium owners.

However, they may become an annoyance if their population grows out of control. Because they proliferate quickly, an abundance of snails may cause an imbalance in your aquarium by competing with fish for food and space.

How you handle their numbers will ultimately determine whether you view them as beneficial or detrimental. You can keep an aquarium environment that is balanced and healthy by periodically removing items and conducting routine monitoring.

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