Large Snail taken home from the Lake.

[colton]

In the past I have had small snails for up to a year and a few months more that I had adopted from the wilds of a local river, so I was under the impression I could handle another. I have no idea what type of snail it is but it's huge, I would compare its shell to a ducks egg or large chicken egg. While my aquarium is 10 gallons and houses just one goldfish I don't think the algae it generates is enough and I wonder what else I should offer it. FYI I live in Maine.

[Chu'Wuti]

It sounds really cool, Colton! Can you post a pic? Maybe we can get an identification on it, which will help us figure out what else to feed it.

Too bad I couldn't have sent you some of the excess algae that I cleaned out of my tank a couple of weeks ago!

[colton]

[jclee]

That's a trapdoor snail (Viviparus malleatus or V. japonicus). They're originally from Asia, and are used over here as pond snails for outdoor koi ponds. It doesn't take them long to wind up in local water bodies, as well, and they get much larger than the indigenous species, so they do quite well. I found you a basic caresheet: How trapdoor snails benefit ponds and aquariums with pictures . They do get quite massive, though. A pond near me has them, and I thought about keeping/raising them, but as you said, they'd need quite a few gallons per snail.

[colton]

Thanks! Informative.

[x5tr41ghtj4ck3t]

Opening up this dead thread:

I have two trapdoor snails in my 45 gal... I notice that they are inactive when they end up on their backs (I think the small turtles I have keep brushing by and knocking them over) and so I have to keep resetting them with their "doors" facing the ground.
Can they get off their back on their own? If so, how?