[Bees]

So, I set up a little pond/water garden in a little doggie pool I got for cheap. It's now got duckweed, water hyacinth, water lettuce, elodea, and a little bit of java moss in it (the elodea and java moss are just enjoying some room to grow wild). It once also contained some plants that didn't make it. Nearly every plant came from a different source (plant store, pet store, friend's pond, other pet store...) so the snails could've come from anywhere. However, I think I've identified them as Cloaked Physa and Big-ear Radix (E-Fauna BC Page). They love laying their eggs on the water hyacinth, so I may have found the culprit. Here are some (low-quality) phone pictures of the little dudes floating around (and pooping up, and laying eggs all over) my spare tank.

I love snails, and I'd love to keep them all, but I don't want snail eggs all over my plants or snail poop all over the bottom of my water garden, and I'd really like to clear out the spare tank I've slowly been trying to transfer them to. Big-ear Radix snails are supposedly exotic (according to the E-Flora link), and I've seen a few eating the little egg-sacs, so it's not like I can release them into the wild. And I CERTAINLY don't want any making their way into an inhabited tank, or eggs coming in on plants.

So I guess my questions are the following:
1. Can anyone confirm or dispute my snail identification based on the information I've provided?
2. Does either snail have any value in being kept by pond-keepers or fish-keepers?
3. Where can I put all these snails without killing them? I can't even bring myself to scrape off the eggs. I'm so in over my head.

EDIT: They're not Big-ear Radix. I think they're some kind of Stagnicola. Identification help is my priority.

 

[TomC]

You might try getting some weather loaches to eat the outdoor snails. I believe April has some.

 

[Bees]

You might try getting some weather loaches to eat the outdoor snails. I believe April has some.

I don't think I have room to keep more than one adult loach, and I couldn't stand to watch the little snails get eaten. But giving them away to people with loaches might be an idea, thanks!

 

[TomC]

I don't think I have room to keep more than one adult loach, and I couldn't stand to watch the little snails get eaten. But giving them away to people with loaches might be an idea, thanks!

People with puffers are always looking for snails, too. The trouble with snails is that they breed so fast there is no way to prevent overpopulating the tank without either having a predator, or some way to weed out and dispose of the snails.

 

[Bees]

I've identified them as Marsh Pondsnails and Cloaked Physa, so now I know they're native and not endangered or anything, and I can start giving them away. Thanks for the help!