My snails have snails...

[MHG]

So shortly after I started my tank my snails made a gazillion little babies...I have little red stripe snails all over my tank at night....I noticed today that about 75% of them look like they are wearing hats.... So I grab a magnifying glass and it looks like each one has a little pointy shell snail riding on its back.... I don't have a macro handy to get a pic but I was wondering if anyone has seen anything like this....

[hoooop54]

Yes, I have baby snails with very little shells on them as well. It's pretty cool.

[jdezek]

They might be tiny snails. I got tons of little white shells with redish stripes on them and they don't get very big and only come out at night

[MARINECRITTERS]

Yup baby snails, completely harmless, in fact beneficial in many ways.
Also means you are doing something right, whenever reproduction occurs it usually means the animals are thriving.

[MHG]

I think everyone is missing the point... On the shells of what I already know are baby snails the size of a pepper corn, is a smaller snail riding on its shell. But these are pointy pyramid snails....

[leveldrummer]

the small red striped snails are colonista snails, they are beneficial algae grazers, their numbers will increase until the use up their food source, then the population will crash and level out with what the tank can naturally sustain.

the small pointy snails are pests, they are pyramid snails, they attack and kill other snails and clams. if you have any clams, then they are very very bad, a wrasse will help keep them in check, but other wise you might have an issue on your hands

[dustinc]

Agreed about the pyramid snails. They are definitely something you want to steer clear of. As for the tiny trochus snails, I have them all over my tank and they are why I continue to buy these snails in every tank I own because of how often they reproduce.

[MHG]

Well that sucks because I have two clams.... I wonder where these things come from.... So a melanoris wrass I am guessing?

[leveldrummer]

Well that sucks because I have two clams.... I wonder where these things come from.... So a melanoris wrass I am guessing?

have you added any snails lately? or any clams? they can and will hitch hike in on either, it would be a good idea to closely examine the bottoms of your clams and under the mantles, if you can. there is likely a population of snails under them.

[MHG]

I examined them when I put them in. These were around before I added the clams... Perhaps these are rissoid snails...