The tadpole snail, sometimes known as bladder snail, is a small native pond snail. It grows to a maximum of 2 cm but usual size is closer to 1 cm. They are excellent scavengers and will eat detritus, fish waste, dead plants, dead fish, leftover fish food, dead fish, algae and blankett weed. The tadpole snail is very common and found in almost every freshwater enviroment in the UK and is also widely kept in aquariums. It makes an excellent food source for snail eating fish like puffers and is also good for terrapins and turtles. As it is a native species it can survive UK winters but can also be kept in coldwater and tropical aquariums. It makes a good cleaner, and contrary to popular belief in the aquarium hobby-world, snails rarely eat live plants...only the brown parts, or graze algae from the surface of the leaves! Snails make up an essential part of a pond or aquarium ecosystem and would make an excellent addition to a wildlife pond.
Tadpole snail (Physa acuta)
The tadpole snail is very hardy and can survive a wide range of conditions. They wont need any additional food especially if being kept in an outdoor pond, but if you want to put extra food in for them they can be fed algae wafers, bloodworm pellets, shrimp pellets or fishfood. They are hermaphrodites and are easy to breed. They lay clumps of see-through jelly containing between 4 and 40 eggs at a time on glass,rocks and the underside of leaves.
