# Giant Snails



## laxfanweeb (Mar 2, 2011)

Yesterday I went to a local pond where I used to catch fish and crayfish as a kid and was in for a serious surprise. Until this spring it had been close to 20 years since I was last there and I found something that I never saw as a kid leading me to believe that there have been some serious introductions to this pond of invasive species. I have two Calico Crayfish that I caught in this pond about a month ago and they love to eat snails so I figured I would go grab a handful of them. These are just tiny little pond snails and there are thousands of them. I found a rock that was covered in them and went to grab them when I noticed the rock was moving. I then noticed it was a snail and was totally shoked. I grabbed it with a net and sure enough pulled out a snail close in size to a lacrosse ball. I measured it at more than 2 and a half inches wide and 2 inches tall. I then found two more near by but no others. on the other side of a small dam I found a shallow pool filled with about ten of them including one that was too far for me to get but had to be about 5 inches wide. These were not there when i was a kid. In my research I have found that they are either trapdoor snail which are native to asia or they could maybe be North American banded mystery snails but those are rare here in connecticut. I have pictures in my gallery if anyone could take a look and give me some feed back if you have any ideas. Thanks


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Wow, those are huge. Probably introduced from someones tank. I would say trapdoor. A friend of mine used to raise them. He kept them in huge tubs, and lots of times would escape but he wasn't near any waterways.


----------



## GuppyNGoldfish (Mar 28, 2011)

I posted a Giant Snail in my gallery


----------

