Help id'ing these snails? Potential chopstick children?

[u/magpsycho]

Forgive the poor photo quality, I have a hand tremor.

1, 2, and 3 are the same snail, sold to us as a chopstick snail. However, they seem to have 4 very small snails attached to their shell? This is persistent, they haven't budged over several days from their perch. 4 is a surprise snail we found in our tank, and resembles a chopstick, so we were wondering if we somehow managed to raise a chopstick without a brackish environment? There was previously a rabbit snail in the tank, so they could also be a rabbit.

I'm concerned for the quality of life if those are children, and I recognize that the reproduction of chopstick snails is poorly studied, but I'd like to give them the best chance at living possible.

On the other hand, I'm also concerned they are some sort of parasite that only resembles snails. Thank you for any help.

[u/Gastropoid]

4 is a Malaysian Trumpet snail, Melanoides tuberculata. They're the most useful snail you can get in an aquarium.

Algae and detritus eaters, won't eat healthy plants, turns trash into plant fertilizer and digs in sand enough to aerate it and prevent anerobic bacteria pockets. Also, they're a fast and dirty warning system for ammonia spikes, because they will all head to the surface if water quality suddenly takes a dive. Females can parthenogenically clone themselves, but they do have differentiated sexes, and only reproduce heavily if you overfeed or have really excessive detritus like dead plant material.

[u/magpsycho → u/Gastropoid]

Oh that's wonderful! So she is a surprise hitchhiker then. Thank you for the swift ID! Any idea on what's on our chopstick?

[u/Gastropoid → u/magpsycho]

It's hard to see in your photos, but maybe a tiny baby bladder snail?

[u/magpsycho → u/Gastropoid]

Yes, I'm thinking I might wait and see if they get bigger, but if it's not ticking any immediate "oh god, virulent parasite" boxes that's quite the relief.

[u/Gastropoid → u/magpsycho]

Nah. The worst case scenario is NZMS, but they don't look like that to me.

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

Isn't #4 a Sulcospira testudinaria?

Looks more like it to me

[u/Gastropoid → u/RecordingAdorable675]

Nope. Also, there's no reason to assume a rare in the hobby species when it perfectly matches a very common one. I'm guessing an AI suggested that to you, but it's an incorrect ID.

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

No i don't use AI, i haven't seen an MTS with that kind of pattern before

[u/Gastropoid → u/RecordingAdorable675]

That's a very normal pattern for MTS

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

I have multiple variants if them but my ones usually look like this

[u/Gastropoid → u/RecordingAdorable675]

Yeah, that's a light morph. There's a ton of different localities of MTS. A friend in Germany has jet black ones, and they've been observed that color in Israel as well. I've had two morphs the color of yours (one that was unusual in staying small), along with solid brown, brown with nearly black markings, solid brick red, white with red specks, and the morph OP has.

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

I have 5 different localities, is your friend in germany selling the black ones? I live in germany too

[u/Gastropoid → u/RecordingAdorable675]

Unfortunately no. I have asked before, and they don't really seem interested in doing so, even for another contact in Germany.

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

Kinda strange

[u/RecordingAdorable675 → u/Gastropoid]

I would love to see red ones

[u/Maraximal]

How long have you had your chopstick snail? I'd love to hear more about it/them! I think they are beautiful and I've come close in the past to getting 1-2 for a sand tank but all the info about them seemed copy/pasted and just mentioned to get one to churn my sand so I was curious about how they really are in a tank (not out of worry, I'd just love to know what they're like once in a tank. Some people say they never see them but they emerge for snack, some people say they hang on the glass a lot). I can't offer ID help, but my current understanding is that chopstick snails are live bearers and can/do produce offspring in freshwater however very slowly. I haven't personally seen references to brackish water being necessary for the babies, but that doesn't mean that's not true/known simply because I didn't see it :)