snail identification

[Nyx]

I have a few snails in my planted tank. I have the garden-variety ugly brown things that generally come on plants and manage to sneak by no matter how dilligent one is about picking off and rinsing. The next type is rather pretty. It's shell looks like a long twisted cone, kind of like an elongated chocolate soft-serve ice-cream. We don't see them on the plants very much and rarely see them until after the tank lights have been off for a couple of hours. Then, they climb the glass and head for the top. I'm sorry but I don't have any pics. Does anyone know what these might be?

[babblefish1960]

These are the venerable and ubiquitous Malaysian Trumpet Snails, my favourite for the planted tank, and a genuine boon to undercover substrate maintenance.  They are a live bearing snail, they do not eat plants, and they keep the substrate from fouling and compacting by converting all detritus to something more useful for the plants and bacteria.  Moreover, they are the canary of substrate health and barometer of general tank health. If they reproduce too quickly, you are feeding the fish too much, if they climb the glass during the morning, your substrate is in bad gas peril and needs vacuuming.

All around great little snail that is much maligned and wasted on puffers and loaches.

[Nyx]

Thank you, babble. I'm glad to hear that they are helpful snails as I haven't been removing any of them because I do find them so pretty. They are reproducing although the kuhlies keep the population managable. It is the other ones, the ugly brown things that seem to come in on every plant and that I keep finding eating my plants that I want to get rid of without harming the trumpet snails. I guess I'll just have to get hubby to remove those ones manually. And, I will get him to vacuum the substrate as well. How often should he be doing that? Obviously, it isn't getting done often enough...