bladder shrimp cycle?

[Jadenlea]

I have a tank that I set up just as a holding tank for plants.   I noticed a couple weeks after I added the plants that there were a couple teeny weeny bladder snails but I just left them. I didnt want to bother digging them out. 

Its been a while now.  Last night I noticed the bladder snails are huge..   

 

I wonder if they could have cycled the tank?    I havn't pulled out the test kit yet but what do you think?

 

And what they heck are they eating?   It has probably been 2 months and I have not dropped one bit of food in there. 

[OMG Aquatics]

I have a tank that I set up just as a holding tank for plants.   I noticed a couple weeks after I added the plants that there were a couple teeny weeny bladder snails but I just left them. I didnt want to bother digging them out. 

Its been a while now.  Last night I noticed the bladder snails are huge..   

 

I wonder if they could have cycled the tank?    I havn't pulled out the test kit yet but what do you think?

 

And what they heck are they eating?   It has probably been 2 months and I have not dropped one bit of food in there. 

If you didn't drop any food in, your bacteria colony is probably weak since barely any waste would be produced.

 

They eat lots of stuff not seen to the naked human eye

[Steve R.]

Bladder snails are decent algae eaters. They also eat some detritus from decaying plants. Their feces gets eaten by bacteria, which in turn are a good food source for shrimps. I think that they are good for the bacterial diversity and are helpful for a healthy tank. In my opinion, they should help with the cycling of the tank.

I always put some snails in my tanks when I start new tanks.

[sarah]

I know this is controversial, but I am absolutely convinced that bladder snails are eating healthy parts of some of my plants (soft new anubias leaves, new leaves and roots of floaters).