Snails

[ashley]

Hi Everyone,
I have been cycling my tank now for around 5 weeks and every thing is going fine, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates just registering.

When I brought my plants I had some hitchhikers in the form of tiny snails. There must have been a batch of eggs on the plants because after a week I had around 30 of the litte buggers crawling around my tank. I have killed most of them off as I have heard that they can take over and you can end up pulling your tank apart to get rid of them.

I can remeber when I was a kid having rams head snails but I cant remeber them multipling, so I went out last week and brought 6 of them.

I cant believe how well they are cleaning up the rocks, and wood. I have had a some green algie start to bloom on the surface of the interior bits and pieces.

Can someone tell me if these snails breed easy,
or do they need special conditions? :D

Ashley

[Ben]

Hi Ashley.

Those little snails are a nuisance in deed!
They are extremely prolific and will flourish in the worst of conditions. Not many fish will eat them but some of the "Botia" species will, such as the Pakistani loach.

Rams horn snails are a nice aquatic snail.
They do prefer cooler water around 24.c whilst
Discus water temperature might be too hot for them.
With most snails they like neutral PH and some added calcium in the water helps them to grow and breed better.

Apple snails/Mystery snails are another excellent snail for the aquarium and spawn in a rather interesting manner! They make a crusty type of calcium formation just above the water surface containing the snail eggs.

Cheers
Ben

[ashley]

Hi Ben

Thanks for your reply.

Do Apple, and Mystery snails dig into the substrate?
I dont want to put something in that will disturb the plant roots too much.

Ashley

[Ben]

They will be fine in your tank Ashley.
Mystery/apple snails can get quite big though.

cheers
Ben

[marg]

Ben,

Can you tell me more about the hatching of Mystery Snails?

I have 2 in my 3 foot tank and they have done what you have described - crusty type of formation above the water line - how long do they take to hatch?.

I wondered what that weird looking formation was - guessed it could be eggs so didn't destroy it, , but am pretty blank on the rest - just watching the formation daily.,

Regards,

Marg.

[vicky]

the Apple snails in my tank seem to eat the crusty formations near the surface..is this normal??

[Ben]

The apple snail family or Ampullariidae are common freshwater snails and are quite easy to bred if you have the right water conditions and a fertile male and female snail.

I worked when I was a youngster for an aquarium fish hatchery. We supplied a wholesaler with Mystery snails of various sizes.

The snails would simply mate and later the female snail (during the night) would go to the water surface to lay her eggs, which is done just above the water surface. The eggs are laid one by one but in close formation, within a few hours they harden.

It is best that the eggs are not removed but left just above the water surface. If they are covered in water the baby snails will drown. Depending on environmental conditions it will take 2-4 weeks for the eggs to hatch. The baby snails will go back into the water and start to look for food. Normal foods such as lettuce leaves, zucchini and pumpkin are excellent for baby and adult snails.

They are basically 2 types of aquatic snails, one, which have Arial eggs such as the mystery snail, and snails that produce aquatic eggs in the water such as ram’s horn snails.


Cheers
Ben

[marg]

Ben,

That's cool - so that means in a few weeks I will have some baby mystery snails!!

I'll have to leave them in my 3 foot tank, cos if I put them into the community tank the Clown Loach will have a field day.

Thanks for explaining that to me - I love this site - every time I log on I learn something - my kids reckon that I only keep the Computer for the Discus Site - they're not far wrong :lol: :lol: :lol: .,

Regards,

Marg.