Brimstonepdx

When I got home from sailing today I discovered that one of my egg sacks had hatched and now I have a bunch of little Mystery Snails chugging along the glass. Hooray! Do I need to do anything special for feeding? I usually just toss in extra shrimp pellets for the adults or algae wafers.

Coffeebean if you read this, how did your eggs work out I never saw another post about them and yours should have hatched well before mine.

Fish Addict

I'm not an expert, but I'd imagine that they'll just eat whatever your fish don't, so I wouldn't feed them anything, or if you do, not much.

SWilkins

Mine eat pretty much what the big ones do. I had three clutches hatch last week. They are just too cute. Applesnail.net I think is the website...they have loads of snail food recipes...I have one for snail jello ewww that sounds awful but it is for the snails the stuff that I made looked awful too but the snails like it.

coffeebean

well two of my egg clutches had hatched so far. i have two more left in the 55 gallon tank. i also just found one in my 20 gallon tank!!

i havent seen any of the babies in a few days, so im not sure how they are doing. they were chugging around the glass and in the substrate and now i cant see any. im hoping they didnt get all munched on. when the next batch hatches im going to try to move them into a different tank.

my snails feed on whatever the fish leave behind. i regularly give veggies

SWilkins

I do the veggies too and mine love them. I still see mine in there I don't think the other snails will eat them but I have been wrong before so don't hold me to that. This is the first time I have ever had mystery snails hatch and it is kinda fun!

Brimstonepdx

Coffeebean: Glad to hear I'll have to give the fresh veggies a go. They seem to have disappeared though. I am hoping they are chugging around in the sand or moss and didn't get eaten. They are so tiny and white its hard to tell unless they are on the glass

I've got a few more clutches that should be ready to hatch soon. I really should take the time to get my QT up and going to put them into, the filter media for it should be cycled by now. Its just been crazy busy with work.

And thanks for the link SWilkins, I'll be checking that site out

SWilkins

I just put some "snail jello" in for the snails and the babies. It was like a feeding frenzy here. You would never know that snails could move that fast...funny. I just made a fresh batch tonight and it is in a big freezer bag ready for all of the babies. I used the basic recipe and added a chunk of zucchini, a large handful of shrimp, some spirulina pellets, some catfish pellets, dried krill, and some of this and that fish food. You just cannot imagine the smell and it looked really bad too. I think the blender will have to go two cycles in the dishwasher this go round. I forgot to mention the calcium tablets I dissolved and put in there.

Brimstonepdx

I found a couple of recipes that I think I am going to try out this weekend. The pumpkin cookies and a couple of the jello recipes look pretty easy to make. I think the only thing I really need to purchase is some powdered or liquid calcium.

Good news too the snails from the first clutch have come out of hiding and have color to their shells. Purple seems to be the color of choice though I did spot a few goldies.

Butterfly

OHOHOHOHOH I want some! I love mystery snails. I only have one left, they lived a long time some of them over a year
You guys/gals are so lucky to have babies.
sherry can you grind up tums as a calcium supplement?
I can't find the recipes
Carol

summersquash

Maybe you could help me with a question, Brimstone. What does the eggs look like? I found a hard yellow sack of something on the inside of my tank lid today. I knocked it off and finished cleaning it. I think it may have been an egg sack. Do they lay in the water and is it soft or hard. This was not in water. I think the snail climbed up there and layed. I found her in the botom of my tank stand the other day and thought she was dead so I threw her in my quarantine tank just to see. She survived.

SWilkins

All you have to do is say the word and as soon as they are big enough I would love to be able to share some of my babies with you. I am still so in love with the babies I got from you it would be the least I could do. They should be big enough to go in a couple of weeks or so. I have light purple stripe with a light foot, and dark purple stripe with a dark foot and both have orange eyes. My blues and ivories are just not laying yet. My blues have a dark foot with orange eyes and the ivory have a light foot with orange eyes.

I have heard that Tums is not good to use because of the sugar. I have got to do some more reading to make sure on that but until that mine will just have to be happy with their jello. If you go to the discussion part of the applesnail website then go to snail care you will find a section on recipes. I have made it through the jello and the DAP plaster of paris stuff but I don't think I can handle making those cookies on there. They have to be dried in the oven for quite a while or in a dehydrater...the jello smelled bad enough.

Butterfly

THE WORD! THE WORD! All the colors are so pretty so it doesn't matter at all.
I'm so glad you are enjoying the baby angels
I hadn't thought of the sugar in tums, it would probably cause an algae bloom. I wonder if you can get pure calcium tabs at the pharmacy... hummmm
I have some crab bites that have calcium in them. they are real fine and settle to the bottom. The only problem is the fish like them also
carol

SWilkins

As soon as they are big enough...pea-sized is when I feel safe to pick them up I will send you a PM dear. Maybe I will get some blues and ivories soon too. I read on there if you "mix" blue and ivory you can get an olive color well and several other colors too. And yes I printed out the 10 page chart on what color combination gives you what colors of snails.

I used people calcium tablets just disolved a handful in water along with a handful of my multi-vitamins. The fish like the jello too.

See if you can get this url to work http://www.applesnail.net/forum3/vie...t=6645&start=0

Butterfly

I found it. You gave very good directions
I love that site and refer people to it all the time but just found the discussions. Some really interesting stuff there.
Here is a pic of my pair enjoying some cantaloupe They lived for almost a year and the yellow one is still going
Carol

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Brimstonepdx

Apple/Mystery Snail eggs are laid in little clutches (or bunches) moist and I think most are pinkish in color and the snails lay them just under the rim of the fish tank if you drop the water lvl 3 to 5 inches. I haven't seen them lay on the glass lid but I'm not an expert this is my first experience with them.

The egg clutches need to stay out of the water or the eggs will drown but they do need to stay moist from humidity. I was reading on one of the sites that if your egg clutch slides down into the water you can take a QT tank and put an inch or so of water in it and lay a screen just above the water put the eggs on the screen and flip on the light to keep them moist and incubated.

Another thing I learned when a couple of my clutches started drying out in week 3, after doing some reading I found that you can break them apart a bit to help them hatch before they die. This worked out really well for me.

If you go to http://www.applesnail.net/content/care.php and scroll to the bottom there are some pics of what the clutches look like. I hope that helps

SWilkins

Thank you I do try. Some very interesting stuff on there I love to just go and read. Pretty snails by the way!! Mine love zucchini and the catfish pellets from Kensfood. I give them the "jello" about twice a week for the extra calcium and to watch snails run hee hee. Of course the baby tank gets a cube everyday along with other stuff...gotta have healthy shells on these little babies and healthy babies. If i remember correctly (big if) I think their life span is 1-3 years depending on temp and water conditions. I will have to recheck that. And I will try to get a pic of the babies when they get a bit bigger. As it is right now I am still putting on Tommy's glasses to get a good look at them.

Brimstonepdx

Jello is cooling!

There where so many jello recipes on that site I picked the baby food one because it was the cheapest and I don't have a food processor lol. I wasn't sure which flavor to to get so I ended up getting Gerber Pea flavor. Added some Kent's Liquid Calcium, mashed up some shrimp pellets and tossed them in. Now most of those recipes called for 2 packages of gelatin but that sounded like way to much for the small sauce pot sized batch I was making (just filled one normal sized ice tray). So I only used one.

Hopefully in a few hours we will tell. After it sets I'll probably pop them out and cut them in halves then freeze.

Does anyone have experience adding liquid calcium to their jello? None of the recipes where very specific and the instructions I 1/4-1tsp for 50 gal. so I just used 1/4tsp for the entire batch. Can they get to much calcium?


PS. THE SMELL

SWilkins

Mine started with baby food notice I said started with. Then I just kept finding stuff to throw in. The first time I made it I forgot the knox needed to be heated (DUH ME) and I had to thaw and heat and put it back in to cool again. I really don't think they can get too much calcium I will have to go back and read some more to double check though.


LOLOLOLOLOL I told you about the smell!!! That is what made me change my mind on making snail cookies!

Brimstonepdx

Ok so apparently Logic did not win out here... 1 package of gelatin should more than work on the small batch I made following the logic that 1 box will make 8 8oz jars of jelly. But it didn't gel it just turned stayed a gloppy mess in the ice tray. I tossed it in the freezer now its nice hard little cubes of gloppiness. I am debating on if I should thaw and reboil adding the 2nd pack of gelatin. I think since today is tank cleaning day I'm going to cut off a chunk of frozen goop and see if it makes a huge mess in the tank before i reboil.

SWilkins

I got this from www.applesnail.net hope it helps.

How old do apple snails get?
The apple snail's life expectancy mainly depends on the temperature of their environment and the general life conditions. At lower temperatures, the apple snail can get over 3 years old and records of apple snails of ten years old have been reported. Lanistes nyassanus has an estimated life span of 5 to 10 years in Lake Malawi, Africa.
At a temperature of 25°C, they will only live 12-16 months. At higher temperatures, the snails are more active because their metabolism increases with the temperature, but this also speeds up their life cycle and thus shortens their life expectancy.
So you can elongate your snail's life by lowering the temperature. A general rule: keep the temperature between 18 and 28°C (65-82°F).
It is suspected that at least some apple snail species need an aestivation period in the mud to avoid burning-out.

SWilkins

Oh sorry that happened to you but that is about what I did when I forgot to cook it. I thawed and heated and added more knox just in case and I used 8 packets of knox and had a gallon ziplock full when I was done. The uncooked stuff did stay in one place and did not cloud the tank but it was hard to handle and did fall apart although it did stay in one place. IMO more knox is better than less and the gelatin is good for them too.

One more thing I found out the hard way is that a baking pan lined with foil for the jello then cut with a pizza cutter is easier than ice cube trays or it was for me anyway.

Brimstonepdx

Well good news is that after it thawed and I poked it with my finger (inside the tank) it was all jelly like. Maybe it just needed longer to sit than I thought it did. Ive got three adults munching on it and the Gourami are going nuts around it.

Bad news... I have an army of baby snails heading twords it and another thought popped in my head... How in the world am I going to be able to vacuum the sand tonight without sucking them up with the Python? lol

matt6765

you gravel vac. everyday?

SWilkins

I had to use the plain old syphon and bucket to clean with the babies in there. Then when all the crude settled I checked it for the little clearish babies. Apparently they hung onto the gravel really well because I only found a couple in the bucket when I was done.

Brimstonepdx

No just Every Sunday its the official clean the tank day. If i make a big deal out of doing it on Sundays I don't forget to do it.



SWilkins: Looks like I'll have to go pick one up.

Brimstonepdx

Neat I have learned that I really need to start reading things better. Apparently instead of gelatin I used Pectin in my snail jelly. It was in the Gelatin section in the same sized/shaped box and brain auto filled what it wanted to read.

In the ingredients list it lists Dextrose, Citric Acid (assists gel) and Fruit Pectin. I am not worried about the pectin since snails are plant eaters but will the Dextrose and Citric Acid do any harm?

Butterfly

If you do a good water change the dextrose(a type of sugar) and citric acid won't hurt but I wouldn't continue to use it. Citric acid is comparable to vinegar.
Carol

Brimstonepdx

Thank you Carol!