That's very informative and helpful. I'm going to be picking some snails up when the new tank's ready, then. ^_^
Thanks, Val!
You are welcome. You will have fun with snails when you get them. Remember if you have to be very careful if you have more than one in a tank. I know there is a way to sex them, but I haven't mastered yet. Apple snails will lay their eggs out of water if you have mixed sexes. So you will have to watch for egg clusters at the waters surface on the tank walls. If you find them, just wipe them off with a cloth and you will be fine. ( Well unless you want a whole bunch of them ). I have 2 tanks with 2 snails in and haven't found eggs yet, but I watch very closely.
Good luck, I hope you post when you get them and let me know how fun they are!!
Pardon my ingnorance, but I thought snails were a pest? When I was a kid my parents wouldn't let me have one, they said the snail would multiply even by itself. Ah man, don't tell me after all of these years my parents were just messing with me? I loved that video and thought it gave interest to the tank. Off to research snails now! LOL!
pond snails are considered a pest, but most snails are helpful, they clean and stir substrate and scavange the bottom for scrap food. Not to mention the cute factor
Just my opinion but my snail is the funnest thing to watch in my tank especially if you feed them snacks like lettuce, cucumbers or zucchini.
My previous snail (may he rest in peace) was hysterical! My favorite antic of his to watch was when he would drop himself on the bubbler on purpose only to get launched up to the top of the tank then he would slowly drop down to bottom. sadly his obsession with the filter did him in
Kayin
I would get more corydoras first - they are happiest and fun to watch when they are in groups of 3 or more (just my opinion - for what it's worth)
Just googled aquarium snails. The snail fertilizes it's own eggs. My parents didn't lie to me. Silly me.... but the one above is too cute anyway.
Most Snails are hermaphrodites being both sexes at the same time. Apple snails, on the other hand, are gonochoristic having seperate sexes. Therefore you have to have two apple snails of opposite sexes to get more apple snails. A great pet IMO. I wouldn't keep one with fish though. A lot of fish medicines will kill snails, sadly we think that's what killed our snail.
It makes me smile to know there are others interested in the snails!!!
I do have two apple snails in my fry tank, and about a month ago, I found a large mass of eggs stuck to the canopy of the tank. I pulled them off ( they were kind of dry stuck on with mucus). So now I check every day for eggs, and have found them twice more. I had to move a second snail into this tank had the outbreak ofyway mTS in the 55 and got the yoyo's. Carol said they would be picking away at the big snail, so I moved him.
It has crossed my mind that it would be cool to let the eggs hatch -- then I give my head a shake and go back to reality
Luckily I haven't had to medicate, but if I did, I would move the snail to the one of my betta tanks that doesn't have a snail right now.
Snails are cool but sometimes they are useless. Like my 2 snails in my SW Tank they just sat on the polystyrene backboard and then did nothing. A few weeks ago i found them dead on the bottom of my tank half buried in sand
Sometimes i can still see their little faces moving along the glass to me (-----------------------------------------me)
One of the reasons that people mistake apple snails for Hermaphrodites is because they have the ability to store sperm after mating and can self fertilize with this stored sperm. (So if you get a snail from your LFS and it came from a tank with other snails, or even from where it was bred and raised, it could have mated. So as you can see, if you were to bring one of these snails home, you might accidentally make a conclusion that the snail is hermaphroditic if it lays eggs in your tank when there was only one in the tank) There’s your fun fact for the week.
This is "Big Guy" an Apple Snail I got from a Canadian breeder in June. He was about the size of a nickel when I got him.
No wonder I am hooked on these guys. His friend in the race is "Slim" a freebie Albino Bristlenose that I got with an Aquabid auction when he was a tiny wink!!
Big Guy is just under golf ball size now - enjoy!
Val
my "gary" is about big as that right now.but not gulf ball size.
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You will have fun with snails when you get them. Remember if you have to be very careful if you have more than one in a tank. I know there is a way to sex them, but I haven't mastered yet. Apple snails will lay their eggs out of water if you have mixed sexes. So you will have to watch for egg clusters at the waters surface on the tank walls. If you find them, just wipe them off with a cloth and you will be fine. ( Well unless you want a whole bunch of them ). I have 2 tanks with 2 snails in and haven't found eggs yet, but I watch very closely.
-----------------------------------------me)
..I love your snail.
