pinkfloydpuffer

Haha, yeah... while most people are trying to get rid of all these snails that come out of nowhere, I bring home like 40 pond snails and can't get them to stay alive and breed...
As you probably know... I need them for my puffers. My local petsmart has decided to put a goldfish in each of their tanks, so I can no longer get snails from them How rude of them, they know I like to go in there to get snails (Seriously, they do. I think all of them know me as "that young puffer lady")
I put a whole bunch of common pond snails, as well as some MTS in my 10 and 5 gal betta tanks to breed. And guess what? I have hardly any snails now. Today I resorted to feeding my puffers a crushed MTS cause I couldn't find any suitable pond snails. This is just riddiculous.
So, what can I do? I try to overfeed, but it's hard when you've got bettas in your tanks, plus cories in one of them... Not much food gets left over, lol. Is there anything else I can do to get them breeding?

My theory is that the snails know what's coming to them, so they say, 'hey, I'm not gonna breed for you, you're just gonna feed our babies to the puffs.' Little stinks

Sophism

Hmm mabye get a tank setup just to breed snails? They might be more apt to breed when they are not constantly being hunted

Emory

Isn't there a member who is oober crazy about snails and breeds them? Their avatar is a snail in a hand. Maybe they would have some good advice for you.

I love my snails. Would it be legal to send you a small portion of water with eggs in it? My snails give me eggs all the time.

Maybe people could send you all of their eggs and you could hatch them out and grow them up for feeding.

It takes a village to raise a child and a forum to breed snails for PinkFloydPuffer.

angelfish220

My betta eats snails, maybe yours do too...

I would set up a tank specifically for snails.

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, that's Rainman... I'm sure he'll find this eventually

I dont' see why that would be illegal...

And LOL

pinkfloydpuffer

I've seen them try to nip at them, but never succeeded... but maybe they are.

Hm... I used to have them in a fishbowl, but that was a huge pain to clean. So that's why I put them in the betta tanks... Maybe a little 1gal kit or something?

angelfish220

Do you have a not-in-use quarintine tank or something you could use?

I think that you should stare at them like you want to kill them... That always makes mine breed like crazy!

pinkfloydpuffer

I have an aquarium tote (about 3-4 gals) that I use for quarantine... problem with that one is that the snails always get themselves sucked into the filter intake. And I'm not sure where to set it up...

Sophism

Cover the intake with something like panty hose. Or something similiar. Should solve it.

pinkfloydpuffer

Ok, I'll try that. Maybe I'll have to move my printer so I can set up this tank

And for feeding... peas, algae wafers, shrimp pellets, lettuce, cucumber, zucchini... anything else?

angelfish220

...old coffee grinds, the socks from under the bed, dryer lint....

They'll eat anything!

pinkfloydpuffer

So that's where all of my brother's dirty socks are ending up!

pinkfloydpuffer

Oh, I forgot. One more question:
Does it need a lid, or will they behave and stay in the tank?

angelfish220

I've never had pond snails climb out of the tank, but I have had a few suicidal ramhorns.

sirdarksol

The secret to breeding pond snails is to not want them to be there.
They feed upon ill wishes toward their personages.

pinkfloydpuffer

Isn't wanting to feed them to vicious puffers enough ill wishes?

sirdarksol

Are your snails growing?
No?
Then there's your answer.

pinkfloydpuffer

Those little buggers! If violent death by puffer doesn't let them feel enough hatred, then I certainly don't know what to do!

Emory

I thought of something! Don't feed the largest snails to the puffers. Leave them alone so they will mature to breed. Feed the smaller ones for a little while until you have way too many larger ones.

I wonder what their age of sexual maturity is. It is probably very young/small. If you knew of a shell width or length or something to go by it would help.

pinkfloydpuffer

Yeah, I have no idea about that...

Problem is that right now I can only see one pond snail of any size in my tanks...

dr.fluffanutter

XD Hilarious and true!

Well, almost.
I picked up some of the little buggers when I was vacuuming my 5 gal hex a while back, and in a fit of belevolence, decided to save the pests (who I'd grudgingly accepted as a permanent fixture in the hex after they spontaneously appeared with some water sprite a year back).
So they got fished out of the old water and tossed into a spare vase I had hanging around with some established gravel, random bamboo pieces, and a java moss ball. There were 4 or 5 of the little things, and I remember briefly enertaining the thought, "Hmm, it might be kind of neat if they breed..."

Back to now, I currently have 5 or 10 groups of snail eggs fixed firmly on the java moss ball, and God knows how many tiny TINY little snails around and about. So perhaps the ones I saved are some anomalous strain of pond snail that thrive on brief thoughts of benevolence and reproduction and general indifference.

The only care they received was 50% water changes every two or three days, bits of plaster vacation blocks, and just recently a peeled pea or two.

ps: Just in case you're right sirdarksol, don't let them know but having them on my desk all this time has seen me grow a bit fond of the little stinkers. Entertaining little pests.

rainman

Over feeding always works, but I would recommend it if you were using a tank ONLY for breeding, and had nothing else in it. Natural light helps also; pond snails love natural algae more than most foods.

sirdarksol

Serious answer from me: Make sure you've dechlorinated, don't overfeed too much (ammonia will kill them), and give it time. It's taken a month or more for a horde to appear when I added plants to my aquarium.

Butterfly

Hahahaha sounds like me and green water. I still can't grow green water. Now back to the snails.I don't think you would even have to filter their water, just do a 50% water change a couple of times a week. drop a piece of zuchinni in for a couple of days, that should get them started.
Carol

pinkfloydpuffer

Ugh... now my parents are saying there are no circumstances in which they'd let me set up another tank. So a snail-only tank is out.
Maybe I could divide a section of my tank just for the snails? At least some of them could survive being eaten then.

rainman

Of course you would have to change the water more frequently; this fact comes with overfeeding to produce an overly healthy population

pinkfloydpuffer

Hm...
Would cories eat snails or their eggs?

Butterfly

they might eat a few of their eggs but not the snails
Carol

Fish Addict

I would maybe just put them in a bowl with 1 or 2 plants in direct sunlight, and see how they do... Just make sure to do frequent wc's...

pinkfloydpuffer

Hm... maybe if I can get ahold of a big bowl... my 1/2 gallon one was way too much of a pain to change the water... I think the eggs got washed out every time.