Snail Guru Advice Needed; Making a Mystery Snail Tank

Hey there, been a lurker over the summer and finally joined. Just got into the hobby a few months ago and its pretty much dominated my spare time. I'm interested in starting a dedicated mystery snail tank to breed them in, fortunately I have various LFS around my area willing to take up some stock if it comes to it. (I've visited a few and asked them a bit ago as I've also just started raising up guppy fry.)

Here's what I have stocked so far:

- 20 gallon High
- Fluval 207 Cannister Filter (for up to 45 gallons, I figure maybe its better to overkill with filtering given snails have lots of babies)
- crushed coral substrate (calcium for better shells)
- a couple seiryu rocks from my other tank

My questions are:

- Do both snails have to be the same colour to breed? (Like golden + golden, blue + blue, etc.) Or could I toss in multiple colours?
- Would it be safe to keep ramshorn snails together with them as well?
- How do you supplement calcium to give them nicer shells / keep them super happy and healthy?
- Any plants you'd recommend that'd grow alright in crushed coral? ( Not a huge fan of the crushed coral look, any other substrates you'd recommend that's ideal for snails?)

In terms of culling, I have a young blue crayfish in another tank; she'd benefit from the calcium from their shells, and snailsteak. She'd be quite spoiled. :- )

Thanks much.

 

Before adding plants, be 100% sure you got mysteries and not apple snails... I got apples, they were sold as mysteries, and they eat entire plants in a single night lol

Second, veggies high in calcium like spinach, peas, broccolI are good, also supplements of algae wafers. You could offer cuttlebone too (sold for birds in petstores)

Ramshorns would be just fine with them too.

And different colours can be mixed

 

I'm looking to set up a separate tank for snails too. Is the coral the best substrate or is there something else I could use? I'm will be setting up a 54 l tank and looking at the coral it is a bit over my budget

 

I actually started my ramshorn snail colony (feeders for a puffer) about two weeks ago. I have about 30 in I'd say about 7 gallons of water. It's a hodge podge of substrate. I have some eco- complete in one corner, some river stones beside it and then it's bare bottom about half way over.

I have a lot of egg shells, and cuttlebone in there. I will say that I like the barebottom best because I can see and get to the debris they leave behind so much easier with a baster. So I'd pick substrate that is easier to clean, because there is ALOT of poo.

Oh and I stuck a stalk of lucky bamboo in with them, wanted to see what they would do. They like the roots but I didnt notice them eating it, just all over it.

I have egg sacs everywhere, so I am waiting for a population explosion to happen soon lol. So you may want to consider how fast they populate along with your mysteries.

Now I want mysteries, thanks LOL

 

I actually started my ramshorn snail colony (feeders for a puffer) about two weeks ago. I have about 30 in I'd say about 7 gallons of water. It's a hodge podge of substrate. I have some eco- complete in one corner, some river stones beside it and then it's bare bottom about half way over.

I have a lot of egg shells, and cuttlebone in there. I will say that I like the barebottom best because I can see and get to the debris they leave behind so much easier with a baster. So I'd pick substrate that is easier to clean, because there is ALOT of poo.

Oh and I stuck a stalk of lucky bamboo in with them, wanted to see what they would do. They like the roots but I didnt notice them eating it, just all over it.

I have egg sacs everywhere, so I am waiting for a population explosion to happen soon lol. So you may want to consider how fast they populate along with your mysteries.

Now I want mysteries, thanks LOL

Ohh, I was close to getting a puffer! I was on the lookout for a figure 8 / spotted one for awhile, but then I settled for something else because I was impatient. My LFS has a fahaka puffer, its been a couple months or so. I visit it every time I swing by, and they're slowly getting bigger each time. I'd love to take them home in a heartbeat, unfortunately I don't have the proper sized tank for it when they're an adult. (I have a small one bedroom place with 10+ aquariums jammed in here, haha)

The hodgepodge route sounds fantastic, honestly. I hadn't considered that. I've been on a roll reading up on aquaponics lately as well, lucky bamboo was my first choice to consider since its easier to get. I wanted to give herbs a try but they're out of season till spring. One of the other LFS owners had plants in their HOB filters, I was blown away because she didn't have any media in there, and the tank had a ton of goldfish. They looked super healthy and active. (it was additionally a heavily planted tank.)

Thanks for the two cents.

And yesss! Yes to the mystery snails, you won't regret. They're so fun to watch. One of us one of us one of us. >

I'm looking to set up a separate tank for snails too. Is the coral the best substrate or is there something else I could use? I'm will be setting up a 54 l tank and looking at the coral it is a bit over my budget

Yeah! Someone else mentioned trying bare bottom, I think that's a good route. My other consideration was just going with generic gravel and adding cuttlebone for the calcium fix.

Before adding plants, be 100% sure you got mysteries and not apple snails... I got apples, they were sold as mysteries, and they eat entire plants in a single night lol

Second, veggies high in calcium like spinach, peas, broccolI are good, also supplements of algae wafers. You could offer cuttlebone too (sold for birds in petstores)

Ramshorns would be just fine with them too.

And different colours can be mixed

Oh noooo hahaha, I'm so sorry. Was there any distinct physical difference you noticed? I have a couple couple golden mystery snails with red eyes, then I got some more from another store and they look identical but have black little beady eyes. It was under the mystery snail label but they mentioned they could eat plants, so I wasn't entirely clear since the mysteries I had so far didn't really touch the plants. x'D

And thanks for the food ideas and the rest of the two cents, I might just throw all those into a blender and see if they like the concoction. :- )

 

Apple snail (Ampullariidae) genera and species.

This was a good guide for me to ID them.

It's a downside to not have plants in the aquarium I have mine in, I adore plants, BUT I love these snails anyways, theyre pretty awesome. Not shy, I can hold them or put my hand into the tank and they will crawl onto my hand and nibble on me. Super active.





You don't have to blend the food up, offer whole pieces. Just either steam it so it sinks or use something to hold it in place... add in at night and remove in morning.

 

What type of snail is that lovely gold one?

 

Apple snail (Ampullariidae) genera and species.

This was a good guide for me to ID them.

It's a downside to not have plants in the aquarium I have mine in, I adore plants, BUT I love these snails anyways, theyre pretty awesome. Not shy, I can hold them or put my hand into the tank and they will crawl onto my hand and nibble on me. Super active.
View attachment 636419
View attachment 636420

You don't have to blend the food up, offer whole pieces. Just either steam it so it sinks or use something to hold it in place... add in at night and remove in morning.
View attachment 636421

Ohh, thanks much for that link. As soon as I saw it, dove in to get my little guys. I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks or not, but they all for the most part look like diffusa, then one possibly canaliculata. Which completely throws me off because I've never seen these guys eat plants before -- or maybe I was overfeeding my fish enough that they didn't bother. I'm trying to scan the sight for what an actual mystery snail looks like, but I can't quite seem to find it just yet~

(Also, loves your beautiful snails)

Apple snail (Ampullariidae) genera and species.

This was a good guide for me to ID them.

It's a downside to not have plants in the aquarium I have mine in, I adore plants, BUT I love these snails anyways, theyre pretty awesome. Not shy, I can hold them or put my hand into the tank and they will crawl onto my hand and nibble on me. Super active.
View attachment 636419
View attachment 636420

You don't have to blend the food up, offer whole pieces. Just either steam it so it sinks or use something to hold it in place... add in at night and remove in morning.
View attachment 636421

Oh! I did some snooping around and found a comment that clears out the difference in apple species. Maybe this is accurate considering "mystery snail" doesn't seem to be specifically defined;

How to differ an Apple with a Mystery snail? Which one eats plants? - Snails 115851

 

What type of snail is that lovely gold one?

She was sold as a gold mystery snail, but she is a gold canaliculata apple snail.

Ohh, thanks much for that link. As soon as I saw it, dove in to get my little guys. I don't know if my eyes are playing tricks or not, but they all for the most part look like diffusa, then one possibly canaliculata. Which completely throws me off because I've never seen these guys eat plants before -- or maybe I was overfeeding my fish enough that they didn't bother. I'm trying to scan the sight for what an actual mystery snail looks like, but I can't quite seem to find it just yet~

(Also, loves your beautiful snails)

Oh! I did some snooping around and found a comment that clears out the difference in apple species. Maybe this is accurate considering "mystery snail" doesn't seem to be specifically defined;

How to differ an Apple with a Mystery snail? Which one eats plants? - Snails 115851

They are technically all in the same family. And mysteries tend to not eat the plants as long as theyre fed well.
Mine is fed algae wafers 3x a week, along with shrimp pellets 1x a week, and vegetables the rest of the week, plus whatever extra goodies from the fish flakes and pellets.
Little miss gold snail up there still eats an entire plant within a night lol

I think whichever snail you end up with will prove to be worth having.

If you do opt for plants, opt for ones with stiff leaves that can hold the weight of these guys. Swords are good and hardy which could handle some nibbling once in awhile possibly

 

She was sold as a gold mystery snail, but she is a gold canaliculata apple snail.




They are technically all in the same family. And mysteries tend to not eat the plants as long as theyre fed well.
Mine is fed algae wafers 3x a week, along with shrimp pellets 1x a week, and vegetables the rest of the week, plus whatever extra goodies from the fish flakes and pellets.
Little miss gold snail up there still eats an entire plant within a night lol

I think whichever snail you end up with will prove to be worth having.

If you do opt for plants, opt for ones with stiff leaves that can hold the weight of these guys. Swords are good and hardy which could handle some nibbling once in awhile possibly

She sounds like she has the appetite of a kaiju, I love her. I can see the benefits of having a planted tank, and feeding your trimmings and stuff to a tank dedicated to these beauties along with the diet you give her. :- )

Thanks again for the feedback, has definitely set me up on the best path to learning more about these little guys. <3