snail breeding update -- SUCCESS !

[tranceFusion]

I have been wanting to look into doing a FW planted nano for a while.. is it possible to setup like a 10g planted tank with a couple small fish and do the snail breeding in there?

will conditions be right to breed enough snails? I don't really have a concept of how many snails a fig 8 will need to eat in a week.. Will the snail eggs make the tank look nasty?

Ok thanks!

[UberDave]

I can't see any reason why that wouldn't work. Snails are live-bearers. No eggs to worry about. I also keep ghost shrimp in my snail breeder (aka puffer kitchen). I feed one or two of each per week. The rest of the time they get frozen food.

[tranceFusion]

Will the snails eat the plants? What frozen should I be feeding the help keep their teeth down? Will krill help? I don't really have a concept of how big of an issue the overgrown teeth thing is.

[Nick]

Uh, most snails are NOT livebearers,and the ones that are, are not recommended for puffer use. Many fish will eat the snail eggs, slowing down population growth a lot. Also, most snails you will get will not have any interest in eating plants, even the large apple snails, which theoretically can, will never bother if softer food is available.

[By_a_coo]

Most of snail eat algae... I have some pond snails and some ramshorn... and well, I have to thank everybody here for helping me! A couple days ago I noticed a lot of babies in my breeding tank (and a lot of bags filled of eggs)!!! Thank YOU!!!

One more thing, please, try to keep the breeding tank with water quality highest as possible, 'coz snails will be our puffers' meal! Don't forget it!!!

[stormrider]

I have a 2.5 gallon under ground filter w/ bubbler snail tank set up. Gravel a light and 2 decorations inside. Going on week 3. I see what appears to be a lot of snail eggs. Gel looking little blobs on the tank walls. I even saw what looked like tiny white hatchlings...one appeared to have a shell (this one ended up floating at the top of the tank) the rest look like micro white spots that are moving very very slow on the tank walls.

In all breeding snails is going very slow. The LPS said feed them once weekly. On here I read feed them daily which I started doing the last week. I think I wasn't feeding them enough in the beginning.

[By_a_coo]

Yeah, overfeeding must be the right choice for them to breed pretty fast, that's what I do. I feed them twice a day, but I have to do WC once a week to keep water clean.

[Stormylee]

I actually got a ton of snails without trying. I use my dwarf frog's 10 gallon to hold snails when I find them unil they're ready to feed. I must have missed a few, cause I went down one morning and there were 20-30 crawling around! Now it's a supply tank.

[SpockthePuffer]

I breed my snails right in a betta tank with a betta in there. He doesn't seem to bother the snails or eggs. I think most of the snails lay the eggs on the rock decoration or on the gravel which the betta either doesn't see or doesn't care. I think if you keep the betta fed he won't resort to eating the snails or eggs. Its not difficult to get snails to breed but I think having the light on for a bit longer helps. Snails are gross though so doing water changes at least once a week is important. The left over gel stuff from the eggs is gross and seems to just sit around slowly disintegrating if you don't get it out of there.

When I first started up the tank I was all excited to see the eggs so I went out and bought a magnifying glass so I could look at the tiny snails scooting around on the walls. Its kind of interesting in a gross/boring kind of way! They aren't the fastest of movers

[Stormylee]

What do they look like to you? I've noticed a lot of spots on one piece of rock and was wondering if maybe it's something.

[tranceFusion]

I actually got a ton of snails without trying. I use my dwarf frog's 10 gallon to hold snails when I find them unil they're ready to feed. I must have missed a few, cause I went down one morning and there were 20-30 crawling around! Now it's a supply tank.

I was going to get a dwarf frog but was afraid he would eat up all the snail eggs. I guess not?

[tranceFusion]

what do you guys feed, just algae wafers?

[stormrider]

What do they look like to you? I've noticed a lot of spots on one piece of rock and was wondering if maybe it's something.

What I have is gel like blobs with tiny dots. The babies are so small you can hardly tell what they are. I'm new to this but I'm pretty sure the gel like blobs are the snail eggs. It is taking my snail egss about 2 weeks to hatch. Out of tons of eggs I have only found 2 very tiny baby snails for sure. I see very small dots that move so slow on the tank walls but I can't tell what they are yet.

what do you guys feed, just algae wafers?

I feed mine some of the less disgusting GSP food I have for example shrimp pellets and flakes and I read on here to throw in some lettuce once in a while. The snails are eating everything I put in there. I don't over feed because the tank will become dirty fast. I put in there what they can eat in a day except for the lettuce. I put a partial leaf in and take it out after 2 days if they have not ate it all.

[tranceFusion]

ok! I have my puffer pantry setup now I set it up like 5 days ago and it really seems like I went from 6 snails to about 20. I haven't seen any eggs yet, but there's definitely baby snails crawlin around. I don't know how the heck they grow so fast. I have had the light on except when I am sleeping and I have been putting algae wafers and crab cuisine pellets in there.

The tank is a Marineland Eclipse Corner 5 Gallon w/ an upgraded light ($3 fluorescent 13w from walmart), w/ driftwood, java moss, and red ludwigia. The black gravel is sitting on a layer of laterite.

I added two African Dwarf Frogs today. I hope they don't eat the eggs! I want to put something else in there too, but I am not sure what (A betta? cherry shrimp?)

[UberDave]

You could keep ghost shrimp in there. I keep them in mine until I feed them to my puffers.