Snails and shrimps.

[Tigerlilly]

Hey, so at the minute I have cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails happily living together..
I'd say about 20 shrimp, 3 adult snails and about 50 baby snails around 2mm.

Now my problem is... the snails arnt cheap to buy and I only have around 3 left breeding.. so my puffer has none to eat because the babies are just way too small.
It's been about 2 months now, and they're still tiny.. it's not even worth breeding them because they're too small and he needs adult sized ones so isn't getting any snails.

I'm thinking of getting rid of these & buying a few big apple snails, then the babies will be bigger and it'll take less time for them to develop into a good food size.

Just a few questions :

1) would the cherry shrimp be ok with apple snails ?
2) would I have to change anything ? I heard apple snails lay eggs out of water, and the waters near the top right now.. would I have to lower it ?
3) is it easy to breed them just like ramshorn snails ?
4) do they grow fast / how big are they when they're hatched?

Thanks.

[SammyDee]

I feed mine shrimp pellets and they grow pretty quickly to puffer sized food. It may take a month or so. But after that you should have tons. I bought about 100 snails for 10c each at lfs. Sometimes there are bigs ones you cant see buried. I turn my light of before feeding time for about an hour before feeding and 100s come out. These are new babys too. Good sized. Maybe cuz I'm using a 20 gal just for them n shrimp. I keep the temp btw 80/82 for breeding and to grow algae. But after months now there zero algae. Just wait it out and buy some more and leave them for a few weeks. Feed snailS to puffers less often to encourage population growth.

[pufferpuggirl]

I would have to disagree with Sammy , but my experience with Apple snails is that they are very slow to grow and they certainly do not breed as quickly as ramshorn. For one thing, you need both a male and a female Apple snail in order for them to breed, whereas ramshorn only need themselves. And yes, Apple snails do lay their clutches of eggs out of water, so you need to have a lid that will allow the snail to come up and out of the water to deposit the eggs. They will do it just above water's edge, but mine seemed to like putting them up on the underside of the lid. I also believe that they grow very slowly from being hatched. And they are VERY small when they first come out. I've recently bought some Apple snails, with the same thoughts as you Tiger because I've got my Mbu, Fahaka and my Ceylon puffers that are all rather large, and thought the Apple snails would be good for them to eat. I have about 8 Apple snails, and while they are definitely growing, I've not seen any egg-laying yet, and even once they do, I won't have snails at a size that will be right for my larger puffers for a couple months at least.
My advice would be to buy off eBay for a while, as you can get some decent sized ramshorn for a little bit of money, and if you need snails, that's the best option I can think of.

[diverchic]

Hi,

I had an odd experience with Apple snails. My ex and I got two but one decided it wasn't for this world a couple of months after we got it. Then the lone snail left went egg laying crazy, at one point there were around 6 or 7 clutches of eggs on the underside of the hood. The eggs took quite a while to hatch but then there were LOADS of little snails. It was almost a case of them suddenly appearing all at once. Most likely they hatched as the egg clutches did disappear but as I didn't see any baby snails I figured the guppies got them. Then, a while later the babies must have grown enough for me to notice them and when they were around 2mm they all suddenly starting hanging out on the glass on the front of the tank which is why they were so noticeable.

As the ex got custody of the fish, I'm not sure what the snail is doing now but that's how it was for about 5 months.

I've currently got 5 apple snails in one tank and 4 of them seem to be harrassing the 5th one, climbing all over it, etc, but there have been a few egg clutches laid, now just to wait for them to hatch.

Unfortunately, the small snails that have 'appeared' in my tank don't really seem to hold any appeal to my DP's, nor do the cherry shrimp I've put in the tank. They all appear to be getting along swimmingly with no-one being dinner as I'd planned

Good luck with your shrimp and snails though!

[Tigerlilly]

Thanks I guess i'll probably just buy more & wait for these to grow, it's just taking so long and my puffer loves snails, at the minute he's stuck eating shelled prawns.
I expected big snails to have big babies I guess xD

[LilGreenPuffer]

Apple snails eat other snails' eggs, so, not a great mix.

[Tigerlilly]

I was going to remove the other snails first and just have 1 type of snail, but they'd have to live with shrimps because I can't have another tank.

[pufferpuggirl]

There's no reason your snails can't live with shrimp, I have cherry shrimp and I've got ramshorn in with them.

[Tigerlilly]

Me too but I just wasnt sure how apple snails and shrimp would be.. with the apple snails being so much bigger.
I don't think I'll get any now anyway might just leave it how it is

[SammyDee]

I don't understand what your disagreeing about. I breed ramshorn, pond, and some trumpet. I have in the range of 500 plus snails in only a few months. I started with around 100 snails. All types mentioned. Just wait it out and you'll have tons. I have zero problems getting them big enough. I don't need and thing special in the water either to make them get bigger. I was feeding nori but I figured hey like the pellets. So no biggie. Now that's all I feed and like I said I have probably 500 plus 7mm snails in a 20 with live plants. No fancy light or anything. Plants are growing aswell as snails. Took about two months to get a real good population going.

[pufferpuggirl]

I was only disagreeing that Apple snails do not grow as quickly, or breed as rampantly as ramshorn. That's all (no disrespect intended). Seems you're having very good luck getting yours going, which I am envious for.

[SammyDee]

I'm not breeding apple. Only rammys, common pond and some trumpet which Im trying to get rid of. Most are gone thou. Rammys and common are going crazy. I gave my puffers a half a hand ful last night. They went mental. Lol

[SammyDee]

You might wanna leave the light off longer than on. The snails seem more secure and come out to play. When the light goes on it's like bombs away and they start fallin to the bottom. Haha

[pufferpuggirl]

How long do you leave your light on then? I have been keeping my snail's tank light on just as long as my regular tanks, which is on at 10am and off at 8pm. Do you think I should give them less light then? Do you think they breed more when lights are out (giving them that amorous feeling, eh?)

[Brandon8521]

I am getting a 10 gallon tank tomorrow which my plan is to make a snail and shrimp breeding tank (if i can fight the urge to get 2 DPs for it lol). So not trying to steal the thread what would be a better substrate for this application sand or gravel?