Ramshorn are breeding well

[Ajepalmer]

That clutch hatched today!! Well at least part of it did.

Glad to hear! Just checked on mine before coming on TPF. There are babies everywhere! Plants/gravel/glass/on other snails. I need to find people that want snails nearby haha. Maybe bring some back to LFS to keep population in line.

[xrayjeeper83]

You can always toss some in the mail and send em my way

[briguy44]

Can anybody tell my how long it takes their ramshorns or pond snails to reach a good size to feed to a two inch puffer?

[JoseDepacos]

Oh really, I thought snails liked to eat the vegitation? Well, well then

I'm thinking that my snail breeder is going to simply be about a 10gal rubbermaid tub close to the main tank (behind it, below it) so that the aerator's hose can reach.

This is a very common misunderstanding. Snails dont eat live, healthy plants. Only rotting and dead plant matter and will help remove dead animal matter as well.

Thats neet JP they require a male and female right?

Yes they do. It's one of the few snail species where the snails are either male or female. So you need both to breed them.

Snails like apple snails/ mystery snails do have male and female. Apparently its tough to get a look but males have a sheath under one side of the shell. While snails such as ramshorns and common pond snails are asexual, they still require more than one snail to mate even though a sex is not defined.

[J-P]

While snails such as ramshorns and common pond snails are asexual, they still require more than one snail to mate even though a sex is not defined.

Are you 100% sure? I had a solo pond snail in a tank and it reproduced. I could be mistaken but I was certain I only tossed in 1 and it produced eggs.

[xrayjeeper83]

J-P Im right there with ya. I got some drift wood and some of it had java moss/fern on it. I only saw 1 pondsnail for a week or so and now there are probebly 30, enough for 3 tanks lol

[Lil' Swimz$]

They fertilize internally. Must've been pregnant before you got it.

[J-P]

wow ... then that is jail bait this was a tiny little one. The 1/2 the size of a match head.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Interesting...

http://www.weichtiere.at/Mollusks/Schne ... nzung.html

It ALSO seems that some species like MTS are parthenogenetic, which means they can fertilize themselves. Interesting. I learned something new!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

[JoseDepacos]

They fertilize internally. Must've been pregnant before you got it.

Heres a quote from one of the articles I read - "Ramshorn snails are hermaphrodites, which means they carry both male and female sex cells in which to create offspring. They do however, need another snail to exchange these cells with to mate efficiently and successfully. When you purchase a ramshorn snail from a pet store though, or get one from a private party, even if you get only one snail and take it home to a tank with no snails in it, the snail may lay eggs without a mate. This is because of auto-fertilization and the probability that the snail has been in contact with many other snails already is very high".
This article aslo states that they ARE capable of auto-fertilization. It is unlikely and depletes the gene pool very quickly.
I have also read that some snails are capable of reproduction in as little as a couple weeks. Jailbait it is J-P.

[J-P]

I agree ... but depleting the gene pool for a feeder is not all that important.
I was worried about it at first also, but they are food anyway. As long as they are nutritious and disease free, it does not really matter if they are the Quasimodo of inverts

[JoseDepacos]

I agree, food is food. And thats not the case with your ramshorn tank anyway. You have plenty of snails for mating. As far as depleting the gene pool, I guess they dont live very long if they hatch at all.

[J-P]

Yes sterility would be a problem.

That is if you were lopping off the parent generation each time. If not, it should be fine. Until the expire. Just adding a single snail to the pool will work also.