Unfortunately my Fiddler Crab died over the weekend at the grand old age of 2 1/2
What it means is that I have a 40l (approx 10(US)G) tank to use as a snail breeder for my figure 8's so I'd really like to know which of the species of snail will breed the quickest. The future tank will be unheated and I want to use native British plants.
I was just going to grab a couple of snails out of my pond to start off with but they seem to have all dissappeared over the summer along with all of the pondweed.
Has anyone had any experience with mixing snails and shrimps because I'd love to have a go at breeding some CRS if they can withstand the temperature?
Cherry shrimp and snails seem to be fine together, they will both breed alot in an unheated tank. My shrimp just clean the shells of the snails but haven't seen them eat any. What kind of native species plants are U thinking about using?
I had some pond snails hitchhike on some plants I bought and they were in a tank with a Beta and never really reproduced much. Now the ramshorns in my planted community tank exploded and I have hundreds now. For months I was having to take snails out twice a week to keep them from overtaking the tank. Since I have puffers now I have set up a snail only tank.
Either species will do. Pond snails are more productive,especially in a confined situation. Bur Ramshorns can be grown bigger more easily. F-8s do not need big Ramshorns, so either species should do the job.
IME & IMHO, it is best to have only one species per tank - one type of snail, or shrimp. Mixed cultures have never been very productive for me. Heating is not essential, but will give higher production rates and shorten development time to feeding size, as will regular feeding and maintenance. That boils down to my keeping snail or shrimp production tanks just like I do the display tanks.
Thanks everyone, good point on the sizes - I think that pond snails would be better in my sized tank.
My original thoughts were to do a single species snail only tank but shrimp are good looking creatures so we'll see if I can hold out.
What kind of native species plants are U thinking about using?
Some of the waterways around here are clogged with certain species of plant so the ecology of the area shouldn't go downhill if I collected one or two plantlets, it's probably technically illegal but I would only collect a few plants that are very abundant and would never collect from an area where they are few and far between. I don't know what species they are yet but once collected I'll try and identify them - I bet you any money they'll be invasive!
Despite what you see on the boards frequently of this species pushing out that one regularly, for me it is purely tank specific. With age, tanks do seem to favor one species of snail, but that type fluctuates with the particular tank more than the type of snail. I run my tanks long-term, and they do tend to favor one snail type long-term, but I cannot predict which it will be.
There must be enough differences in micro-ecologies that even in a circulating range not all tanks have the same relative snail populations.
when I purchased my snail breeder set up, I had to hand separate each and every snail into it's appropriate tank. Red ramshorns here.. blue.. there and ponds over there... assassins go to the corner.
The only snails I keep together are mystery snails and apple snails. Reason bing I simply can't tell who's who in that tank.
BTW.. ramshorns and apples can co-exist but it is a funny combo.
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...
I suggest keeping pond snails and shrimp together. There are also no problems introducing Malaysian Trumpet snails.
The pond snails work better for F8's and IME keeping shrimp with snails is mutually beneficial.
I have pond snails (left), MTS and Crystal Red shrimp together in one tank. Ramshorns, MTS, and Cherry shrimp in another and pond (right), MTS, and Crystal Black's
With time, I would bet that one species will predominate. If you want (or need at the level of "must have" as i did when I ran a lot of puffers, then you will be better off with one species per breeder.
Just as with so many folk saying that multiple puffers can be kept together without problems when they have experience only with immature fish, what works for months to a year or so is not what works over a decade or more.
Puffers are not short-term fish. At least if you do it right they are not, just as with Cichlids and catfish.
Why does anyone breed snails?
Pop to your LFs or Petsmart/Pets at home and ask them if they have any pest snails they can get for you. I can get 30-40 snails in one visit. They are usually only too happy to help.
If you get any Malaysian trumpet snails then they say that the beak may break as the shells on these snails are too hard.
Just go for the Pond and Ramshorn snails. Also I think MTS snails need heated water; that's my theory anyway as they seem to easily die outside the main tank.
I have a holding tank where they are kept for a few days to make sure they are ok and healthy.
I live in a fairly large city and I couldn't get snails to start a breeder tank. One store chain did have a few but they charged $.30 each for them and the most I could ever get was 15 because it was all they had...And they were tiny little snails too. I finally placed an add on Craigslist and found a girl that traded me 40 something huge ramshorns to start breeding.
There are many knowledgeable fish keepers on this forum willing to help and give great advice...The advice is free; What you choose to do with it gives it value.
