The Puffer Forum

Yea I kept it bare bottom, I put the aragonite in a small 250ml sour cream container and put a few small plants inside of that as well as someone at the store said baby rams love plants so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

I would up the temp a little but I don't have a heater in this tank, and it would be another $20 to get one unless I find one for free in my area so I'm going to leave the tank at room temp till I find a free one.

I added the aragonite about an hour ago so I'll test the water in another hour and let you all know what my readings are.

I also took all the cherry shrimps out(only 3 of them) so now the only thing in this tank are rams.

pH is 7.8 close to 8
KH is still 3 and GH is still 4

I'm going to leave it for the night, check it in the morning tomorrow and if it's still the same I'll add more aragonite in a socking and put it in the filter.

pH 8
KH 5°
GH 5°

Amo 0
ite 0
ate 0

Those GH/KH are probably fine, but this article has much higher.
library/feeding/basic-snail-breeding/

RTR where's your article this author speaks of?

I have not re-read Rocker's article so I do not know which are missing. A number of articles were pulled for updating plus at least one which had been modified without my permission or approval. That was long ago, some are still out-of-date, some are back on the Library but not in their old URLs. Search by the search window in the Library. If what you want is not there, re-post and we'll see what we can do about reposting them if they are still suitable.

Yea I just did a "Snail" search in the Library and the "basic-snail-breeding" was the only article that is listed about snail growing.

I'd make my own article but this thread proves that I actually don't have a clue when it comes to something so simple as snails. The problem is probably that I'm over thinking this small 10g tank or I'm missing something very important.

Thanks for the help and support RTR.

Snail breeding is simple when you work with common pond snails and common ramshorn snails. Other snails may be equally easy, or involve more hassle, or be les suited for puffer food.

At least moderately clean water, generous food but without big excess in food, not too cold or too hot, some current or aeration are all beneficial.

Too large numbers per tank can slow the system down, especially if larger sizes are needed. As with most tank functions, more space is almost always better.

At least moderately hard (GH) and alkaline (KH) water is a huge plus. Soft acid water from the tap generally is lousy for snail breeding and good shell development. That applies to a lot of crustaceans equally.

Mixing types of snails in a tank, or mixing snails and crustaceans is poor husbandry in my experience. Mixed breeding tanks generally end up over time one primary species dominating and the others being a waste of space.

HTH

RTR wrote:Too large numbers per tank can slow the system down, especially if larger sizes are needed.

That is common fishing practice. If the fish are too small, they should be culled in order to obtain larger fish (catch MORE fish). You keep the food distribution the same.

I learned that from Ray Scott. Once the competition for food gets whacky you need to cull. That goes for anything, fish, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts. Spacing is key; lots of small guys (stunting) or maximum growth.

BTW... I had to cull my ramshorn tank for my move... I had one guy / gal left that grew to the size of a quarter. Absolutely, massive and thick blue ramshorn.

Oh! The blue ones must be amazing! I only have the reddish brown ones. I have a lot that are about nickle sized at least. I really like those snails and their curly shape. Balki is definitely in no short supply! At first they didn't grow and died off due to this soft tap water RTR mentioned, but he helped me months ago with my undetectable KH.

blues are really cool, as are the reds. I had each in a separate set up. The browns went into the guppy tank, and pond snails were in the shrimp tank. The ponds never reached full size and were for the DP.

The others were for the SAPs and to see if I could actually do it.

The largest problem I had was pock-marked / frail shells from the water (well water). It fed the puffers nicely buy hardly show quality.

Tums tablets helped with that but I gave up because they were feeders anyway

That last ramshorn became crayfish food, and now all I have is a solitary apple snail.

If you want to breed snails, it is as simple water changes, good diet and culling as consistent with the size requirement. If you want smaller snails, cull less often.

Thanks for the input,

I'm wondering what you call "moderately hard (GH) and alkaline (KH) water" As is numbers, degrees or ppm.

And what do you mean by "Culling", as in not letting them get to big?

Tums tablets, interesting.

culling refers to taking the smaller / unwanted stock and killing it

Culled smallish nais can be crushed and fed to growing cichlids and many schooling fish as high-protein treats. When you have reared then and they are healthy and nutritious, you might as well tank advantage of the extra food.

The redish-brown Ramshorns can be color-selected for bright or deep reds. Every few years you may need to back-cross to the brownish ones to maintain reproductive vigor. That pretty much require several snail tanks to keep the strain healthy for decades. The really rich, dark reds for me are less vigorous than the brighter red ones. The bright one are more popular anyway.