The Puffer Forum

I have 3 different types of snails in my snail tank. I started out with only pond snails but with the addition of a plant i got one ramshorn (picture 3) and some elongated conical shelled snails. the tank has lots of algae and i do weekly 50% water changes but not many snails eggs. could some of the snails be eating hte other species eggs?
the tank is a hex 7 so the filter isn't that powerful but does work. could oxygen supply in the water be a problem?
What are the snails in picture 2???

I have 10-20 of these. None of them get to adult size, my problem!!!

What are these???? Edible to puffers???

Not edible to puffers but cool snail.

Another shot of pond snails


Any help would be great!!! my puffers need their snails!!!

I know number one is pound snails
two is mts
Malaysian trumpet snails A.K.A Cone snials
the rest. idk

Looks like
1 pond snails (puffer food)
2 Mts snails (not good for puffer's teeth, can break their teeth unless they are a large puffer)
3 ramshorn (puffer food)
4 more pond snails (puffer food)

are the mts snails edible?
why are my snails not living until adulthood?

Sorry just edited my post so that should answer your questions. Also if I'm correct most snails will only live for one year. I'd have to research it again but I don't think they live very long. Oxygen don't have anything to do with it. Again if I'm right snails will come up to the top of the water line to get oxygen. I can't remember and I have to admit I don't know much about snails. I do know they need calicum rich water to keep their shells hard. If they start to get holes in their shell they will die. I never had problems keeping them in my tank. Maybe someone else with more "snail experience" will chime in.

drives2002bmw wrote:are the mts snails edible?
why are my snails not living until adulthood?

mts are edible but like said before they can break the beaks, if u crush them up i heard, u might be able to feed them,i wouldnt try

That's what I do. I have a few MTSs that I got from the LFS for free, and I crush the shell before feeding.

When I run out of ramshorn snails i feed my puffer trumpet snails, they eat them if you crush the shell a bit.

What's the ph? Snails need at least, say, 8, but higher is better. Their shells don't develop in acidic water.

Just tested it and it's above 8 like around 8.2-4. For food I feed them 1 pinch of flake food and a half a algae disk everyday or so. The algae disk spreads out to alot of food. I think

Ammonia doesn't ususally have too much of an effect on snails, but if it's really, really high, it could. What are your other parameters?

I recently got to test out trumpet snails myself, with Shakespeare and Jillybean. I wasn't worried they would get carried away and break their beaks, they go for 'pods on the live rock in their tank all the time, so I trust them to know how hard they can bite. Crushed the MTS to dust. Shakespeare, he's 4" now, so I wasn't surprised, but Jilly is more like a bit short of 3", and she munched through them like a pro. Not small ones, either, barely could get their beaks around them, and they chewed them well enough that there was no shell fragments worth trying to clean up.

ammonia is down at 5ppm or so. I just turned the heater up a bit close to 79-80 now. i usually have a slice of zucchini and a small piece of lettuce which they seem to like alot. i have gravel in the bottom of the tank which the MTS seem to live in alot. nitrates, nitrites low close to same as ammonia.

5 or .5? Five is probably enough to be doing it. After all, the eggs would be way more delicate than the adults. Point-five probably isn't enough.

its at 5 or so. I do weekly water changes. What else can i do to help? I use to see egg sacks on the side of the tanks but not not as often. Any ideas on how to get them to pop out eggs?