Pet Snails Questions

[lusciousdragon]

Hello. I am just wondering what I should feed my aquarium snails? Also some care tips on them. I havent been able to find any good websites on pet snails either if anyone knows of any. I keep them in a community fish tank that is at room temperature in the mid 70s. One seems to like lettuce but the others arent eating. I dont have any algae in the tank which was why I bought them in the first place (the tank is doing too well). But then I realized how really neat they are and would like to just have a tank of them. Two of them are brown colored pond snails from a garden store. The other one is bright yellow from a pet store. What are good foods to feed them? Is there a water additive to help them? How do they breath? That may sound like a stupid question, but they dont come up for air, and I dont see gills, so just wondering what the process was for that. Is the lettuce enough nurishment? I am thinking that it isnt. The yellow one likes to attack my moneywort (I think that was the name) plant. He bites throught the stalk so it floats to the top then he chases it up and eats it there LOL ha ha ha. I heard that they dont need a partner to mate. How can I make snails breed then? Anyone have any favorite snail kinds? Bigger is better! Ok, I think that is all of my questions. Thanks!

[flyingkitty]

Hi, I just started breeding snails 2-3 days ago!

I heard fish food is good...what is best though is probably that pond plant I have that spreads like wildfire. It's £1 for a batch at my local garden centre, and I dare say 2-3 batches would be enough for a 20 litre tank. This plant (or another pond plant)is pretty much essential if you ask me, because the snails lay their eggs on it and you're going to have to clean the tank sooner or later, so you can just lift the stuff out and place it in another tank while you're cleaning.

I also feed my snails organic lettuce! So ok, it's expensive, but I noticed you had rabbits, so why not?! I suppose the only bad thing is if they lay eggs on it, you will be stuck with keeping the lettuce in your tank and if they eat the lettuce away the eggs will maybe land on the tank bottom.

Snails plus fish: Fish can eat snails...and perhaps also snail eggs. I just have snails in my tank.

"other one is bright yellow from a pet store." - sounds like an Apple Snail....these are actually male/female, so you will need to buy another one of the opposite sex to get it to reproduce. I also heard that most of the larger snail types are single sexed, although my cone shaped pond snails don't seem to have any problems (maybe Ive just been lucky so far).

Someone told me that AquaSafe to remove chlorine and such from the tap water would be a safe water additive, and he was told from Tetra themselves (must be some petfood manufacturer). Personally I just replace 25% of the water with water from my pond every day, since the snails there are already thriving and I don't trust chemicals that I need to buy.

One way I get them to breed is I move them when they are floating in the water and place them next to another snail, and it always seems to work. I usually only do this when I'm at the pond and am moving a snail from 1 corner to the next to be with the other snails.

I like the cone shaped pond snails best. I realise the apple snails grow to 2 inches long, but they look a bit freaky to me. The bigger cone snail the better though!! Easier to pick up too!

I moved a cone snail in the pond earlier onto a piece of lettuce another cone snail was underneath, and within 1 minute it had moved beneath the lettuce to mate with the other one :)

[TobyRat]

Well, I realy have nothing left to say but here is a really good website on Apple Snails, it was the one I used to find all my information on them,
http://www.applesnail.net/ :)

[petbaby]

How do you know what kind of snail you have? I can't tell if they're happy or not, or if they're eating the right things. I need the basics...FAST!
How do you get them to breed?
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lips:

[TobyRat]

Apple snails are usually the ones sold in most pet shopes. They also are the only type of snail that have a "flap" on their shell to inable then to be able to survive out of water for a couple of days.

The main food in an apple snails diet are things like lettus or colard greens. These can be given to them on a vegetable clip that clips to the side of the bowl/aquarium holding the vegetable in place.

For even more information on keeping/breeding apple snails as pets click here (http://applesnail.net) :)

[petbaby]

how do u kno wich snails u hav if the internet doesnt hav it (that u kno uv)? mine even have eggs yet i dont kno what 2 do 4 them. help!

[petbaby]

How do you know what kinds of snails you have if the internet isn't helping? Mine even have eggs, and I can't help them. What do I do? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:lips :flirt: :cutie:

[bluejett]

Ok..........
First we need to know what kind they are,where did you buy them from they should of told you.
Second, they do need a partner to mate.... but they can be either male or female (cant remember what you call it). At wal-mart you can buy algae tablets for them or you can feed them fish food *but make sure you push the piece of food so it sinks to the bottom* I feed my snails both since I have 57 :weyes: I try to keep them all satisfied.
Any more questions? Oh and with the eggs, they hatch and multiply very quickly!! So I would watch out they can get out of hand quickly I accidently got 2 now I have 57! And if you dont want a ton of babies you can scrape the eggs off and flick them in the trash can or toilet,
well sorry the post is so long :o good luck!
Alison

[feeder fish]

when snails lay eggs they start out clear but soon they start to turn red then brown and start to bulge when they hatch there is no more sack except a ring you do not need to take care of the eggs. and if your snails havent layed eggs the should soon they need to be very comfy good luck!! :) :)

[bluejett]

now i have 57
make that 200 :eek: I`m gonna have to give them away or something I have wayy too many!I cant clean the bowl that used to house 2 anymore, I keep crushing them :( They`ve invaded my fish tank I had to do a full water change to get them out :rolleyes1 making me crazy! I think I have all of them out now :D

[phoenix feather]

you don't have to feed your snails because they eat whatever mess is in their tank.

[dawn257]

Hey, I've noticed there's a lot of people asking for help and tips with snails. To help some of those, I'm making a website with tips on taking care of land snails. Sorry to those of you with water snails, I've only got land snails, so I only know what to do with land ones. The website url will be

http://www.geocities.com/dawn257l/snail.html

And it'll have things like feeding, housing, bathing, healing, and so on. Check

http://free.hostultra.com/~dawn257/snails.html

if that page doesn't have anything, I'll probably use it for a tester, as hostultra is easier than geocities for html.

[fishy frogs]

yo dragon the snails will eat left over food and all the alagae and if a fish dies itll eat that too

[littletank]

Can Gold Mystery snails just live on the leftover fish food in the tank? I only have one gold mystery or sometimes called apple snail and four fish. I'm hoping that the snail can just live on their leftovers because I really don't feeling like tending to the snail. The fish are time consuming and costly enough. I got the snail in hopes that he would be of help to me--vaccuum the tank.
thanks, littletank