Water Snails

[Snaily]

I am thinking about breeding water snails, and would like any information about them,and any suppliers

Thanks Snail.......... :roll:

[Benny]

I am pretty sure you just get some and they breed themselves as they are hermaphrodites.

[Snaily]

got one which has laided eggs and they have just hatched out but dont know what sort it is 5cm long and black....just which to find out more about them and try to get different sorts

[Deleatidium]

Hi Snaily, you need to get hold of some books or find an online resource on gastropod classification and identification.

[Caryl]

Breeding snails is not difficult, it is stopping them from breeding which is hard! :lol:

Make sure the water is alkaline and hard or their shells will not develop properly.

[Rob]

Hi there Snaily - are you interested in cold water snails or tropical snails?

I keep a small 'cash crop' of brown apple snails (ampularia snails) which I hock off to one of the local shops for $1 each.

The breeding of these snails is a little different. For a start they're not hermaphrodites, they are male or female - this means that just having 2 of them is no guarantee of breeding success. The second difference is that they lay their eggs out of the water. This makes population control easy as you can remove the egg cluster before the hatch. After an incubation and development period the material holding the eggs together starts to disintergrate and the baby snails fall back into the tank.

[Caryl]

Are the brown apple snails a different species to the big yellow ones (Golden Delicious ?) sometimes seen in shops Rob?

[Rob]

Had to go away and do some research on that Caryl. I suspected that they were different species based on their different behaviour (yellow ones will munch pretty well any plant in sight while the brown ones are plant friendly on the most part) - would have expected similar behaviours if they were merely colour morphs.

I believe the Yellow apple snails are Pomacea canaliculata, while the brown apple snails are Pomacea bridgesi. Based on the information I found these are the two types commonly available from pet shops, and the behavioural descriptions fit the observations.

If you want to know more there is a good website at:

http://www.applesnail.net/

[Caryl]

Thanks for that Rob. I remember seeing those huge yellow snails some years ago. We bought a couple but they did not last long as we did not realise they needed alkaline water. Our tank at the time was quite acid and not suitable for them at all. We are better at researching inhabitant's requirements before purchasing now

[ajbroome]

Folks,

The yellow apple snails are not plant friendly at all.

They are the only critter I know which will eat Java fern

and Java moss. After that, they'll eat your sponge filters

if they've got algae on them, I kid you not! They get big

too.

The brown snails are much easier to maintain in a typical

planted tank.

I can do people a good deal on red ramshorn snails

Andrew.