Snail tank max cap?

PrettyKitty187

I moved Hermes and my little stowaway into a ten gal all for themselves because the loach has gotten large enough to decide to nip at him (if he keeps growing like that I'm changing his name to snailzilla) and I added another mystery snail...and now I want more mystery snails...so what's the max cap for a ten gal with mystery snails...four?

bettababy

The max capacity depends more on food supply and water changes than space when it comes to snails. Mystery snails actually put out a fair amount of waste. 4 of them in a 10 gallon tank would be a bit much. Due to the size they are able to obtain at full grown, (just slightly smaller than a golf ball) I would not suggest more than 1 full grown mystery snail in a 10 gallon tank. More than that will raise waste levels quickly and it will get to be unmanageable. If you have more than one and are forced to provide extra food for them, that will increase waste levels. At some point, even daily water changes won't be enough to manage the waste.

PrettyKitty187

unfortunately I ran out and bought another snail to put in there before I posted this...but they seem to be doing alright in there...

and how about the guy at the store encouraged me to buy three fancy male guppies to put in there when I asked him how frogs and snails got along....

wouldn't that put the tank way over max cap?

dfbiggs

I have 3 golden in my 10 gallon and looking to move them..I just got them a few weeks ago and they were very small...they are growing quickly. (I feed them very well too)The guy I got them from showed me the parents and they were as big as a baseball (not exaggeration) actually longer if you count how far their rear stretched. I also have alot of MTS in there and as they have grown and MTS multiply I would also recommend just having 1 snail. The bioload is high so if you do decide to put more in the tank at least double water changes...snails are dirty little creatures...

bettababy

dfbiggs, are you positive its a true mystery snail? True mystery snails don't usually get quite that big... but apple snails and a few of their relatives do. It can be difficult to tell them apart when they're small.

prettykitty187, I still suggest you have a much larger tank for that many mystery snails. Once the water quality goes down the snails die pretty quick, and its awful to clean up if they're of any size... the smell is something words just can't describe. As dfbiggs pointed out, they grow very fast and get too large for more than 1 in a 10 gallon, especially if you decide to add fish of some sort, like guppies.

dfbiggs

I didn't put much into identification..I was just taking some snails off someones hands that couldnt care for them. How do you tell if they are true mystery snails or not? Just by size?

Agreed..A dirty snail tank smells 50 times worse than a dirty fish tank...sooo disgusting..

bettababy

I will have to look up that info as it has been a long time since I have had to tell the difference between the 2...

I was more talking about the smell of dead snails... especially the bigger ones. It is the most awful thing I've ever smelled.

mordalphus

And the smell takes days to get off of your hands if you pick up a dead snail... It's very very disgusting. I ordered 50 japanese trapdoor snails and when I got them they were just wrapped in paper towels and tossed into a ziploc. Needless to say, having to sift through these stupid snails to figure out which ones were alive and which were dead was such a huge pain in the butt, that I'm never ordering snails from the internet again. When I was done, my hands could not come clean, i tried baking soda, bleach, goof-off, dish soap, dishwasher detergent, ethyl alcohol, acetone, MEK, NOTHING would get the dang smell off.

PrettyKitty187

pizza sauce...

seriously...

dip your hands in pizza sauce for a minute and it will kill the smell of anything...

maybe like a tomato/skunk scenario

my two little mystery snails are doing pretty good in there, I am doing a lot more frequent water changes though and removed pretty much everything but them to cut down on any other wastes from plant matter or anything else...and unfortunately my little stowaway crawled down into the filter and drowned I think...the only thing I could think of that happened because the slats on the bottom of the filter are too small to fit through

bettababy

Lemon or lemon juice also works to remove the smell, but it may take a few good washes with it. The acid in tomatoes and lemons cuts through most things of that nature... I was amazed that rubbing alcohol didn't take it off for my first experience with that odor, but the lemons, when cut and rubbed onto my hands (I literally used the lemon wedges to scrub my hands) did get rid of most of it pretty quick, but I went through a 1/2 dzn lemons to really get rid of any noticeable odor.

PrettyKitty187, I'm glad to hear your tank is doing well. Only thing I can suggest is to keep up the water changes, keep testing the water as the snails grow, and be prepared later to relocate one of them if it gets unmanageable. I wish you and your snails the best of luck, I love those guys! They are so much fun to watch!