[Sylverclaws]

Well, I was cleaning out my twenty gallon nursery tank about a week or so ago and found these odd little things on the top of the tank just under the lid...I removed two thinking that something had gotten in and laid eggs, like a spider...since it looked like spider eggs through the wet glass. lol Anywho, upon further research I found out what they actually were: My mystery snails had laid eggs! I was so excited...I almost killed the eggs though. When I took two of the four nests out I could clearly see they were NOT spiders, and I thought I had let the water get too low and killed someones babies. I just wasn't sure who they belonged to! I put them in water in a breeding net, and found out only minutes later what they were and removed them from the water. I've been keeping the two nests on top of the breeder where they stayed moist, but not wet. This is a series of photos of how it ended up! Oh, before that, the two I left alone, one of them hatched and has vanished, the other is still working on it.

First off, the day of finding...and almost killing unfortunately:

And then, one of the smaller of the two nests decided to drop a few babies, which got me very excited. It slowly vanished over the next few days and I found a few babies. Unfortunately fairly hard to see in this photo:

And then last night, I noticed the leftover nest looked like it was getting pretty gross. I was ashamed thinking I had killed the poor babies in there, but I decided to leave it alone for a bit since it was out of the water and wouldn't hurt anything, I was hoping that yucky dark lookingness was actually babies and not rot, but it looks like it, eh?

And today, this is what I woke up to:

Yes, babies everywhere. Many fell into the main tank...but I am sure they'll be alright.

So, we know I have babies now. Isn't that awesome? I'm excited and now know better than to mess with the nests. I got very lucky is all. lol That other stuff in there is bits of an algae wafer and also some veggies out of the emerald entree I usually give to my fish, so lot's of veggies in there like kale, romaine lettuce, spinach and the like...Any other things I could put in for the babies? I haven't cleaned the place up much since I got babies, I'm afraid to. >< So many tiny babies. So any tips of light cleaning without risking harming the babies? If I suck them up with my normal cleaning of such things: Turkey baster, I can't see the babies if I got any like I can with baby fish! =( But I certainly don't want the place to get too gross. x.x

Ah yes, the mother, far as I know, is my dark striped purple. I saw one of my blues "Dancing" with her about a month or so before this. I initially thought they were fighting. lol My purple didn't look or act happy about her buddy.

 

[SeaHorse]

Oh... they are so cute!! Those babies in the breeder box came from that yucky glob looking thing? Will you be able to raise and sell them? Or have you thought that far ahead yet?

 

[djembekah]

Yay i love snailies!!!
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[Sylverclaws]

Oh... they are so cute!! Those babies in the breeder box came from that yucky glob looking thing? Will you be able to raise and sell them? Or have you thought that far ahead yet?

The glob thing was the nest getting ready to hatch, the darker stuff means babies about ready to pop out. lol

And yes, I have thought that far ahead for once! Usually I forget to plan. lol I was -hoping- the snails would breed, but I didn't know they laid eggs above water, nor did I think I'd ever actually get any. lol I am gonna raise them, I have four tanks so surely I have room for them to grow in. I'm also going to be selling them to some shops around here who have been looking a bit...lacking in the mystery snail department. I'll also be sending some to a few friends. Oh, and of course I'll be keeping a few of them, my 55 gallon tank doesn't have any and could support at least a few, my grandma's five gallon I'm not sure if it can support any...and my ten gallon could hold a couple, as well as my twenty gallon could use at least one more. =)

This is all if they survive, I've never had baby mystery snails before so there's no telling if I'll be able to raise them right. =p I have noticed many of the babies haven't moved, but sometimes those guys like to just chill for a while, and being new and probably full from their egg yolk, they don't need to move. The handful of older babies did this as well, I thought they were dead...but about two days later they decided to get a move on. They've grown quite a bit as well, you can see some of the older ones in my last two photos, they're quite a bit bigger and only about a week older. lol

I did manage to clean out the yuck, but I haven't touched the plastic, and I didn't scrub anything. lol It was making me feel bad having it dirty in a place of baby raising. ^^;

Anywho, any suggestions on what I could feed them besides what I already am?

And also, any idea on what color variations I may get? I figure it may or may not have anything to do with the parents colors. Some are looking blue, some purple, others gold and some see-through clear/white. The mother was a dark striped purple, though she looked more of a red/brown color to me with stripes, one of the other parents I assume was one of my ivories or ivory/blues. lol

 

[djembekah]

snails aren't that hard to raise lol. trust me :3

 

[Sylverclaws]

snails aren't that hard to raise lol. trust me :3

Well, no. But babies tend to be harder than adults, they're usually more delicate and sensitive to things. My water stats have been pretty much the same for months, so I'm not too worried about anything like that causing death. Temp change is another matter, it's also stayed pretty steady since I started covering the top with a thick towel at night and have a floor heater nearby. Recently we've started getting cold fronts and blizzards though, so I'm hoping that wont affect much.
Anything I should look out for besides that stuff? Stuff that may do nasty damage quickly.

You know me, I'm a little obsessive and worry about everything. xD Especially with babies in the house!

 

[SeaHorse]

Awww Silverclaws.... I can't think of a better Mommy!... besides Bekah of course.

 

[djembekah]

Lol thanks Jakie

My snails, though i haven't had mystery snails or apples, have done really well in my tanks, even though I've changed temperatures a couple times. I've got a million mts to show for it, along with some ramshorns, and my favorites- rabbit snails!
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[Sylverclaws]

Hm, speaking of Ramshorns, I recently found some in my tank. At least I think they're ramshorns. Do they require any different kind of care? I have a red one and one that is darker in color, and I rather like them...but I have no freakin clue where they came from. I usually get those plants in the gel packs supposed to be snail, parasite and disease free. x.x The only thing I've added to that tank any time over the last three months is fry from my main tank, plants from gel pack or from my other tanks that came from the same or that I've had forever...and mystery snail. lol The only thing I can think of is that they came in on my mystery snails. LOL

Is this even a ramshorn? Me and Chesh have been guessing a lot. lol I had one that was cherry red, but it vanished. Probably still in there though, I hope...it's rather pretty. I know, smeary photo, I'm sorry. Hard to get photos of snails on the glass.

Here's the red one I can't find from the bottom view...worse than smeary. x.x; Twenty three photos of it and none of them came out at all. LOL

 

[djembekah]

oh yah i think they're ramshorns

 

[Chesh]

I'm so excited for you (and Bekah) and all your lil' snailybugs over there, lol! I'm sure you'll do well with them!

 

[Sylverclaws]

Well, they're looking pretty good. I've some colors in there, or so it seem. Looks like I may get a nice mix and some bright blues and purples like I wanted. lol I suppose we still have to wait and see. I know I'm doing something right since the first batch is growing pretty well already, about two or three times the size of the newer babies.

I've moved the whole thing into the nursery tank, less chance of being swallowed by my adult fish. I've been doing some light cleaning with the turkey baster to remove food and have had little trouble with it. =) Most of that nest has hatched, still about a quarter of it left, and the second nest left untouched in the tank is still there, but it getting smaller so I know they're hatching. ^_^ Yay, so many babies! I probably have plenty of room to raise them to a certain size at least. lol I wonder how big they have to be before I can sell them, I assume at least the size of a zebra nerite snail like I have a few of, what do you think?

My 55 gallon doesn't have any snails in it because I've always had cories, but I don't have many of those anymore after that nasty went through my tank in January. Think I could happily keep three or four in there with four cories and they'd be happy and get enough food? I would certainly love to have some colorful mystery snails in there. Counting the cories and two plecos, I have 21 fish in there though, I think I'm at fully stocked, if not a bit beyond. But then I'll have about 15-16 in there once the platies go to the twenty gallon once it's done being a nursery, if I go that way.

 

[Chesh]

I'm sure you'll figure it out The really important thing with Mystery snails, in my experience, is that they're VERY sensitive to flux in nitrate levels. So just be very aware of the bioload(s) in the tank(s) - and keeping that number as stable as possible as they grow out. I can't imagine (lol) what the eventual bioload of 5,483 nerite-sized mystery snails will be *winks* I've seen some for sale a bit smaller than my Nerites at PetSmart, and some very, very much bigger. . . I bet if you ask over on that Apple snail forum *ahem* that they'd know!

 

[Silverfang]

I'm not sure if this will help, but I found this... -elsewhere- from someone who accidentally let three clutches hatch.

The three clutches hatched over a span of 15 days - July 10th, July 14th, and July 25th. These were what I would call average-sized clutches - I've seen bigger but these seemed to be typical for the P. diffusa I have kept. About 2 to 2.5 inches long, and a little over 0.5 inches across at the thickest point.

In the time since the clutches hatched, I've been trying to tend to the snails in my 38-gallon tank, which is also home to a few fish and a small frog. As the snails got bigger, they were of course consuming more and more food, and producing more and more waste, putting a greater and greater strain on the tank - not to mention on me, trying to look after them. To make matters worse, I ran into some health issues of my own which made it even more difficult for me to look after them.

Yesterday I finally realized that I was not going to be able to care for them all long enough to get a suitable number of them to the 'sellable' size my LFS wanted. I had 2 or 3 dozen that were easily big enough, but many, many more which were not. I ended up pulling out what I estimated to be about half the number of snails, ranging in size from pea-size (lots!) to nickle-size (a couple dozen) and donating them to the LFS. I also took a handful of pea-size ones out and dropped them in my 23gal tank, which is normally a fish-only tank.

Today, now that the numbers were thinned out, I took a headcount. First in the 'fish' tank. I did not count every single snail, but visually divided the tank into sections and counted the snails in a couple sections. I came up with between 100 and 150 pea-size snails! That was the 'handful'! The numbers I took to the LFS were 3 to 4 times that. There was at least two pounds of snails in the container that I took there.

And in my 38-gal tank, now that their numbers are cut by 'about half', a headcount brings me to over 300 snails still in there. The snails in the big tank have a wider range of size - the smallest are the size of a BB, or about 3mm across, up to 3/4" across.

Using conservative figures, I am estimating that between what I still have in my 38gal tank, what I have in my 23gal tank, and what I took to the LFS yesterday, there were at least 700 to 800 baby snails, out of the three clutches that hatched.

Staying on the conservative side that is still 700 snails, each of whom as an adult would require 2.5 gallons of water, filtration, food, heat, and regular maintenance -- a total of 1,750 gallons of maintained aquarium space.

That would be thirty-five 50-gallon tanks, housing nothing but snails.

Personally, I find that completely overwhelming!

 

[Sylverclaws]

Well, that actually is good info for me, Silverfang. =) I was confused for a moment then figured out you were quoting someone elsewhere. lol

Anywho, I think I have room for my little buddies. I may have had three clutches hatch so far, but that person got far more lucky, or unlucky it sounds like, with her numbers. Hrm...I don't think I have anymore than a hundred, but most likely less. I do have another nest and a half trying to hatch though. And also, I caught my little vixen with another man two days ago, so I have no doubts I'll have more babies on the way. If I find more nests, I'll have to do another craigslist ad to make some room. ^^; But so far I think I'm still in the green as far as room goes, at least until they're a bit bigger. Once they're all about the size of a nickel, I think my LFS would happily buy them from me. I've seen them sell them at that size, some even a tad smaller.

Surprisingly, my nursery tank which is absolutely FULL of babies of all kinds...is stable and healthy. However, my grandma's five gallon tank with a single betta and one zebra nerite snail is having trouble, and my 55 gallon which is slightly understocked at the moment, or considered fully stocked possibly more by me personally(I hate having too many fish regardless of what the tank can hold, I like them to be fish and swim), is also having Nitrate problems, but nothing else. @[email protected] HUH! I thought it was funny so I shared. Not so funny to the fish, but on a stocking stanpoint...that's pretty funny. xD

 

[Sylverclaws]

See? They're doing it again. lol If they turn out to be more easily bred than I'd heard, I might actually be in a bit of trouble. Well, not really, but on the money side I would be. LOL I will have to give away many babies so the ones I raise to sell will be healthy. Ah, you can also see my dark striped purple is damaged still, but she's recovering quite nicely. She used to be nothing BUT cracks and scratches. Now it's just around her edges, hopefully it'll heal soon. It has taken a couple months to fix them all up.

Anywho...SEE? See what I have to deal with? lol As if I don't like having babies around. ^_~

 

[Kuddos 2 U]

I've got 100+ ramshorns snails right know and they are all adults which came from proper care and nourishing. The only way they die is by getting too close to the powerhead and they get stuck on the guard and if I see them then I just yank them off and place them on the other side of the tank. P.S. Anyone who has some extra apple snails, PM me please, I am looking for a lot because they don't sell any type of snails over here.