experience with snails?

[Elle2]

just wondering who here keeps snails and what your experience with them has been? I am thinking of adding one or two (not sure what kind yet) as additional 'cleaners' but I read that they need hard water and that platies and tetras will harass them.

Any thoughts?

 

[Hovoc]

I have 2 "mystery" snails in my tank (and a free baby i got from petsmart, but hes too small to count) none of my fish harass them, i feed them a jello mixture i picked up from someone on here, it consists of unflavored gelatine, baby food, calcium, and fish flakes. this helps make their shell strong and resistant to erosion.

As far as cleaners, they seem to get crap off the bottom, but havent put a dent on my brown algae and i doubt they ever will, they seem to prefer whatever falls on the bottom.

 

[toddnbecka]

Adding 2, unless they are mystery (aka apple snails) of the same sex will quickly become dozens, then hundreds of snails unless you are very careful with feeding. A few leftover flakes go a long way for snails.

 

[Elle2]

Are they easy to sex? Would two be too many for a 20 G? I am thinking mystery snails, though I don't know very much about them or others.

 

[toddnbecka]

Check out this site for all the info you could possibly want:
http://www.applesnail.net

 

[Elle2]

Wow... they get REALLY big. 8O

 

[Hovoc]

i dont think they all get that big, my yellow one hasnt grow much since we got him 3 months ago, however, our ivory one is twice the size of the yellow one, and we got him 2 weeks after the yellow one, and was smaller

 

[Musket]

only an apple snail gets that huge.
The brigs aka mystery snails do not get that large. ANd are so funny. THey do acrobats and paraglide off the wall, drift the water stream, too cute. I'd reccomend one. And check out all the colors on applesnail.net

 

[plecoperson]

It's the cana snails that git ginormous. I have a bunch of brigs and they get about 2" in diameter. The link above is great; you do need to pay a little attention to feeding or they can develop shell problems. Helps if you have very hard, alkaline water.

You might wanna look at the spixi snail, too. Very pretty w/striped shells, don't get too big, and the eggs are laid under water, so you don't have to worry about giant egg clutches appearing above the water line that need special care if you want them to hatch, or a very official "destruction" if you get the heebie jeebies from killing things (like I do). Fishies will probly just eat the spixi eggs for you.

Our tetras don't bother them-not sure about platies. I love 'em-they are often the most interesting things in the tank to watch. If you want to wait a couple months I can send you two of my baby spixis (and some snail "cookies" for them to eat).