Hand feeding apple snails

[QTOFFER]

I bought a dozen golden apple snails at my fish club auction two months ago. This week, I noticed several egg clutches just above the water line I'm really excited about this because this is the first concrete evidence I have that anything actually bred in one of my tanks! I never realized what interesting animals these guys are - I love watching them!

Tonight, I was feeding the rainbowfish and noticed one of the snails near the surface. I dipped a finger in flake food and hand fed it! The rasping mouth (I think it's called a radula) felt like sandpaper - it was kind of like being licked by a cat's tongue. I was amazed when two other snails came racing (relatively speaking) up the glass to get a piece of the action. I was able to hand feed all three of them! Has anyone else tried this? It's so neat!

It got even better when one of the snails decided to climb onto my finger. I was able to lift it out of the water. It had a very strong grip on me underwater, and I had to gently ease it off my finger with my thumb. A very cool experience that I wanted to share!

[theotheragentm]

Very cool. Great photos.

[tropicfishman]

ewwwwwww lol I love watching snails, but like plecos, which I also love to watch, if one touched me I would freak out and prolly scare it death lol but I must say that is pretty cool lol congrads on your first breading in your tank