Apple snails

[Jarred Darque]

ok, apparantly I do happen to have a male/female pair of apples in my 75 gallon.

I have just recently noticed two large clutches of eggs above the waterline. one is on the glass directly under the light hangin upside down, the other is on the backside of the filter tube.

I dont know how long they have been tehre, the only reason I noticed is that I am dealing with a green water problem so was doing a 75% water change prior to blacking out the tank when I saw them.

Both clutches are pinkish in color, which is goog I think. How are they supposed to feel? Both clutches are hard to the touch, no moistness feel, gel-like nothing to them, tehy are hard

I am wondering what I should do with them? I want more apple snails, I intend to breed them

BTW I have 1 maed/large apple with a gold shell but grayish body (so not an albino) and two black apples. is there any way to tell which ones are mating without seeing htem in the deed? Basically, can apples of differant types, i.e. gold and black..mate together?

[hc8719]

Originally Posted by Jarred Darque

BTW I have 1 maed/large apple with a gold shell but grayish body (so not an albino) and two black apples. is there any way to tell which ones are mating without seeing htem in the deed? Basically, can apples of differant types, i.e. gold and black..mate together?

sorry cant tell who the breeders any other way.

all apple snails can interbreed, color doesnt matter, infact you could end up with blue, ivory, gold, and many other colors of young.

eggs take 4-6 weeks to hatch i believe

[Jarred Darque]

thanks

[Elle2]

Also there are no 'male' and 'female' breeding pairs... they have both male and female sex organs so any two should breed and lay eggs... both of mine have. I am surprised you haven't caught them in act though... its all mine seem to do.

But I can't answer any of your other questions and hope someone does b/c I came here for the same answers.

I heard a breeder ask for a clutch back, so apparently you can remove them and they will still hatch... I don't want mine and wanted to give it to a friend, but have no idea where to tell them to put it so that it hatches.

[onah]

have to agree with hc on this one, the snails will vary, u can take the clutch off the area it is by wetting it a bit, take the clutch and place it in like a chinese soup container, u want to fassion a raft of some sorts (if the eggs spend to much time in the water they can drown at this point), if u have one of those white plastic things to hold the pizza box up in the middle that would be good. place that in the soup holder(it dosent have to be a soup holder, something clean just a container that has a top pref a smaller one so water can be cleaned easy) and place some sort of napkin over it so that the sides of the napkin are in the water and the table sits above it(this will act as a wic keeping the clutch moist), fill the container with water about half way up the little stand and place the clutch on the stand place lid back on and poke a few holes in it for air, place container somewhere warm(like on the light hood)and wait, in a few dayz/wks u will see them start to emerge u can place a food pellet in the water of the container(this is important), the snails must be moved sooner then later into the tank u plan to keep them in, there life starts right as they hit the water! they will all rush the pellet and u can use that to move them into the new tank, the pellet can stay in the new tank with them so they have a food source(there appetite will be just as big as the rents)the next day or 2 u can repeat the pellet process and that should clear all of them out, and its baby time! good luck and pics please!

here is that topic i was telling u about , she describes using styrofoam:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=85867

[plecoperson]

Apple snails do require male and female to breed. Unbred females will lay sterile clutches, so seeing eggs doesn't mean you'll get babies. Do you know for sure what type of apple snails you have? The dark ones are likely P. bridgesii, but the yellow one could be a cana snail-they get much larger and munch plants.

If you are interested in raising a bunch o' baby snails, go to
www.applesnail.net ; there is much to learn, all covered there by "stickies!"

For a quickie solution, though, take the clutches off the surfaces. Use a razor blade under one edge and they will pop off. Put the clutch on a square of filter floss, top with another square of floss. Then dip a paper towel in tank water and wring it out. Wrap the clutch-floss sandwich in one layer of damp paper towel. Put the package in a gallon ziplock, capture some air, and seal the bag. Put in a warm place (like on top of the tank), open the bag daily and express and refill the air. Check the clutches every couple days, then every day after a week.

They can take from 7-ish days to 3 weeks to hatch, depending on the temperature. Make sure you have somewhere to take/sell the baby snails! You will get quite a lot of them if you hatch clutches. If you have gold and dark snails, those are the more difficult ones to find homes for, as they are among the most common colors.

[Elle2]

Oh, sorry about the mis-information. It was actually the snail breeder that I bought the snails from that told me that. I told her that I didn't want a male and female because I didn't want them to breed. Oops.

Well I guess that explains why you haven't caught your snails in the act and why mine won't leave each other alone.