FishProfiles.com Message Forums

	Apple snail deaths?
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	I have some apple snails in my tank. They breed and get on okay but they die when the shells get 1cm wide. I don't know why they die but maybe u guys can help.
Posted 04-Feb-2006 19:29
Fallout Moderator Communications Specialist Posts: 6416 Kudos: 4053 Votes: 742 Registered: 29-Jul-2000	Is there plenty of food for them? How hard is your water? Snails need some mineral content to build their shells. If the water is too soft, they won't be able to grow.
Posted 04-Feb-2006 19:35
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	the water is medium inbetween soft and hard. What should i feen them or what foods do they need.(there is a plant in my tank that they seem to like to eat)
Posted 04-Feb-2006 20:00
sham Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3369 Kudos: 2782 Votes: 98 Registered: 21-Apr-2004	Depends a bit on what type of applesnail you have. All of them will eat sinking fish foods particularly crab and lobster bites or frog bites, spirulina pellets, and most will eat shrimp pellets. All of them will also eat at least some vegetables. I stick cucumber and zuchinni slices on paper clips and drop them in the tank for the night. They'll also eat lettuces(probably best to avoid iceburg though), kale, squash, mango, and other foods. The difference though is that some applesnails are more carnivorous requiring mostly a fish food based diet with some plant matter as a supplement. Others are mostly herbivores and will decimate any plants in a tank overnight but will also pick at fish foods. Try dropping in some sinking fish foods and see if they go nuts over it and you will probably have your answer. Your water needs to be around 7.0ph or above or their shells will start to get weak spots and holes. A good calcium level with a gh of at least 4-6 would also help. Have you used any medications in the tank even ones that say snail or invert safe?
Posted 04-Feb-2006 21:06
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	Edited by juwel-180 No i have not put any medican in the tank and i also have 3 amano shrips. They are doing realy well i have had them for nealy a year. I have tryed putting cucumber in and the snails love it but the shrimps take the snails off and eat it them selves. Thanks for the help
Posted 04-Feb-2006 21:33
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	When i look at the empty shells there are no hols in it or spots just no snail.
Posted 04-Feb-2006 21:39
sham Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3369 Kudos: 2782 Votes: 98 Registered: 21-Apr-2004	Amano shrimp aren't always considered 100% peaceful. They've been known to show some agression toward other shrimp and small inverts. It could be they are eating the smaller snails. Also what fish are in the tank? Some don't manage to kill large snails but will kill small snails. A good indicator is if your larger snails are not fully extending themselves out of their shells. If all you can see is a bit of snail peaking out under the front instead of 1/4th-1/2 the body with feelers and eyes extended then something is picking on them.
Posted 04-Feb-2006 23:03
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	All the body that can be out is out and so are the eyes and feelers. The fish in the tank are 7 Zebra danios, 19 Neon tetras and 1 female dwarf gourami. I have seen her pick snails out of there shells but not very offten. And same goes for the shrimps but again not very offten. They seem to get to a shell of 1cm wide and die there are shells all over my tank usally very small or 1cm wide shells. I dont know why they seem to die at that size
Posted 04-Feb-2006 23:22
jasonpisani Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 5553 Kudos: 7215 Votes: 1024 Registered: 24-Feb-2003	I think that you need hard water & a high ph fot the Snail shells, so i suggest you to add a piece of Limestone or the Cuttle fish bone. You can feed them Lettuce & other green stuff. I also feed them fish sinking foods. http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos http://www.geocities.com/s8xi5heh/classic_blue.html http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buzaqq/ http://www.deathbydyeing.org/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/ Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970. http://www.maltaaquarist.com
Posted 05-Feb-2006 01:09
Inkling Fish Addict Posts: 689 Kudos: 498 Votes: 11 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	How big is your tank and how many snails/shrimp do you have? I have 3 apples/5 pests in my betta breeding tank, I feed them a few flakes a piece when I feed the bettas. Also, If you use a different kind of flake, i.e. I feed my bettas pellets and the snails flakes, it helps. Inky
Posted 05-Feb-2006 01:35
juwel-180 Enthusiast Posts: 291 Kudos: 212 Votes: 17 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	I have 3 shrimps 1 male and 2 females. I do not know how many sanils as there is too many to count as they are breeding very fast. But i would say about 60. 40 which are the size of a pin head and 20 have a 1cm wide shell. The tank is 40 gallons (180 liters).
Posted 05-Feb-2006 14:48
Inkling Fish Addict Posts: 689 Kudos: 498 Votes: 11 Registered: 07-Dec-2005	I think you have too many in too small of a space. Apples get really big. I try to keep 1 per 2g of tank space. ^_^ Inky
Posted 06-Feb-2006 02:44
sham Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3369 Kudos: 2782 Votes: 98 Registered: 21-Apr-2004	Those snails should be eating tons of food. I had somewhere around 100 in a 55g and in about one month they ate 1/4th a large container of shrimp pellets, a few packges of snail specific food from http://home.mchsi.com/~masts/index.html, some crab and lobster bites, a package of algae wafers, and whatever fish food they made off with. There was also always a leaf of lettuce, cucumber, kale, or similar in the tank. Luckily it was a heavily planted tank with co2 or my nitrates would have been quite impressive. When they reached near adults though I had to actually follow a water change schedule.
Posted 06-Feb-2006 03:34


	Jump to:

The views expressed on this page are the implied opinions of their respective authors.
Under no circumstances do the comments on this page represent the opinions of the staff of FishProfiles.com.

FishProfiles.com Forums, version 11.0
Mazeguy Smilies