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hello all...
I have two apple snails in my mollie fry tank (10g). One of them is in adult size (size of a baseball) and the other one is a bit smaller. Does anybody have any idea about breeding them? The information i've able to collect so far tells me that they lay clutches of eggs on the tank wall above the water level so its good idea to have a lower water level.
I feed them lettuce, sliced cucumber and algea wafers sometimes. They seem to love it all but are NOT breeding.
As most of the snails are hermaphrodites, so a single snail should be able to breed by itself
The tank is established for the last six months as the fry keep on being added and removed every month
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

NB: Ive also read that the snails read salt in water to breed. As they are living in the mollie fry tank, they already have that.

Apple snails need a male and female to breed. They are also a freshwater snail.

You can learn more about how to breed them at www.applesnail.com


ETA: .Net not .com (Thanks Georgia!)

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

Hi,

First off, go to www.applesnail.net (not ".com" ) for tons and tons of info on freshwater snails.

Snails do not require any salt in the water. In fact, salt is harmful to them at moderate levels and may be the reason they haven't laid eggs yet. They do require high calcium levels, and high pH (7.5-8.0) for proper shell development, and to keep their shells from dissolving.

Some may disagree with me, but I'm of the belief that mollies don't in fact need salt in their water. What they need is a high general hardness, which the salt provides, and a high pH. I've kept and bred mollies for years in high GH, high pH water, with no salt.

That said, if the salt level is minimal, the snails may survive. But, they probably won't breed.

You need a male and female of the same species to have fertile eggs. It sounds as if you have a Canaliculata by the baseball size. They love vegetables, so you're doing well there. If the smaller one is a lot smaller it may be a different species though, possibly Bridgesii. Comparing the shape of the shell spirals is a good way to deterime that. The above-mentioned website proivdes lots of pics.

Once you determine they're the same species, you'll have to see whether you in fact have a male and female. There are pictures on sexing them on that website too.

Good luck! Baby snails sure are cute. But, keep in mind they can lay upwards of 75 per clutch.

I think saying one is baseball size is over exaggerating. A baseball size cana snail just barely fits in a 10g and even if they do physically the level of waste from the snail would be more than enough to use up the biofilter of a 10g tank. You'd probably end up gravel vacing it every few days. If it is a cana then it's going to need at least a wider tank in the near future and those that breed canas either have several tanks in the 29-30g range or keep 1 or 2 55g tanks running.

Brigs are around golfball size and much more suited to a 10g. First though you need a male and female there are pics on applesnail.net. I usually bred them by putting 3-4 of the snails I wanted to cross into a 10g filled 3/4 of the way with water and then grew them out in my 55g. To lay eggs brigs will need a minimum of around 1-2" of open space at the top of the tank and canas will need around 3-4". Usually it's best to run a sponge filter, internal filter, or something similar that can be used with a low water level.

That also bring up a good reason to have a seperate breeding tank. Snails love hard water and won't or even can't breed in water with a ph below 7-7.2. If you lower the water level on a tank with hardwater you'll end up with water lines all over the glass. The only way to get rid of them is to either fill the tank up and wait it out which took 2months for my 55g or drain the tank and scrub it with vinegar.

Another difference between brigs and canas is that while brigs will eat vegetables and quite enjoy a lettuce treat they are actually carnivorous and will breed much better if fed meatier fish foods such as sinking shrimp pellets, invert foods like crab and lobster bites, or even flakes. Mine also love to eat those vacation feeder blocks. The white part of the block is made of a calcium compound which helps the snails shells and then they get the bits of meaty food while they are at it. However these will mess with the ph of a tank if it less than about 7.4.

In my opinion and experience mollies do not need salt. They have been bred in freshwater to saltwater for so long that mollies born and raised in freshwater will live out their lives in freshwater just as well as those born, raised, and kept in saltwater their whole lives or any salinity level in between. The most stressful thing is to change them from freshwater to salt or salt to fresh. They then have to adapt to an entirely different way of regulating the amount of salt and water in their bodies. Since snails highly dislike salt and your mollies were probably bred and then kept at the store in freshwater there is no reason to add salt to the tank.

hi all...Thanks very much for such informative inputs..
well, the bigger fellow IS the size of the baseball (ok +/- 5% ) The smaller one is now a bit less than the size of a golf ball. The shell structure and coloration is exactly the same. I have the bigger one for more than four months now and it has grown quite a bit since. The smaller one is with me for around 3 months.
The pH point really seems valid. Will it be ok adding some crushed lime rock to the quartz gravel to raise the pH? I think it will have an added advantage of raising the Ca level in water to keep the shells in good shape.
The shells look in great shape though. No cracks, shedding or thinning observed. When i bought them, they were covered in a layer of algea which the fry cleaned off. I have healthy big molly fry and clean snails now
I feed them slices of cucumber on alternate days which they seem to love. Treats consist of algea wafers once or twice a week.
I put the bigger one initially in my planted 33g tank but it destroyed most of my plants overnight. So i had to move it and the fry tank was the only option I was left with.
Im currently building my 55g malawi cichlid tank. It will definitely be a high pH, and hard water tank. Will it be safe to put it there? (well i seriously doubt malawis will spare him )

Malawi enjoy eating applesnails. If your snail destroyed your planted tank then it's a cana or possibly paludosa but both are pretty much equivalent. Both eat plants and will devour even a large heavily planted tank overnight and both reach baseball size requiring preferably a tank around 30g for their full adult size. Brigs being carnivorous don't eat living plants. They only eat dead ones or things like vegetables that are no longer growing. All brigs can come in the same colors as canas so color means nothing. Their shells are also very close in shape so unless you actually look at the pictures explaining the different angles you can't really tell. Even then I've never had much luck using the shell angles. I just wait till they grow. Within a few months if well fed most canas surpass golfball size. Depends though on what size they were when you got them but overall they grow much faster than brigs. Since applesnails can also lay hundreds of eggs at a time you definitely don't want to try breeding canas in a small tank.

Georgia, as per your advice, i raised the pH by adding some sodium bicarbonate and lo......the third day i got a big bunch of pink eggs
thanks