FishProfiles.com Message Forums

After reading all about the genetics of apple snails, I would like to give breeding a go. To breed a snail, what size tank do I need? Do you think that they would breed in my 10 gal with my plattys & Danios? How many snails do I need to get and is it true that they are asexual?

Thanks!

Inky

A 10 gal. tank is fine for breeding Snails. You alsoneed a male & a female for succsessful breeding & they lay the eggs on top of the water level, so you have to leave some space there. They would be fine with your current fish & here is a site where you can learn much more about snails:- http://www.applesnail.net/



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.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

A 10g is what I used when I wanted to breed them. I selected the color of male and female I wanted to mix from the snails in my 55g and moved them to the 10g. Usually if I wanted to mix say olive and ivory I moved 3 that I thought were ivory males and 3 that I thought were olive females. The applesnail.net site has info on telling the gender but the easiest is just to watch and wait for one to be on top trying to mate. Then you know for certain which is male and female and can move 1 or both immediately.

The water line has to be dropped preferably at least 4" for the best results. Otherwise they will find it difficult to cram a large egg mass between the water and the top of the tank and may just decide to wait for a drought(lowered water level) or leave the tank to find a better location. Eggs must be kept moist but not soaked because the babies can dry out or drown. You can mist the eggs once a day or keep the tank sealed up well and add an airstone. The bubbles will carry some moisture to the top of the tank and it will be trapped. Raising the humidity in the air between the water and the lid. Leaving them alone with no help in an open tank about 25-50% will hatch depending on clutch size. The outside ones will dry out. Alot of the people on applesnail.net remove them to hatching containers with a little water and the eggs sitting on a sponge. You can find plenty of hatching ideas on that site.

The tank ph should be fairly high(7.2 or higher) with a fair amount of gh(6-8dh or higher) so the female snails won't have trouble finding and using calcium to build their shells and eggs. The applesnail.net forums have come up with lots of ways to add calcium to the water.
Feed them with a small amount of vegetable matter and sinking foods like shrimp pellets. Mine loved crab and lobster bites.

Following all that I was getting 1 batch of eggs every other day for 1week from each set of 3 females that I put in the tank. They get a little burnt out after that and would do better with a rest in a tank that's full to the top so there's no egg laying room. Otherwise they'll stop laying for awhile and then you'll only get about 1 clutch every week or 2 after that.

Last edited by sham at 15-Dec-2005 14:48

Do they need any floating plants at the top to keep the eggs hiddin from other fishies?

Inky

The eggs are completely out of the water. Baby snails can drown. So chances are very low anything will manage to eat them unless you plan on keeping some very odd fish species or other inverts. Occasionally though if you have too little good egg laying space and too many females they will knock each others eggs down to make room for their own. One of those reasons some people remove them but I never had that problem so long as the water was low enough the clutches didn't have to be laid in narrow horizontal strips.

Wow! Thats neat! What about snail cross breeding?

I currently have a gold canna apple (male?) and I really like the violet apples and the flat-shelled ones (not sure) would they breed? Or can I only breed my canna with another gold canna?

Inky