Loaches Online Forum

Does anyone here keep them? fascinating little guys!! I have just got 5 yellow "rabbits"

Val

I can't believe no-one keeps these!!

Val

I can't get them. I love snails. Almost every type.

I think Emma has some.

post photos

I think they're great to look at but, the wife don't like them and, I don't have a snail-safe tank to put them in My water parameters are to soft anyhow.

I've got 7 T. gemmifera - 4 adults and 3 young that they've birthed over the past year. They are the fussiest, most challenging snails I've ever come across!
I thought I was going to lose them until I got them established in a species tank. They didn't do well on gravel and needed the higher temperatures to get settled in. When I moved them to sand they did much better (unlike my brigs who don't thrive on silica sand).
The sp. I have only eat very soft food, although I understand your yellows will eat some plants, and from Emma's video footage they are downright speedy compared to mine. Mine love Caltrate calcium tabs and some pellet food (Omega), until finding these products I was having trouble feeding them.
From what I've read and surmised, some species adapt better than others in captivity.

I have now also got 5 x Tylomelania towutica, they are similar to the "rabbits" but the body is speckled. The ones you have, T.gemmifera have a longer shell.
Mine are also in a species tank, I don't think they would do well in with fish. too much competition for the food!
Do you just drop the calcium tabs into the tank? what a brilliant idea. Mine are eating algae wafer, shrimp pellet and some Tetra prima granules. They sure are a challenge!!!

Val

They like the Caltrate - I feed the one without the added vitamin D. I put about 1/2 a tablet in the corner of the tank in the area with the least water flow. I've fed other brands, but they really seem to like caltrate.
Someone at applesnail.net did some taste tests and found that discriminating snails prefer caltrate.

My understanding is that some of the tylomelania will interbreed - from my reading it tends to be the ones with similar shaped shells, but there's not a lot of info out there yet.

Congrats on your guys - I'll try some of those food brands on mine. I tried them with Omega shirmp pellets and they don't seem too interested.

My T.towutica have produced a baby!!! just one! It's about the size of a pin head.

Val

Yay - congratulations!

Right, seriously now. You guys absolutely have to put some pictures up!

My snail experience is fairly limited. Bought 2 ruby and 2 tiger nerites a while back. One of them died after two years, another a spell later but the fourth is still going strong more than three years on. Great algae eaters. I just wish I hadn't put them in a tank with loaches as they've been going around blind all this time

Set up a 40ltr cube tank on my bedside table and have two small blue apple snails in there along with a population explosion of cherry shrimp, 5 Boraras brigittae and two Corydoras pygmaeus. The apples are doing ok although there are three 'events' showing in their shells. The first from when I first bought them (sort of to be expected) but I'm not sure what has caused the other two. The only food I give them is small pieces of algae wafer (Hikari) and they've decided to eat my Pogostemon helferi. All of it. Nothing but a pathetic little stump left. So, I figure they're not getting enough food. I'm thinking about getting the hikari shrimp food so maybe that will help.

I looked up Caltrate expecting to find some special aquarium snail supplement! How does it react in the water? We have moderately hard water here so I didn't think I'd need to add any calcium either as liquid or dietary...but now I'm starting to wonder.

I've left a couple of inches gap at the top of the tank in the hope that they might breed but nothing yet. Is there a minimum size they need to get to first?

palaeodave wrote:Right, seriously now. You guys absolutely have to put some pictures up!

Yes, please.

palaeodave wrote:Right, seriously now. You guys absolutely have to put some pictures up!

.....

Set up a 40ltr cube tank on my bedside table and have two small blue apple snails in there along with a population explosion of cherry shrimp, 5 Boraras brigittae and two Corydoras pygmaeus. The apples are doing ok although there are three 'events' showing in their shells. The first from when I first bought them (sort of to be expected) but I'm not sure what has caused the other two. The only food I give them is small pieces of algae wafer (Hikari) and they've decided to eat my Pogostemon helferi. All of it. Nothing but a pathetic little stump left. So, I figure they're not getting enough food. I'm thinking about getting the hikari shrimp food so maybe that will help.

I looked up Caltrate expecting to find some special aquarium snail supplement! How does it react in the water? We have moderately hard water here so I didn't think I'd need to add any calcium either as liquid or dietary...but now I'm starting to wonder.

I've left a couple of inches gap at the top of the tank in the hope that they might breed but nothing yet. Is there a minimum size they need to get to first?

Hi and so sorry for not seeing your post earlier.
Brigs can be particular little creatures about laying - not sure what age they can start at, but it seems that if everything isn't to their liking, then they just refuse to lay (or you could have two males - only the females lay and they aren't hermaphroditic).

I've got mixed stock that reward me with occasional clutches, but my mother has a tank where that they constantly lay for her.

I would suggest sticking with the algae and they love shrimp pellets, but add in some veg matter for them. They can only eat soft plants as your Pogostemon helferi found out. Duckweed is about the only other thing they really eat.

You can soften or freeze high calcium plants like kale for them - they like fresh zucchini too, as do your cherries.

The caltrate dissolves in a little pile and doesn't cloud the water, and the cherry shrimp will go nutso for it too. I would suggest a 1/2 pill twice a week.

On the photo front, I'll see what I can do when I get around to clearing out the najas grass that has overridden my tank .....I can't see a thing!

I have only just noticed this post as well, so sorry. I doubt I will be able to get any pics of the sulawesi snails as they seem to be very nocturnal, I keep apple snails though and mine are laying eggs all the time I think you, palaeodave, probably have two snails of the same sex, I have tried them on all different foods but their preference is for Hikari algae wafers and shrimp pellets everyhting else gets ignored.

Val

Sorry for not getting back to you until now. Had some snail developments in my girlfriend's tank so will put up pictures soon.