Hello again, Snail questions here...

[Xirxes]

Everything is going swimmingly now, have two clowns in my 30G, and am using the 10G as a snail rearing tank now.

A few questions on snail raising...
I bought 10 of these type snails...

after being told that they reproduce rapidly. However, a different LFS informed me that they do NOT reproduce rapidly, and gave me 13 of these little guys...

And was told that they reproduce like rabbits.

Questions:
1: I have both in the same tank... will they both reproduce there?
2: Are either of these quick reproducing snails?
3: How long should it be before i see some offspring for either?
4: Which of these do clown loaches snack on?
5: Is the first a ramshorn?

I have had these snails for about a week now at room temp, have not noticed any offspring yet. Please let me know anything i can do in order to improve the reproduction of these little clown feasts.

[Martin Thoene]

First one is a Red Ramshorn snail. These will reproduce and loaches will eat them. I'm not sure of their rate of breeding however.

The second ones are Malaysian Trumpet Snails, usually referred to as MTS......not to be confused with Multiple Tank Syndrome, the dedicated fishkeeper's "affliction".....usually diagnosed by family members

MTS are basically Hermaphrodite and therefore reproduce like the proverbial rabbits. However, they have extremely hard shells and basically a "trap door" which closes off the shell from predators. Some loaches will eat them, but it's not exactly an easy task and mainly big Clowns and such have the required "suck" to extricate them from their shells.

TURBO SNAIL!


Martin.

[andyroo]

snails of the second photo type are pretty common all over. Common in new world, Martin says common in pets trade from old.
It is a hell of a spectacle to watch a clown take on a larger one of these things. Keeps them fit adn entertained, but the event churns up a lot of soil/substrate.

They (snails) dig and once the loachs begin to eat them/figure out how to eat them they disappear, living mainly under the substrate. Loaches will dig them out.

Good fun.

Andyroo

[Mark in Vancouver]

I recently dug up my skunk tank as I transfered them to a different on. I was really surprised to find five of the trumpet snails of decent size clinging to the bottoms of rocks that were settled into the gravel substrate. That they could survive around loaches is impressive, but that they could exist in one of my tanks for that many months without ever showing themselves is quite shocking to me. The snails I found are now at home with the skunks in the new tank - and I have one less tank to clean every week! Hoorah!