snails??

[emi-chan]

i notice when i get plants there are usually some little tiny snails on them but i ignore them and put them in the tank since the goldfish and the loaches eat them right away.

this time i decided to put the biggest snails i could see on the plants (along with any broken off bits of the plants themeselves) into a seperate tank to see what would happen.

within a few weeks i noticed 2 snails (the biggest i've ever seen them on the plants when i buy them) happily travelling around the tank but today i noticed some little patches on the sides of the tank that almost look like tiny soap bubbles.

so...what do snail eggs look like? because i haven't got any clue about snails and what they eat and how they breed and whatnot...just in case something might happen....

[Noto]

That sounds like snail eggs. Different types of snails have different-looking egg masses. Physid snails, which are probably the most common hitchhikers on plants, lay egg masses that look like little blobs of clear jelly with tiny white dots embedded in them.

Most snails are pretty much omnivorous. Fish food, algae, vegetable scraps, etc. will all be happily eaten. Keep them fed and perform occasional water changes and you should have a booming colony. It is important for snails to have adequate calcium to build their shells; adding cuttlebone, calcium-based antacid tablets, or calcium-rich vegetables such as boiled greens, canned spinach, and raw green soybeans can help.

Do you want to raise them as loach food or are you just experimenting? Any photos of the snails?

[emi-chan]

hahaha...i was just keeping them almost like pets...since they look exactly like what you said i'll perhaps think about using them as loach food...
i do occasional water changes anyway...
is there any special care needed for the babies if they arrive? or just continue what i'm doing now, feeding them bits of plants and veg ect

(i'll work on getting some photos of them if i can get my hands on a camera...)

the snails are so small i didn't think it was eggs! i thought they were too young or something!

[Noto]

No special care needed for the little ones. They will feed on the same foods as the adults. They are very very small when they hatch, so don't be surprised if you don't see them for a while after the egg masses disintegrate.

If you have a power filter, small snails may be swept in and either trapped against the intake screen or swept into the filter chamber (where they often thrive, feeding on detritus and bacteria). Air-driven sponge filters are a better choice for snail tanks. You can also go filterless if you have plenty of plants or do frequent water changes.

[emi-chan]

i'm filter-less at the moment so i'll have to be extra careful doing water changes incase i end up releasing snails into the drains!!

thanks for the advice! i'll post a pic or 2 up soon!!

[emi-chan]

so i looked in the tank before i headed back to uni and most of the dots in one of the blobs are gone. i saw a few little tiny white dots that almost look dirt on the front of the tank which i'm guessing are babies!

[Diana]

That is the babies. They are almost clear when they hatch, but start coloring up pretty fast.

[emi-chan]

so i eventually got some pics of the snails but unfortunately my camera isn't god enough to see the eggs since they're too small...

,

[starsplitter7]

Those are very pretty. They look like pond snails, but I have no idea.

[emi-chan]

they're fun to watch too since i gave them a dead leaf from my fish tank and within 3 mins they'd made their way down and were munching away!

[starsplitter7]

I love my snails and watch them.

I have a hard time keeping them, because my water is very acidic.

[emi-chan]

does anyone know of any big cold water snails that wouldn't get eaten in my fishtank?

[glenna]

OH I love snails too!
recently I moved all my loaches to the big tank in the living room.
I never KNEW I had snails in those other tanks until the loaches were gone. Now, I have lots of them and some are really beautiful. I have the typical pond type and some that have curly shells.
one great big fat one lugs his curly shell all around and it is blowing i nthe flow like it is going to snatch him off the glass!!!
I am getting worried though,..... I was cleaning up and found gobs amd gobs of what look like tiny frog eggs. I think they have GOT to be snail eggs since there are no frogs around!
I thinking I am getting ready for a snail population explosion!!!
I guess I'll need ot get some new baby loaches!!!

[emi-chan]

ok...after being all exicted over getting some baby snails i've decided that i must have treated them a little too well since there are LOADS of them!

does anyone know how i'm going to get snails from the tank they're in to my fish tank for a little population control?

[Laura]

If you limit their available food, it will help with population control.