Apple Snails

[ingo_1978]

I bought 10 apple snails from my LFS to feed to my Puffer fish. Sadly my puffer doesn't seem interested in eating them. He's still young and I think he'll turn on them when he gets a bit bigger.

I've decided to keep the snails. I've popped one in my cold water tank, as I know they can't breed asexually and will let him grow. The others are still in the puffer tank. The puffer is brackish and in an SG of 1.005, can apple snails survive in this? I am also unsure if I need to feed them anything or will they just eat the left over bloodworm and mussel I feed my puffer? I would also like to breed them as I'm sure my puffer would eat the baby snails, is there anything I need to do to get them to breed or just wait and hope?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[jflowers]

No they wont like brackish at all I am afraid. You could put them all in your cold (not too cold though as they will go into a sort of hibernation if its cold and die if its below 60) water tank and just take the eggs off the hood when they appear. Have a look at http/www.applesnail.net

The optimal water temperature for apple snails lays between 18 to 28°C (65-82°F). As with many cold-blooded animals, apple snails are more active at higher temperatures. At higher temperatures, they eat faster, creep faster and they grow faster. Also higher temperatures mainly induce the reproduction of the apple snail. At lower temperatures (18°C/65°F) the apple snail enters a dormancy state in which they creep away in the mud and become very inactive. Temperatures below 18°C/65°F should be avoided as the mortality rate quickly increases.

Jon

[EDIT: What puffer is it and how big is it. My puffers will munch all day on snails that fit into thier mouths but ignore the larger ones. If you could set up a breeding tank for the snails, your puffer will love you ]

 

[mandi]

Also, apple snails don't won't breed asexually (they're one of the types of snails that won't). Females can store sperm for a while, but they do require a male to produce more. I've also found that mine will only breed if I overfeed the tank -- they seem to reproduce in relation to the amount of available food.

Check out the link that jflowers mentioned. You'll find LOTS of info there about breeding them, telling the males from females, etc. on the site (as well as almost anything else you could imagine)