ok i want to get some snails....so what is a kind that has some color...i saw a pic of a magenta snail? and he looked AWESOME! however....i do not want to be overrun with them...so is there a particlar breed that might not breed so easily? also what do they feed on? im starting a shrimp tank...thanks to mg for getting me some cherry shrimp! (i cant wait till they get here!!!!) so i was wondering if the snails would be cool with my cherrys...also since cherry shrimp are known for breeding easily...which i would LOVE to happen....everyone says get a sponge for your filter intake....ok i dont want to sound stupid or anything....but where in the world are these sponges??!? are they just a sponge you buy from walmart cut a hole in and stick it on? do they come pre made? if anyone could shed some light on that that would be great! p.s. i have a penguin 200 on my 20 gallon for my invert tank, and i have the midline strainer opened...so if i put sponges on the intake...do i have to put it on the midline strainer too? or just the very bottom? thanks to anyone who clears this up for me!
a few questions for ya!!! about snails and sponges. lol
- Thread starter hotpod
- Start date
Several brands of filter have a sponge as one part of the filter media. People buy one of the replacement filter sponges that looks like about the right courseness and size, then poke a hole and slip it over the end of the filter tube. It works fairly well. A snail that will not reproduce out of control is any of the mystery snails. First it takes 2 to reproduce, unlike many other snails. Second, they lay their eggs in a clutch above the water line. If you don't want more snails, remove the egg clutch before they hatch. I am new to this myself but I love the magenta striped ones myself. I have yet to find a good source for them because dakotagirl is no longer with us. She was the real pro at this.
There are a couple of options for sponges to go over your intake, I personally just use ac30 sponges and cut them to fit, put a small slice in teh middle, and slide them on. These seem to work well because they are porous enough to let the gunge through, but keep out the plant debris and baby shrimp. There are pre-filter sponges sold, I have never used them so I don't know a brand name for you. I would cover any place baby shrimp could get pulled into the filter, so the midline strainer would be a good idea as well. A new pair of pantyhose may work better for you as that would be a very long piece of foam to cover teh entire intake.
As for what species of snails, the magenta you saw is most likely a pomacea bridgessi (apple/mystery/brig snail). They are sex specific so will not reproduce on their own. This being said, if you have multiple snails of the species, most often they lay their eggs in large clutches above the water line and its very easy to remove them and freeze them for population control. After starting your invert tank you may find you want more (they have a relatively short life span of 1- 1 1/2 years) so you could try hatchign a partial clutch as well. The only shortcoming to keeping these snails with shrimp is that produce a good bit of waste for their size and it can be challenging vacuuming a shrimp tank with new babies.
As for food, i have a thread going that lists homemade food options, fresh veggies, or you can feed commercially available foods (sinking wafers, algae discs). They need a calcium rich diet in order to promote healthy shell growth.
As for what species of snails, the magenta you saw is most likely a pomacea bridgessi (apple/mystery/brig snail). They are sex specific so will not reproduce on their own. This being said, if you have multiple snails of the species, most often they lay their eggs in large clutches above the water line and its very easy to remove them and freeze them for population control. After starting your invert tank you may find you want more (they have a relatively short life span of 1- 1 1/2 years) so you could try hatchign a partial clutch as well. The only shortcoming to keeping these snails with shrimp is that produce a good bit of waste for their size and it can be challenging vacuuming a shrimp tank with new babies.
As for food, i have a thread going that lists homemade food options, fresh veggies, or you can feed commercially available foods (sinking wafers, algae discs). They need a calcium rich diet in order to promote healthy shell growth.