View Full Version : mystery snails
mr.cichlid
12-20-2009, 7:24 PM
Hi All,
I got three mystery snails (ivory, gold, blue) from petsmart. They are in my 29g african cichlid fry/juvie tank. I will try to keep a close eye on these guys. I don't want them to 1000s of 'em in my tank. All I need are a few snails that could eat away extra food. Please let me know what precautions should I be taking in order to meet my goal of not having 1000s of these snails. Depending on my success in keeping these in my 29g. I will think about adding snails in my 125g.
Does yoyo loaches control mystery snails population?
Thanks!
RazzleFish
12-20-2009, 7:28 PM
It's not hard to control their population. They do not breed the same way as many other snails. They will lay a large clutch of eggs suspended from the hood of the tank. All you have to do is keep an eye on that area and pluck off and clutches that you see (Trust me you won't miss them). Good luck!
snoopy65
12-20-2009, 7:30 PM
Watch for clutches of eggs above the water line, remove them and freeze them.
mr.cichlid
12-20-2009, 7:30 PM
would dropping the egg clutches back into water stop them from hatching??? and how often do they reproduce???
odinthejd
12-20-2009, 7:31 PM
You could have just gone with a raphael catfish
mr.cichlid
12-20-2009, 7:33 PM
i thought snails wud also clean off some algae. Also, though mystery snails dont dig in sand. my 125g has a deep sand bed if i get success with mystery snails i will start looking into snails that dig in sand.
snoopy65
12-20-2009, 8:01 PM
would dropping the egg clutches back into water stop them from hatching??? and how often do they reproduce???
Yes, if a clutch goes into the water, the snails will not survive. My females go in spurts. Some weeks I have 8-10 clutches (5 known adult females) and some weeks none. I very rarely go longer than a couple of weeks without at least 1 clutch being laid.
It's not hard to control their population. They do not breed the same way as many other snails. They will lay a large clutch of eggs suspended from the hood of the tank. All you have to do is keep an eye on that area and pluck off and clutches that you see (Trust me you won't miss them). Good luck!
Agreed!!!
mr.cichlid
12-20-2009, 10:21 PM
will they not survive or will they not even hatch?
Yes, if a clutch goes into the water, the snails will not survive. My females go in spurts. Some weeks I have 8-10 clutches (5 known adult females) and some weeks none. I very rarely go longer than a couple of weeks without at least 1 clutch being laid.
KatelynC
12-20-2009, 10:58 PM
they won't even hatch if the clutch falls into the water.
odinthejd
12-20-2009, 10:59 PM
I would bring the clutch to a 10gal it you can move and have a mini snail tank!
Sarahann31190
12-21-2009, 1:23 AM
I would bring the clutch to a 10gal it you can move and have a mini snail tank!
The tank wouldn't be able to be "mini" for long.
Each clutch can have about 200 eggs in it.
BettaFishMommy
12-21-2009, 2:32 AM
clutches can range in size, but it is not unheard of for a large clutch to yield 200 baby snails. trick to managing the population if you want babies is to cut off however much of the clutch you don't want to hatch and freeze n toss it.
Mystery snails are gendered unlike many other snails, so you have to have at least one male and one female in order to even get a clutch in the first place. Then, in my experience, the female can be pretty picky about laying her eggs unless the conditions are just right. If other fish are picking on her, or if the water level in the tank is too high, etc, she may never lay at all. I wouldn't worry too much about population control until you actually see a clutch.
As far as the yoyo loach, there are obviously much better population control methods for mystery snails, as suggested by everyone else. I have had a yoyo for almost a year and I have all kinds of snails (including mystery) in my tank, he's just not interested. Plus, it's usually not a good idea to buy an animal to fix something in your tank. They usually end up creating more work than they save you.
blue2fyre
12-21-2009, 8:43 AM
Don't keep yoy loaches with any snails you want to keep. Just remove the clutch after it is laid, freeze then throw away. That will control your snail population.
psyche
12-21-2009, 9:29 AM
As mentioned above, you might not even get any eggs. I have 5 mystery snails and they all turned out to be male.
mr.cichlid
12-21-2009, 10:51 AM
thanks guys for all ur advice. is there a way to identify male and female mystery snail? i will post some pics of my snails today or tomorrow.
snoopy65
12-21-2009, 11:01 AM
http://www.applesnail.net/content/anatomy/reproduction.php
mr.cichlid
12-21-2009, 9:31 PM
snoopy65, thanks for the link. it helps a lot. currently all my snails went inside the shell and not moving...read in an online article that it is common with mystery snails...will keep my watch on them closely...
BettaFishMommy
12-23-2009, 12:03 AM
from my own experience i find the female apples (briggs) to be larger and they also grow faster from baby to adult size. i'm now on generation #7 of shellkids in my tank and still haven't clearly seen the male's 'bits' that various snail websites talk about and only able to decifer the boys from the gals when they 'wrestle', lol.