Does a snail only tank need to be cycled?

[lawdawg18]

I'm starting a new bigger snail only tank to try to raise more snails for my puffers. Does the snail only tank need to cycle like a tank for fish or will the snails be ok. I don't want to wipe out the snail population that I already have.

[dethjam316]

well, snails might be a bit tougher than fish, but they still produce waste and such, so the tank will inevitably go through a cycle. or you'll eventually have to do water changes or risk ammonia-burning death.

[Aquarius0015]

How big is it?

[dethjam316]

yea i thought i'd put that in my original post, but i didn't. if its too small, it'll never truly cycle.

[RENEGADE]

i have commom pond snails and i just dump the water and refill it straght from the tap and i havn't had any problems but alge won't grow so i'm using water from my 10g tank but they've stop poping out eggs:eek:

[lawdawg18]

The new tanks is just a little 10 gallon, I have a 1 gallon that I have some snails in, but its such a pain to try to get the snails out of.

[dethjam316]

if its a 10g, it can cycle for sure. throw a sponge filter in their or something, and let em go to town.

[SBA]

i'm in a similar situation to you.

had a small (1g) tank with ramshorns in it. during the summer it was on a windowsill, was always warm and was overrun with algae (on purpose i might add).

i didn't purposely cycle or even filter the tank, just had an airpump / stone running on it.

they bred like, well - snails. hundreds of eggs + baby snails. the water was filthy due to overfeeding, no filtration and snail poop. out of curiosity i tested the water once and got ammonia = 0, nitrite = 0, nitrate > 50ppm. seems the tank was cycled.


anyway, i moved house and set the snail tank up in a cooler room with no strong light source. also the weather got cooler. the result was no more snail eggs. so i've just bought a 10g mini tank setup with filter, heater, lights and have planted it. I seeded the filter + gravel with stuff from my old tank and added some harlequin rasboras and the remaining large snails.

the tank never tested positive for ammonia or nitrite and i'm not getting much of a nitrate reading due to the plants, but it is fully cycled.

but the snails still haven't started laying eggs again!!!

not sure if any of that answers your question mind! i would say that when you add snails to a tank, it will cycle naturally due to the ammonia produced. the snails will not die (IME) as a result of this.

HTH

[often dignified]

I have a 5 gallon mini bow that I keep cycled with snails. It doesn't have a heater, but I could get one in an emergency as a q-tank.

I used to keep Glolite tetras in there, but after I switched them to another tank, I decided to keep the snails.... there are at least 60 or 70 in there :p

I don't even put any food in there though and they still reproduce like crazy. They seem to just feed off of the brown algae.

[TKOS]

Snails produce much less waste than most fish so, IMO, it is fine to start them in an uncycled tank. I do a small water chnage for my 1 gallon every week or so and drop a few flakes or some veggies in there once a week. Of course with snails it is really hard to tell if they are dying or not as there is always someone else to take their place.