Anyone keep Snails

[WhiteAngel]

Anyone keep snails.

Like in large tanks 10 gallons and up???????

I read somewhere that snails are not supposed to be kept in water twice the height of their shells.

Does any one experience problems keeping snails in larger tanks??????

[Leopardess]

No, don't worry about it - that is not true. If it were, maybe I wouldn't have 500000 snails in my 55g:rolleyes:

Mystery/apple snails make great additions to a tank, imo. I had one in my planted 10g and now I have one in the planted 5g. I think they're awesome creatures. It's great watching them eat bloodworms:cool:

[elgecko]

I've kept Apple snails in a planted 10 gallon also.

Here's a great link on snails:
http://www.applesnail.net/

[RTR]

Now there is an interesting new myth - it is (almost) refreshing to run into a totally off-the-wall myth that is really new.

Some snails are gill breathers just as are fish, so depth means nothing to them in a tank. Other snails are air breathers, so do need to reach the surface periodically to exchange old air for fresh. They can climb the walls to do this, or just contract their bodies allowing their stored air to expand and thus provide more buoyancy so that they float up.

If your tank had a sheet of glass in total contact with the water, the air breathing snails might drown, but the fish would suffocate also.

[dethjam316]

perhaps that myth has *some* basis in a real-life situation, vague and exaggerated as it might be. apple snails (well, the most common species) DO breathe air and DO lay their eggs above the water surface. when i had mine in a tank with only an inch or so at the top, they wouldn't breed...as soon as i moved them to a half-filled 10g, eggs were laid.

they need several inches of glass/other space above the water in order to lay their egg-clutches, so that's probably where the myth comes from.

[snakeskinner]

I wish my mystery snails had drown in the deep murky waters of my 55 gallon instead of eating $20 worth of plants their first week. The two now live in my hospital tank and eat about a head of lettuce in a couple weeks. Kyle

[RTR]

Air space for egg-deposition by Apple snails was not the question. The issue was survival of snails in general in water more than twice the height of their shells.

Apple snails' siphon will reach the surface at that depth without their climbing at all.

And as for egg deposition, common pond & common ramshorns could not care less how deep the eggs are, and MTS do not do externally deposited eggs.

[dethjam316]

right, RTR...but why should the basis of the myth speak directly to the question at hand? my post was mere conjecture on the nature of the myth, since you'd already answered the question succinctly. pond snails, etc., may not care about depth for eggs, but that was not at issue here at all. apple snails do, and certainly bridgesii (certainly the most commonly kept species) does. i think this, perhaps, sheds some light on the origin of the myth.

[missymoo]

apples will eat normal lettuce ???? well that is good to know as my little one has just purchased an apple and a dwarf african frog
... do u have to do anything to it before you put it in the tank???

[mack606]

I bought a couple snails for my 10g and really liked them. Then my mom saw them and hated them, so I bought a couple more :D If they gross you out then they are porbably not a good idea.

[snakeskinner]

I have never done anything to the lettuce missymoo. My wife was buying bags of pre-cut salad and using the lettuce in the snails bowl (at the time, they're now in my 10 gallon hospital tank). I went with her last grocery trip and did some price checking and found a head of lettuce was much cheaper and lasts longer so we've been just peeling a leaf off at a time and I put it directly in the tank. Once they catch it, it disappears fast. Kyle