I don't think starving an apple snail is a good means of control. I just pull their clutches. They are laid underwater and are easy to remove although they lay them prolifically. I like the spixis alot, they are very cute snails. They did not munch the majority of my plants, but did nibble on some, usually by the substrate causing leaves to break free. I wasn't tryign to deter you from them, merely give you a heads up in case do you notice any of your plants not doing well. I don't consider them to be plant eaters but more opportunistic than most of my other snails. I feed them a calcium rich diet to maintain their health just like i do my bridgesii.
Snail time!
- Thread starter NeonFlux
- Start date
Starving? They are scavengers and are built to scrounge around to find food for themselves. I wouldn't call it "starving them" if you don't target feed snails. It's unnatural for them to find perfect discs of algae sitting around next to them. The same goes for shrimp (if anyone cares). I don't remember where, but I do recall reading about how shrimp shouldn't be fed everyday because they ARE scavengers and having a food source readily available isn't normal. I use the same idea with snails. Though, I will say I feed my shrimp more often than snails.
To keep the calcium up though, I do feed my spixis about once or twice a week. The rest of the days of that week is up to them to find food. I keep my spixis in aquasoil with a PH ranging in the 6.4-6.8. Though most of them are born in waters of 7.0 - 7.6. I then transfer them out of that and into my larger tank with more acidic PH. Their shells are actually very nice and not cracked and eroding like most people think. You just gotta watch what you feed your snails and they'll be nice and happy.
They aren't voracious plant eaters, I can say that. Though like most snails, they can get curious sometimes and nibble on things. I have kept spixis with HC before and my HC was undamaged
The strange thing is, I think they tend to fancy the flavor of Amazon Frogbit. They would often "surf" upside down at the top of the tank and float until they hit a frogbit. Then crawl onto it, peck at it and make a small hole or sometimes eat half a leaf, then drop down. They've never eaten the whole thing, so I'm not too mad at them for that. I think this behavior might be because I don't feed them though. Haha... Though people always ask me why I have a half eaten frogbit in my tank 
To keep the calcium up though, I do feed my spixis about once or twice a week. The rest of the days of that week is up to them to find food. I keep my spixis in aquasoil with a PH ranging in the 6.4-6.8. Though most of them are born in waters of 7.0 - 7.6. I then transfer them out of that and into my larger tank with more acidic PH. Their shells are actually very nice and not cracked and eroding like most people think. You just gotta watch what you feed your snails and they'll be nice and happy.
They aren't voracious plant eaters, I can say that. Though like most snails, they can get curious sometimes and nibble on things. I have kept spixis with HC before and my HC was undamaged
The strange thing is, I think they tend to fancy the flavor of Amazon Frogbit. They would often "surf" upside down at the top of the tank and float until they hit a frogbit. Then crawl onto it, peck at it and make a small hole or sometimes eat half a leaf, then drop down. They've never eaten the whole thing, so I'm not too mad at them for that. I think this behavior might be because I don't feed them though. Haha... Though people always ask me why I have a half eaten frogbit in my tank yeah, i don't feed my inverts daily either and overfeeding is a way to induce egg laying, i just dont think that a tank environment is equivalent to natural habitat in what the snails/shrimp have the ability to forage for so I am a believer that target feeding is necessary to their health.
I agree with Jinkz on this one. Starving an animal so it wont breed is NOT creating an ideal condition for it.
If you choose to keep these snails you should also choose to house them properly, or dont keep them.
If you choose to keep these snails you should also choose to house them properly, or dont keep them.
Harhar, how subtle.
Snails will show signs if they are unhealthy and require better feeding routines. One of the major signs would be shells being too fragile and begin to damage. NONE of my snails have this. They're also kept in planted tanks and I know they'll eat my plants first (healthy ones) before having them starve to death. So am I housing them properly? Yes, I believe I am. Watching what you feed and how much of it is the key to controlling their prolific behavior.
I know these are apple snails and "Ohhh, everyone loves apple snails" but they are egg layers and can be very prolific if given food constantly. It's a crime when you limit an apple snail's food source to the point where they don't breed much? As opposed to limiting the food source of pond snails and MTS, to the point where you can make them stop breeding. Not a lot of people favor ponds and MTS anyway. So it must be okay to limit food, just as long as you don't like them, right?
erv:Anyway, to each his/her own. As long as your snails aren't shell damaged, dying or simply unhealthy, then I think whatever you do to care for them is perfect.
I am just concerned that this could be misleading. Snails may have ample things to forage on in a well established heavily planted tank but not in a relatively new or lightly planted tank. I just caution that people don't think that snails are simply foragers. To me its a similar misconception that cories are just bottom feeders that don't need target feeding or that plecos are a clean up crew that do not need supplementation. Snails, as well as cories and plecos, can easily starve if not supplemented as is the case with the common snails that people don't find "cute".
Ah, yes, I'm sorry if I ended up misleading people. The tanks I keep my snails in are very well established. Lots of stuff for them to munch on when scrounging around for food. They are kept with my endlers and my endlers churn out a TON of babies. Not all of them make it to adulthood and I do see a dead fish in there every once in a while (dead fry). I leave it in there purposely, for snails to scavenge on.
Each tank varies, so what may work for me may not work for others.
There's a big difference between a pest snail and actually breeding and keeping snails.
Lets not blur the lines.
Lets not blur the lines.
Think for a second...
Would pond snails be pests if they didn't breed so darn much? Their shells are very unique, very nice cone and I have seen countless of posts of people who go, "What is this snail? It's very pretty!" and they end up being pond snails.
The only reason I can think of, why pond snails are "pests" is because they breed too much. They aren't even that voracious of a plant eater. They just breed too much and it's unsightly.
Now, it's the same thing for spixis. Letting them go out of hand with breeding will end in the same result as pond snails. What? Are they automatically ruled out and not called "pests" because they are apple snails? Spixis lay eggs too, spixis can be just as prolific too. They CAN be pests, just as much as pond snails. However, controlling the spixi explosion is much easier than controlling a pond snail's breeding behavior.
Do I want to turn my spixis into pests and destroy my water quality? Of course not. Therefore, to avoid them from becoming pests, I limit their breeding and feeding.
You should probably stop favoring apple snails and think of snails in general.
I caution that we keep this on topic to the OP's post. I think that most people will agree that a snail purchased intentionally have more "value" in their eyes than a snail that hitchhikes in on a plant. It does not mean that the pond/rams/mts do not have value, but they are not typically bred intentionally. I still believe that removing clutches is a responsible way to control spixi populations. This is not as easy to do with pond snails or rams clutches as they are very small and not nearly as visible as spixi clutches. Generally speaking, apple snails are in a whole different category than commons. Commons are not large, easily identifiable from their peers, and do not have the same sort of personalities as apple snails. They are still welcome additions in alot of tanks, but are rarely put there for the same reasons and with intent like an apple snail is. I think that we have all gotten to make our point on this subject and unless there is new information pertaining to the op's questions, we should let the subject rest.
