Apple snail destruction

Swimfins

Swimfins

This is as good as it gets.
Sep 24, 2004
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Montreal Quebec Canada
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I bought an apple snail, yesterday, cute guy, a big one, when I went to bed last night he was eating a piece of zuchini, and when I got up this morning, I see he spent the night anhilating my plants. I salvaged what is left, picked out the apple snail and put him in the bowl with my betta.

Should I return him to the store or can I leave him in the bowl until I can set up a 5 gallon, cycle it etc... which could take awhile. Thanks


snail was returned to the store.......:)
 
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I guess it was not a Pomacea bridgesii.
They will starve to death in a planted tank. They only eat decaying plant material.
I keep a Pomacea bridgesii with my betta and have no problems.
 
I think he was a pomacea bridgesii. From what I read, he shouldn't have done that kind of damage. He practically mowed through the tank in one night. He was a big guy, and I regret having had to take him back. I dumped him in with my betta while fixing the damage and wondering what to do with him. He lay on the bottom of the bowl, finaly climbing up the wall and putting his siphon out of the water to breath. I felt sorry for him, but rather than leave him in the little bowl, I took him back to the shop to be with his buddies. I'm thinking of starting a 5 gallon and might go back for him later on. Lol.

Nice tanks and cute kitties by the way :)
 
I read your post and was very surprised! I've got a female apple snail, she's about 1.5" - 2" across and lives in my heavily planted tank. She's been in the tank since I planted it, and doesn't touch a thing!
I felt so awful for you, what a nightmare it must have been seeing your plants all chewed up in the morning. I think you made a good call returning your rogue snail to the store.
I need to add a cautionary note: an apple snail probably won't do well in a 5g unless it's only there temporarily. I was at my LFS a while ago and they've got a few monster apple snails in one of their large goldfish tanks, presumably a clean up crew that's been there for a while. These snails are (no exaggeration) between the size of a baseball and a softball. I had no idea they could reach this size, I looked them up online and discovered they can reach 6" across.
 
Your snail will be fine in the betta tank while you cycle a 5 gallon. Though I would probably just add soem filter material from the established tank and put the snail right in. They are quite hardy and a single snail in a 5 gallon tank won't make a dent in the ammonia if you do some good water changes and adon't over feed.
 
When the conditions are good, the apple snail species Pomacea maculata can get as big as 15 cm/6 inch diameter. Other species don't grow that big, but there is a big variation between them. Rather expect them to get 5-8 cm/2-3 inch diameter.

Taken from http://www.applesnail.net/
 
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