Best snail breeding method

Yea, I've been feeding mine the bloodworms since day one. Other people say they cut theirs so they can take them, but mine suck them up just fine! Sometimes they'll take a bit, spit it out, then go right back after it.....quite a sight! They act like they've never been fed before, ha!

But I defintately like the idea of the vitamin drops to the worms...especially since i heard you can lose nutrients when freezing the food. I definately want to look into that more.
 
hmm, well I guess I'll try frozen foods again. I bought 1/2 ounce of live bloodworms, and it's lasted me almost 4 weeks! I still have about half of them left. dwarf puffers just don't eat enough to move food very fast. I suppose it's time to try other foods, though.
 
plah831 said:
hmm, well I guess I'll try frozen foods again. I bought 1/2 ounce of live bloodworms, and it's lasted me almost 4 weeks! I still have about half of them left. dwarf puffers just don't eat enough to move food very fast. I suppose it's time to try other foods, though.
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Haha, yes my $5 pack of bloodworms has lasted quite a long time so far...so no complaints here!
 
dondon123321 said:
what are those snails called that come along from pet stores when u buy there plants?
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it can be a bunch. Most likely common ramshorn, Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS), or common pond snails. What do they look like?

The MTS are cone-shaped, like an ice cream cone. Ramshorns are coiled like a ram's horn. Pond snail shells are kind of horizontal, tube-shaped (I don't know how to describe it).
 
chaberkern said:
But I defintately like the idea of the vitamin drops to the worms...especially since i heard you can lose nutrients when freezing the food. I definately want to look into that more.
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Check these two out. These are the two brands I use. VitaChem is good because they're so concentrated. Kent is not so great. It's the one I use to kill the worms (not a good sign, huh?). Also, it sometimes make my puffers gag or choke. Maybe it has too much vitamin C so it's stinging them :(

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4998&N=2004+22763

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=4989&N=2004+22763

I also add the vitamins to the tank water, because they're good for my live plants. I think I'm going to keep Kent around just for that. Or I'll use them to kill live foods and then rinse them off with water before giving them to the puffs.
 
plah831 said:
hey, tmt, how do you separate baby snails from waste? I'm having to resort to using a disposable pipette to stir up the waste and suck it up, otherwise I was losing baby snails left and right down the drain.

How do you remove the egg jellies? Just scrape them off the wall? I've just ended up having 2 tubs, one for adults to breed in and lay their eggs, and then when that gets too full of eggs and babies, remove the parents and let them do it again in the next tub.

Also, if I leave algae wafers in there for more than a night, I get mold (or something else fuzzy and slimy). You don't have this problem?

edit: i've got baby ramshorns that are about the size of a dot. i have a brine shrimp net, but I'm still paranoid that they'll fall through. aren't you dealing with mysteries, tmt? i'd assume those babies are larger?
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I don't keep the babies in with the parents so the waste just falls through the net when I run water over them. I remove the clutches by gently (after the clutch has dried for about a day) sliding it along the glass just as you might would do to take off a suction cup. After that I have a tupperware bowl with tank water, and have part of the egg cartons (usually about 4-6 slots where chicken eggs would be/were held at) in the tupperware bowl which is where the clutch of eggs are kept at. Then a lid goes on top to keep the bowl humid and warm for faster hatching. Once they hatch, all babies are moved to another tupperware bowl to grow up a bit. The clutch is well inspected to assure all babies have made there way out of the clutch. Once they are big enough, they will go into a larger container or tank (haven't decided yet) and go up on the market.

As for algae, It starts to dissolve but no growth on them. If you have a lot of snails in your container, it may just be snail slime clinging to the wafer. I am breeding mystery snails, canas snails, and hopefully a cross breed of Florida and Canas. The babies of mysteries are about the size of a pen head. Very small. A brine shrimp net shouldn't let your babies fall through but you can try three babies, put them in the net, run water over them and see what happens. Have a bowl underneath to catch them if they fall through.
 
thanks so much, tmt! you're my snail guru :)

i thought it might be snail slime, too, after reading your post about your filter clogging up with slime. i will definitely try the brine shrimp net!

yeah, separating the young and the parents really does make it easier to clean and keep track of, eh?
 
plah831 said:
it can be a bunch. Most likely common ramshorn, Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS), or common pond snails. What do they look like?

The MTS are cone-shaped, like an ice cream cone. Ramshorns are coiled like a ram's horn. Pond snail shells are kind of horizontal, tube-shaped (I don't know how to describe it).
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there are two different kinds in my tank. cone-shaped and coiled but they are quite small
 
dondon123321 said:
there are two different kinds in my tank. cone-shaped and coiled but they are quite small
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sounds like MTS (or some other trumpet snail) and ramshorn. Don't try to feed the trumpet snails to any of your fish as their shells are very hard and can hurt them.
 
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