First Time Snail Mommy!

My temperature is kept at around 78 degrees F at all times.

My snails lay their eggs on the lid of my community tank and after a few days I remove them and put them into the hatchery. The pink lid is the lid to the container that my first betta came in. It floats quite well but I also put an upside down undergravel filter under it to ensure the clutches don't get too wet.

The hatchery is a 10 gallon with a glass lid on it. The shelf where the clutches are is an upside down gravel filter with a betta bowl lid on it. I also keep a bubbler in there to help keep the humidity up. The pinkish spots in the bottom of the tank are pieces of snail jello. The snails climb up over the rim of the lid and drop into the water but I've been checking them every hour and when i see some on the lid I take the clutches off and put the lid in the water and gently move it around until the babies fall into the water.
 
I have close to 30 at the moment. The entire clutch wasn't fertile though so I don't think I'll be getting anymore out of this one. One of the other clutches looks like it will hatch any day now though so I'm sure I'll have plenty more.
 
congrats! there's nothing else like watching your first baby snails hatch, especially when it's the first thing you've bred successfully (at least in my case, lol).


one bit of advice would be to put a filter in the hatchery tank. a lot of baby snails adds up to a lot of ammonia building up in the equivalent of a big fish bowl. you could put two small sponge filters in there, that would work well. or if you have an extra filter on another tank move it over. just be sure to cover the intake of a hob filter with a pantyhose so the lil shellkids don't go for an impeller ride.

that's an awesome idea on the hatchery 'shelf'. might just have to steal it for my own clutchy uses, lol, with permission of course.
 
LOL! I've bred guppies before but that really isn't a huge achievement. I've got a drop of fry that turn 7 weeks old tomorrow. I've got a filter that I need to fix and then it will be ready to go in there. I've got some pantyhose ready to put over the intake so my new babies will be safe. The shelf idea was a last minute thing that I put together when I noticed the snails beginning to hatch so it really wasn't carefully planned out, but feel free to use it! It has acutally worked quite well for me, and keeping a bubble stone near it helps to keep the clutches moist.
 
i guess when i tried my very first breeding attempt it shoulda been with something a lil easier than bettas, lol.
 
After the clutches hatch do you see empty cells? Can you post a pic of the clutch after they hatched out? Do they all hatch the same day (from one clutch)?
 
Not all of the clutch hatched because not all of it was fertile. It looked like a clutch that had dried out and some of the cells had cracked but they had actually hatched from there.

Reframer, if you are interested in baby snails (these ones are golden) I'd be more than happy to send some to you once they get a little older! Or if you are interested in a clutch, I'm sure I'll have plenty more of those as well!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom