How to breed snails??

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PCDawg

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Mar 15, 2003
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I have a lil dwarf puffer and its kind of hard to feed it frozen bloodworms as the water current always pushes the bloodworms away from the puffer and the worms always settle at the bottom of the tank. I want to get some snails as an additional food source for the puffer.

What is the best type of snail to get?? Apple snails?? golden snails?? and do i just get one and it'll automatically reproduce so that there'll be food for my puffer??

I forgot how snails reproduce, but if i remember correctly they just lay eggs and reproduce without breeding with other snails?? ....

Thanks!!
 
Get a pair of snails--most are hermaphrodites, but still require the exchange of DNA, unlike worms. I prefer the common pond snails for my puffers. Best bet is to setup a small bowl, and feed it with algae tabs. Keep it warm but not hot, and do regular water changes to prevent trace nutrients from being depleted.
 
I keep my Rams Horn snails in a separate 1 gallon tank (the left over Betta tank) and throw in any old veggies that I have lying around. Once you have 2 snails you will have many more. Gravel will help as well so the little ones have a place to hide until they are big enough to feed to the fishes. Excess food is important as well as this seems to cause them to breed faster.
 
dont feed them and they'll breed...chuck em in the bin and they'll breed....crush every single one in the bloody tank and they'll still somehow find a way to breed!!!!
 
The way I obtained snails small enough to keep my dwarves happy was I simply bought a couple plants from my lfs. There's bound to be some hitchhikers on them. I don't know what kind of snails they are, but my little guys are apparently happy with them.
 
I don't even bother with an extra tank for snails, I have a philodendron clipping that I put in a vase to take root, and I threw some snails in there to see what would happen. Turns out this is a perfect arrangement, I don't have to feed the snails, and can take out one or two as needed without them over-running a tank.

As far as breeding goes, this sizable colony was starting by one snail (that I foolishly thought would stay that way!), although I did get another two or three from my sister to mix up the DNA a little bit ago(as mentioned above by OrionGirl).
 
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While it is true you need 2 snails to mate, any snail that has already mated and makes it into your tank will produce dozens. Inbreeding... then dozens upon dozens upon dozens.

You're really only limited by the amount of food and/or fish poop in your tank.
 
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