HUNGRY Apple Snails

mvigor

mvigor

Aquarium Hobbyist
Mar 24, 2005
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Lunchlady land
www.vigorfamily.com
I got a couple Apple Snails about a month ago at the LFS. I put them in my 55 gallon tank and they proceeded to eat a huge bush of Java Moss. At first I thought maybe the growth rate on the plant would keep up with them. Nope.

I moved them to a plastic-plant tank (the 20 gallon in my wall) and after they were in there for a week I supposed that they were hungry.

I cut the snails a pretty large piece of cucumber...probably 2.5 inch diameter and 2.5 inches long. I put it in a clip and put it in the tank....they found it almost immediately.

So for 2 whole days whenever I looked at the tank, the snails were on the cucumber. They never left it. And then, my friends, it was gone. They ate the entire thing, skin and all, leaving no trace.

ARE THEY SERIOUSLY THAT HUNGRY, or should I have given them less? I'm talking about one 1.75-inch apple snail and one 2.25-inch apple snail.
 
Mine did the same thing to a 2.5 x 1.0 inch peice of potato. 24 hours later...gone! Snails are about the same size as yours.
 
these snails are really voracious. I had a pond filled with these ones and the pond never had a chance to grow plants.
 
Apple snails most frequently die of starvation. Yes, they are that hungry, and yes, you'll want to keep feeding them often and well if you want them to survive. You can give them a few days to scavenge from the tank, but that won't keep them alive.
 
Well alright then, I'll just keep on feeding them and step up the water changes on that 20 gallon tank. The snail waste seems a lot easier to control now that I'm feeding them vegetables. When they were eating Java Moss and tree bark they were making a huge mess in the 55.

I was reading just here recently that the USDA banned the transport of Apple Snails in the U.S. If your LFS has some, you might want to get them now while you still can.
 
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