I got a snail!

S

StacieA

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Jul 10, 2005
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I was starting to get jealous reading all the stories of little snails freeloading on plants and taking over everything. This morning however, I found 2 teeny tiny snails in my 5g all plant tank. Yay :D

I was just wondering how well they tollerate ammonia? I add pure ammonia in it daily to keep it cycled and it's usually down to zero by the next day but I accidently put in way too much and it's off the chart tonight! Will that hurt the snails? Do they only eat algea because if there is any, I can't see it so I'm not sure what they've been eating. :confused:
 
Fish_3456 said:
WOW!, :OT: How did that snail get there? Did it appeared out of no where?
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I'm guessing it rode in on a plant although I haven't put any new ones in there in about 3 weeks. They may have always been there and I just never noticed them before.
 
I think snails are pretty resistant to water toxins. Mine have never shown any signs of illness or suffering.

Though.... one is slightly retarded. He'll climb to the top of the tank, snag a water sprite leaf, cut it off, and jump two feet to the bottom of the tank. O.o
 
Victor said:
i'm guessing you found a ramshorn snail?
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I haven't a clue what I've found. It's very tiny and very cute tho. I'll try to find a pic and post or take one tonight when I get home.
 
I think they eat vegetables and lettuce too, you could tie a piece to a rock for them for a day or two :D
 
I'm glad you like the snails and aren't freaking out like a lot of people do :dance:

When I was cycling my brackish tank I introduced MTS from a piece of driftwood by accident. They survived the whole cycle no problems. I added ammonia everyday, sometimes a little too much but they endured high ammonia, nitrites and nitrates through the roof, plus a SG of 1.005.

Of course they only lasted five minutes after I introduced the figure 8 puffer :rolleyes:
 
if you like snails soo much, then you can just go to your lfs and ask them if you can take some out of their tank. I did this at my lfs and they thought it was hysterical because they were trying hard to git rid of the snails.
At the store i found some really cool snails, they were red and blue and were a spirled cone shape, they like to burrow in the gravel and eat decaying plat matter as well as algie
also you probly have found pond snails, they are the most common and reprduce the fastest. they are cool because they reproduce fast enough (in warm, food rich water) that you can selectively breed them. Ive put some in a tank (brown snails) and let them reproduce for a while, then i took the lightest collered ones out and confined them in another tank, my result was white snails and white speckled snails. Ive seen other aquariums with gold collored snails too and i may try to turn the white snails gold.. (white + brown?)
although pond snails are fun, the best (that you can get for free because most lfs consider them pests) are ramshorn snails they are round and curl around in a ball like a ram's horn (hence the name) they like to take chuncks out of soft-leafed plants but they grow fairly big and look cool. they also dont reproduce fast i use them in my tanks to keep the pond snail population from explodeing, they do this by eating all the food they can, leaving minimal leftovers for the pond snails

good luck with your snails and hope you have as much fun with them as i have!
 
the common ones will get about an inch, but if you buy colombian ramshorns which are gold or brown/gold striped, they can get to 2-2 1/2 inches in diameter. they aren't the random stragglers you find in planted tanks. very neat to watch, and will crawl around on your hand in the tank if you are patient. of course, i don't let them do it for long - i don't know if they will bite and i don't want to find out.
 
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