Look what I found in my searose pot

[Joergen.Schoppe]

my searose pot is up and running for 4 month now. i didn't add any snails, some came with the searoses. the snails are for my loaches, as a snack.
i didn't see such a huge snail, only 'normal' pond snails when i started it.

now, can a apple snail (guess that's what it is) grow in 4 month from tiny invisible to about 1 3/4 inch long, 1 inch high???

what do do with it, can I add it to a 10gl betta tank? in this two hours i have it in a 1l tupper, it has already created lots of poop... how to handle that in the betta tank?
or, can i feed this ting to my loaches? is it not too big?

my wife thinks we should get more, they are a delicacy here. she loves them (fried, boiled...) how big a tank needed if i want to breed them? Need about 20 to 40 for a meal, so for about 100 of them? (need to get to same size as the one i have now)

 

[msjinkzd]

That looks like a cana apple snail (pomacea canaliculata sp?). www.applesnail.net is a great resource for apple snails (they even have some recipes) and they have some "snail farming" ideas on their forum. This type of apple snail is a voracious plant eater. A calcium rich diet is important for healthy development (veggies are great). They are huge waster producers, so the bigger the tank the better. They lay their egg clutches above the water line in an orangish shaped cluster. You can read more about propagating the clutches at the aforementioned site. Apple snails are sex specific, so you need both a male and a female for reproduction.