My Snail Jar

V

Vince G.

AC Members
Dec 27, 2010
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Roselle Park, NJ
A couple of weeks ago I had a little too much time on my hands, and I remembered that I had this big 3 Gallon glass jar that I bought from Ikea years ago sitting down in my basement. I also remembered a pet store where I get my dog food that had red ramshorn snails in their plants tank, and they always said that they would give them to me whenever I wanted them. Well...one bag of caribsea sand substrate and a sponge filter later:
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I put in a piece of driftwood that I had removed from my main tank, and some java fern that I'm trying to get rid of. I also stuck the remainder of a golden pothos in the top to help with nitrates. So far I don't have any direct lighting or heat. There is a room lamp about 10 feet away that has compact flourescents in it, and also natural sunlight in the room. I was thinking about putting a little desk lamp over it with a CF bulb. So far I have a few red and blue ramshorn snails in it.

Could I keep a few shrimp in here also? Would I need to add a heater if I did so?

Another question: will red and blue ramshorn snails interbreed? If so, I'll take the red's out and put them in my other tank. I'd really like to breed more blues, if possible.

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Java fern needs very little light, the lamp you have to the side should be fine, as long as you've got daylight bulbs. You'd also want to have the lamp on for at least a few hours every day. You could put a lamp right above the tank, but that may be too much light and encourage algae (granted, some would be good food for the critters... but it could get out of control fast, and not all algae types are eaten by snails/shrimp).

Cherry shrimp are pretty hardy... what is the ambient temp of that room? I would definitely add more plants. Java moss is an easy addition & both shrimp & snails love foraging in it. Anubias nana is another low-light plant. I've got a 1g "tank" that just has standing tank water with java fern & anubias growing successfully. It gets no direct light, just indirect sunlight from a window.

I know that red ramshorns, if bred with brown, will have offspring that will revert back to brown. If blues are also a color variant, I would say that if red & blue breed, you could get brown - or red & blue. Too bad not purple. :D



edit: Also, that layer of sand looks deep. If it's more than 1", I'd consider removing some. Or get some rooting low-light plants (dwarf sag is great) to help aerate the sand. Malaysian trumpet snails will also help do this. This will avoid the development of anaerobic pockets which can release harmful gases to the water column.
 
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Neat little tank! I'd love to see how those guys are doing in a while, so keep posting! I do agree with everything fishycat said though, especially with aerating the sand... MTS should do it pretty easily, and will fit with the invert theme.
With ramshorns, MTS, and cherries, I wouldn't actually worry too much about algae issues. They won't eat everything if they're well fed... but they will nibble if they're hungry. If there gets to be too much algae growth, you can easily just move the jar.
 
To be safe, I think I'll take the reds out and see if I can get some more blues. We'll see what happens...There were actually a couple of clutches of eggs stuck to the shipping bag(I started another thread about this). I'll also find some MTS and throw them in there to help with the sand.

I do have a stick-on thermometer on that jar, and the temperature seems to stay around 68 or so. Is that too cold for cherry shrimp?
 
I have taken the reds out and only have blue ramshorns in there now. Hopefully they will live up to their reputation and breed like mad.

Any shrimp experts out there that know whether 68-70 degrees is too cold for shrimp? I was also thinking about a few microrasboras, but that may be pushing it.
 
Just a quick update: It's officially a blue ramshorn snail breeding jar. I took the reds out a few weeks ago (they became a meal for someone in my main tank, but for some strange reason, the nerites in there are left alone..:huh:)

The blues have been laying egg clutches on everything they can find. A lot of them have hatched, and I can see at least 20-30 little white baby snails all over the place. They are so small that they are hard to distinguish from the food or the sand at the bottom. Some of the specs that you see on the pics below are probably some of them. They are way too small to photograph directly...at least with my camera.

There are egg clutches all over the place. Many of the Java Fern Leaves are covered with them, and the sponge filter has at least 10 or so on the smooth plastic under the sponge. Here is one of the clutches on a Java Fern Leaf:
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Here is one of the busy blues:
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Here is the whole thing with the pothos sticking out of the top. It is growing great also, and I sure it's soaking up some of the nitrates in the water.
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I've never kept snails before, so how long before the newly hatched snails reach an inch or so? Do they grow pretty fast?

Right now, I just crush up an algae wafer with a hammer and sprinkle it in the jar every 3-4 days to make pieces small enough for the baby snails to eat. Should I be feeding them anything else?

I'm not sure of the time line, but I'll defintely have blue ramshorns available in the future, so if anyone will be looking for some, keep me in mind.

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You don't even need to chush up the algae wafer, just drop it in. Fish food, both flakes and pellets are also snapped up. And someone once told me to add a little piece of cuttle bone, (like for birds to chew on) to the water, to keep up the calcium level so the snail shells will stay hard.
good luck with it. Though I have enough snails I think for several people, lol.
 
HI VIN, IS THE JAVA FERN YOU HAVE THE WIDE LEAF VARIETY IF SO HOW MUCH JAVA FERN ARE YOU WILLING TO GET RID OF, AND WHAT WOULD BE THE COST. IM LOCATED ON LONG ISLAND NY.
YOU CAN IF YOU LIKE RESPOND BACK TO ME AT VINNYSANGELFISH@AOL.COM TAKE CARE. VINNY D.
 
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