Snails that need another snail to breed

[ArkyLady]

I'm looking for some snails that I can keep in betta jars to help keep them cleaner (eating extra food, etc) and that won't just multiply when kept singly. Preferably a very small snail (1" or less).

*EDIT* Oh forgot to add that I'll need snails that won't tend to eat plants since I have live plants in there as well. Thanks!

 

[wetmanNY]

A virgin snail eh... none of the snails I know... certainly not Melanoides tuberculata

.

.

...that tramp!

 

[elgecko]

Apple snails. Pomacea bridgesi. They will not eat live plants, I was worried about that myself. They are only 1 sex so you must have a male and female for them to reproduce. Female can store sperm and lay eggs without a male. The female lays eggs above the water line and can be discarded so you do not have hundreds of snails. Here's a web site on them.
http://www.applesnail.net/

 

[RTR]

The Apple snails are several fold too large for a betta jar.

 

[ArkyLady]

Yeah, I've looked and looked for a nice, small apple snail, but they all get so large that's out. Unless there is a species out there I'm unaware of.

I'll keep searching, there has to be a nice, small, non-plant eating snail out there that can't reproduce on it's own!

How fast do snails grow? Maybe I could breed my own apple snails and when they outgrow the betta jars I could just feed them to my clown loaches and put a baby one back in the betta jar

 

[dave76]

Depending on the amount of food you give apple snails they can grow at an alarming rate. Mine grew from the size of a dime to the size of a half dollar in about 3 weeks, Course I got lots o food in my tank as well.

 

[elgecko]

I have seen some Apple Snails that get huge. The one's I keep only get about the size of a walnut. Now that I think about it my adults probably do push close to 2".

 

[dave76]

the one I have is now about that size.

 

[Xeider]

I had a 1" apple snail in with my betta and he didn't grow much at all. I didn't really feed him as he eat off the little algae that grew in the tank. My betta would flare up at him, though I doubt the snail saw him. The betta also took its eye stalk a feelers a few times, but they grew back. Only noticed growth when I dropped food in specifically for the snail.

Another snail to look at is the ramshorn, though like the apple snail it will grow bigger then what you requested.

 

[dave76]

ramshorn are hermaphroditic, I would not suggest them for what she wants as they will reproduce asexually........