Applesnails leaving the tank

[garfieldnfish]

I have 3 applesnails. One of them is blue. I found the blue one a few weeks ago on the floor in front of the aquarium. I put her back into the tank and she was fine. A few days ago I noticed another snail getting very friendly with this blue one and now she is missing again. Yesterday I did a thorough search of the floor, today I took the filter apart. No blue snail. Would a fertilized applesnails get desperate enough in her search for a place to lay the eggs to risk getting killed outside the water? The water level is too high inside the tank for her to lay eggs. There is a small opening in the back of the tank by the filter where a snail could get out. I have had applensnails in this tank for ****almost one year and they have never left the tank before. This one I got in February and she keeps leaving the tank.

I have 5 cats. Would a cat eat a snail? One of my cats is currently sick with stomach/digestive track/urinary track problems. We are treating him with anitbiotics for suspected urinary problems because he was growling when he went into the litter box and he has had it before. But now I am wondering if a snail may have made him sick.

[ijedic]

Hi,
Yes, when female snails (fertilized or not) are ready to lay eggs, they will leave a tank. The best way to prevent their wandering is to leave the water level a couple of inches low. Apple snails can also live out of water for a time, as they have both gills and a lung. I would look around the whole room, under everything, and see if maybe she made it to a place where the cat couldn't get to her. If the cat did eat her, then that could be the reason the cat is sick. Was the cat sick prior to the snail's dissapearance? Snails should be throuroghly cooked before consumption or they can cause sickness when eaten by humans, so I would guess that the same would be true of a cat eating a snail. I hope you find her. Shannon

[garfieldnfish]

Great news, well sort of. My cat is in intensive care with a total blockage of the bladder. Had emergency surgery last night but is expected to make a full recovery. So he did not eat the snail. And I'm lucky to have taken him to a vet, I was told he would not have survived the night. Dodged that one. My cats are my children.
Knowing now that he did not eat the snail, I looked again and found her. In the papershredder next to the desk where the aquarium sits. She must have crawled in there. It's covered and she could not have fallen into it. That is why I did not check it the other day. But today I just happened to look at it and said, oh well what the heck and unbelievably she was in there. So far no movement yet but it's only been a few minutes. I put her in my goldfish tank (10 gal with a goldfish that has rocking/tumbling disease, he could not eat her if he tried. Has a had time hunting down his food) But it's a hex and I was able to lower the water in this tank without taking too much volume so I placed her in there for the time being. Maybe I will get some eggs soon.

[ijedic]

It's good to hear your cat is going to be alright. Also good to hear you found the snail. Hopefully the snail will make a full recovery also. Have a great weekend!

[garfieldnfish]

No eggs yet but the snail is fine and moving around the entire tank. Lots of algae and fish poop in this tank. She is the only algae eating critter in there. Maybe a reason for her to stay put. Thanks foryour help Shannon.

[ijedic]

Hi G,
You can also give her some cucumber, squash, and shrimp pellets. They love veggies! Good to hear she is getting along well! Hope your cat heals up nicely too! have a great weekend, Shannon

[garfieldnfish]

Update: The cat is getting better every day. The snail is doing excellent too and guess what ..... I found eggs in the 15 gal hex, right under the cover. I did a water change yesterday and the cluster was not there then. Today, at feeding time I opened the lid and found the cluster stuck to the underside of the cover. I removed it and placed it on top of a plant floater. Prior to removing it the cluster was pretty dry so I hope some of the baby snails will live. Any help on getting them to grow up and be healthy little snails. What should I feed them and how should the habitat be?

P.S. HELP ME!

[sumpthinfishy]

Dry is okay. They're calcareous and when they get close to hatching time, they'll be mottled from the shell colors starting to show through the clutch. 2-4 weeks, depending on temperatures. If this is a female's first clutch, it may be infertile. If it hasn't hatched in 5 weeks, it ain't gonna. But once they start, they'll lay them pretty regularly.

I have two females scouting out spots as I type. I already have four clutches waiting. I figure by morning, I'll have two more.

Baby snails do better in an established tank 'cause there's lots for them to eat without traveling too far. They're incredibly tiny. More so than you'd think by looking at the clutch. Think regular pin head size. They can and will eat algae. For good growth, lots of protein and calcium are best. Calcium is good for strong shell development. Protein for operculum (the trap door) and soft tissue growth.

Soft water and low calcium will cause shell problems when they're older with pitting, flaking and even cracking that can be fatal.

Algae wafers have a pretty good bit of protein - about 50%. Greens (turnip, mustard) for calcium are always pleasant snacks. You can buy food especially made for snails with added calcium and protein. I make food for mine.

Right at first, you won't see too much of them. After a couple of weeks, they'll be much more noticeable in the tank. About quilt pin head size.

Other than that, regular aquarium conditions are fine. If the conditions weren't okay, she would not be likely to lay the eggs in the first place.

Oh, higher temps will increase their metabolism, growth rate, etc. But they will not live as long - about 1 1/2 years. At lower temps, they can live about 3 years, but may not be as active. Now, my tanks are somewhat cooler than most and I'm running over with very healthy, happy snails. Not including the clutches, I have in excess of 3-400 snails. There are roughly 50-150 snails per clutch. So, my 74 degree tanks aren't slowing them too much and they'll live twice as long, allowing me to enjoy them that much more.

You can get ridiculously attached to these little fellas. I can tell you which snail laid which clutch based on where it's laid in the tank and the shape and size of the clutch. My first breeding pair are still going strong! LOL

They'll do just fine. As long as they have food and clean water, they'll thrive.

[garfieldnfish]

Thanks for all the info. I wll try my best to help them hatch.
I have 11 fish tanks, but where am I gonna house 50 to 150 applesnails if they all hatch? HELP. My water is very soft. But 5 of my tanks are set up for snails and shrimp by adding iodine and calcium in liquid form. I also add cuddlebone and feed the snails crab cuisine and lots of veggies and fruits. Right now I have the clutch in a 2.5 gal plants tank with 5 trapdoor snails and a few MTSs.
The mother is a blue snail, the father an ivory one, wonder what the kids will look like?

[sumpthinfishy]

One thing I've been using to hatch them and I love the way it works is a metal soap dish with suction cups. I can stick it to the side of the tank and the spaces between the metal allows the babies to drop right into the water when they hatch out. We go away on weekends alot and that way I don't have to worry about them having food. They'll go right in and munch on the food debris, algae and infusoria produced by the other snails. The squares are a bit largish - about 1" and on small clutches it was a problem. So, I snipped some plastic (mine from strawberry carts, but that craft plastic that you needlepoint through would work) to fit the dish. Works like a charm. About $3.00 at Wally World and no problems yet. Allows them to stay moist, but don't have to worry about them getting under the filter outflow and getting drowned.

Just a word of caution about cuttlebone: A lot of people use it with no problem. BUT, it can cause a sudden bacterial problem. May not ever happen to you. But I've heard of people having it totally foul a tank very rapidly.

Depending on the trouble you want to go to, you can increase the calcium in your tank in a couple of other ways that are fairly stable. I have soft water (25 on my test) and this helps tremendously. The cheapest, but most labor intensive is crushed oyster shell that you get at a feed store. You have to wash this stuff like you wouldn't believe, but it really helps and is cheap. It does have to be added periodically.

The other, is more expensive, but really low labor and more long lasting. Pink Fiji sand. If you can find it at a lfs and don't have to pay shipping, it's really my top choice. I just put it in three of my tanks and it within hours had raised the hardness from 25 to 75. My snail tanks I still add liquid calcium.

Another sand, black calcite is availble. But I don't know the specifics about it. It is much cheaper than pink Fiji (which is actually white), but I don't know if it releases as much calcium as the Fiji or any side effects that it might have that are undesirable.

I bet you'll get some really gorgeous babies! Both with light shells, you'll probably get all sorts of light shell based babies with a nice mix of dark bodies and light. If you decide to breed more, mixing the light shell bases with darker bases is a good idea. Some of the lighter bases such as ivory, blue, magenta and chestnut may have very thin delicate shells. An injection of darker shell bases will help strengthen them.

They'll do just fine, I'm sure. And 11 tanks?! Holy smoke! How do you find time to do anything else? I'd be staring at or messing with the tanks all day!

[garfieldnfish]

I have had the cuddlebone in this tank for some time and it luckily never caused any problems.
Some of the baby snails hatched 2 days ago. About 25 of them (rough guess maybe be more since there is a lot of java moss in this plant tank).
Question: Will MTSs or Japanese trapdoor snails eat baby applesnails? Those are the only other living creatures in this tank aside from plants. I am feeding them Formula II (frozen algae) and fruits and fish flakes. My trapdoor snails have done fine with this and reproduced as well, but they are live bearers and the young are pretty big already when born.
What tank could I move them into?
1. 46 gal goldfish/BN tank
2. 15 gal CAE/puffer tank (NO even I know that one, LOL)
3. 15 gal dwarf frogs, clown plecos, Burmese mountain shrimp and applesnails (parents)
4. 75 gal all tropical fish tank (too dangerous in my opinion and too many fish to list)
5. 20 gal Singapore wood shrimp, BN, glolight tetras, and 3 L174 (spotted zebra plecos)
6. 10 gal goldfish tank (NO) (He is sick with swim bladder disease, don't want to add anything that might hurt him)
7. 29 gal skirt tetras, gourami, SAEs and rubberlip pleco
8. 25 gal zebra plecos and otos (possibility ?)
The other tanks are salt water and pond snails tanks.

[sumpthinfishy]

Congrats on the new babies! Can you see what colors you have yet? It's amazing how soon you can tell.

I know MTS won't harm them. I don't know anything about hte trapdoor snails, but my UNeducated guess would be that they wouldn't. They'll do well on most foods as long as they have plenty of protein for operculum and soft tissue growth and calcium for good strong shells.

Goldfish will pick at the larger snails any eat baby ones. I speak from experience on that one. Any of the fish that are nippers will aggravate them to the point of not leaving their shells and literally starving in some cases. I had to get mine away from baby swordtails.

The zebra pleco/oto tank does sound good. I know bristle nose are perfect for snail tanks. I would imagine most plecos are peaceful where snails are concerned. But if anyone knows different, please holler.

Post some pics when you can! I'd love to see all the colors you've gotten. Who was the mom and the dad if you know? The colors I mean. LOL

[garfieldnfish]

The mom is a blue applesnail, the father was an ivory one. He since died, but mom had another clutch a week ago. All the babies from the first batch are doing great. They are still in my plant tank and growing well. Looks like most of them will be blue. I have not moved them to any other tank yet, but I am doing water changes every 3 days and feeding them fruits and veggies and algae wafers. Today they had bananas. The largest ones are about 5 mm long. I will keep the prettiest 10 of them and move them into the zebra pleco tank, the rest are up for grabs if anyone in the Atlanta area wants to come by and get them. They are free to good home.

[ALFA WOLF]

Let one free tell it to come to my house. Nah i woud llove to get one but i live in south texas.

[sumpthinfishy]

Garfield, I may be interested in them if you would like to try shipping them. I'd gladly pay for shipping. I'd like new genetic material to mate mine with. I have oodles of them and so far, I've been able to keep them separated enough to prevent inbreeding. Most of my babies aren't sexually mature yet. So, I'd love to introduce fresh genes. I could trade you for some of my different colored ones if you'd like as well. If you're interested pm me.

Thanks.