Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: brian c on June 07, 2015, 08:06:00 AM
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In my 10 gallon I have 47 small gold mystery snails,11 big brown mystery snails,1 blue mystery snails,1 albino mystery snail, and 1 tiny trapdoor snail. The gold snails are no longer then the tip of my pinkie,the brown snails are about 1-1.5 inch,the blue is about 1 inch, the albino snail is about 1.5 inch, the trapdoor snail is about .5 inch. Before you say anything I must say something. All of these snails except the blue,albino mystery, and the trapdoor were unexpected babies. What should I do? I have a 20 gallon high I could put some of the snails in.
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Assuming mystery snails are one of the apple snail species, I agree you do need to remove some. A snail 2 inches across needs 2.5 gallons of water. So your 10 gall tank can support 4 full grown mystery snails, and your 20 gall 8 snails.
Can you sell the rest of the mystery snails? I know people sell them on Ebay (though I think you are too young to have an account, do you know anyone who has an account that would sell them for you?). Or sell them to a fish shop? A Mom-and-Pop shop would be more likely than a big chain store. Or give them away?
The only other choice would to be to kill them I'm afraid.
For future reference, mystery snails lay their eggs out of water in a cluster looking like a tiny bunch of grapes. The best thing to do is remove the egg clusters as soon as you see them.
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I don't want to sell the snails, they are part of the family. But I am gonna set up a few more tanks soon. A 38,20 high that I mentioned, and a 10. Do you think that that is enough space for all the snails?
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A 10 will hold 4; a 20 will hold 8 and a 38 will hold 15 or 16. Total = 28 mystery snails. You have 60 so the remaining 30 or so will need homes.
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The 1 snail per 2.5 gallon is good for small tanks. Once you get into bigger tanks that rule basically goes out the door. Wouldn't you agree?
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The rule is the same as for fish. 1 inch of fish per gallon, for fish that grow no bigger than 3 inches. So 1 inch of snail per gallon. A 2.5 inch snail needs 2.5 galls regardless of tank size, just like for fish. Since yours are tiny at the moment, you have a bit of time to decide what to do but once those snails grow up you will need that 2.5 galls per snail.
From here (http://applesnail.net/)
The amount of water needed for each snail depends on the size of the snail, the filtration capacity and the temperature. As a general rule of thumb one should provide at least 10-liters/2.5 gallon for each mid-sized snail (±5cm/2inch. diameter). Or another way: count each apple snail as a fish of the same length as the snail's shell diameter. Be cautious not to overcrow your snail tank. While it hasn't been proven that apple snails actually 'sense' that they are in large numbers in a small space, the water quality quickly detoriates and substances that inhibit the snail growth are increasing quiker. Regular refreshment of a part of the water is highly recommended.
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That rule was made for only Neon tetras. It was not made for shrimp, snails,crabs,crayfish, or other fish.
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The Community Creator shows snails and shrimps adding 0 load to your tank.
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:D Brian 1 Sue 0
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Well it's impossible for a snail (or shrimp) to have no impact at all on the bioload, so the Community Calculator is incorrect.
At present you could add 1,000 snails to any tank on the Community Creator and you'd still be at 0% bio-load.
I don't necessarily believe that 1cm of snail or shrimp should be calculated the same as 1cm of fish, because of their different metabolisms.
In any case, all species, whether fish or mollusc, should be kept in suitable conditions and surely an overcrowded snail tank will be detrimental to their well-being.
The question is how crowded is overcrowded.
If it were me, I'd use frequent water tests and generally observing their behaviour and mortality rates as the crucial deciding factors.
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That rule was made for only Neon tetras. It was not made for shrimp, snails,crabs,crayfish, or other fish.
That rule was made for all torpedo shaped fish that grow up to 3 inches.
If you read that quote from the apple snail website it says Be cautious not to overcrowd your snail tank
As a general rule of thumb one should provide at least 10-liters/2.5 gallon for each mid-sized snail (±5cm/2inch. diameter)
in large numbers in a small space, the water quality quickly deteriorates and substances that inhibit the snail growth are increasing quicker
It's not just about bioload, it's about chemicals secreted by the snails and the effects of those on the snails.
These people are the snail experts. I would believe what they say.
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:D Brian 1 Sue 0
Brian 0 Sue 1 :rotfl:
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Brian, if you don't want to rehome your snails, just split them between your tanks and remove any egg clusters you see in the future so you don't get any more. If the numbers inhibit their growth, they should stay small enough to keep more of them.
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:D Brian 1 Sue 0
Brian 0 Sue 1 :rotfl:
Extreme one -1 Brian 0
@ Sue Ok I guess that if I have to i could trade a dozen or 2 at my lfs once they grow up a bit. I might be able to get this freshwater clam they have :) Or even more plants!!!!
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Ok so one of my big beautiful black mystery snails died... When that snail died I was just heartbroken. I felt like I had failed as a fish keeper so I moved my remaining 12 big snails to by 29 gallon. I am going to do the rule but a bit differently. Instead of a snail per 2.5 gallons, I am going to do a snail per 2 gallons. I am going to trade 24 of the small golden to my lfs once I have grown them out to a good size in my 10 gallon. So with that I will have 36 snails. In all I will have 97 gallons of water which will be just perfect for all of my snails.
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Sorry to hear about your snail. I know people think it's just a snail but you can become attached to pets of all types.
And your plans sound like a good idea.
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Thanks, I really become attached to all of my animals. It just breaks my heart to see that one of my animals died because of ME. I am going to breed a color of mystery snails then sell off the parents until I only have 1 breeding pair and then do the same to the babies. I have a love for breeding mystery snails :raspberries.
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Sorry for your loss Brian.
I know how you feel about your snail, since I nearly lost one last week and might still do so.
In general I hate snails (garden ones) but these are lovely little things
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thanks, and to add to the loss I also found my neirtie(?) snail dead in my filter when I was taking it apart on the same night I found the dead mystery snail.
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Just an update, I traded 10 of my small snails and 1 of my big mystery snails at my lfs along with 8 tetras for 20 dollars in credit. I think I should have gotten more then just $20, like $30.
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The rule of thumb is that you get about a quarter of what the shop will sell them for. How does what you got for them compare to what the shop will sell them for?