Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => New Fishkeepers => Topic started by: Ally2 on August 26, 2016, 11:02:32 PM
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Hi
I saw my two zebra snails locked into shall we say an embrace ! Quite gross , never seen them do this before . Does this mean I'm going to have loads of eggs now ? Will moonbeam eat them ? Sorry never seen this before . I wonder if it's because the temperature of the tank has gone up as its been so hot in London ! Or they got excited by the new plants I've added 👍
Allison
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Yes they were mating, but you wont have lots of baby snails because they need brackish water to be able to breed, as far as I'm aware.
That may be why they are so good in the freshwater aquarium, because the adults live in freshwater but can't breed, so you won't be over run with snails. :)
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But you might be over run with eggs. Nerites lay sesame seed like eggs all over everything but particularly wood. You can scrape them off hard things like the tank walls, filter casing, plastic decor etc but it is very hard to get them off wood as it is softer. I've grown used to the eggs, a small price to pay for the work the snails do eating algae. And I've never found a fish that will eat the eggs.
Newly hatched nerite larvae are swept down the river to sea where they grow, turn into proper snails and migrate back up river. It is possible the eggs might hatch but without salt water the larvae die quickly.
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Oh Dear god
Well I do have bogwood so they could be at the back of that as the pesky snails are always hovering round it .
I've never seen them do this before could it be because it's so warm ? The tank temp has definitely gone up a bit ?
I will have a peek at the bogwood when I clean the tank this weekend .
It's all happening in my tank . I have a mystery stem growing out of my new plant which looks like a flower bud . !
All so exciting !
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Also meant to ask
What is brackish water ?
Ally
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Brackish water is slightly salty, rather than full marine.
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Ally is your plant an anubias?
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Hi Matt
No it a echinodorus marti major and I only put it in Tuesday and the stem has grown about two inches !
Also bought a hydrophila and a anubias nano pinto . I didn't realise fast growing was going to be that fast !
Ally
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My 3 zebra nerite snails seem to keep a safe distance from each other. Then again, they're often out of sight, so who knows what they get up to behind the bike shed, err bogwood! I guess they are up to something, because like Sue, there are plenty of little white dots on the bogwood. It's not particularly offensive though - I don't really notice it and have never tried to remove them.