Archived message board.
Snails
Badmans Tropical Fish Message Center:
Beginner freshwater : Snails
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Guineapig
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Saturday,
February 23, 2002 - 09:54 pm
Okay Heres the scoop. I bought a snail. I know haow many
people say not to because they breed but i did. Anyways
it wont lay eggs! i want Lots of babies for my indoor pond!
i have had this thing for over 8 months and not a single
egg has appeared! any suggestions on how to get this sucker
to lay eggs?
GuineaPig
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joycedonley
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Sunday,
February 24, 2002 - 08:28 am
Try buying at least two. I'm not really sure how long
snails carry eggs, but I would think they need to be fertilized
at some point.
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Ronnie-Sue
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Sunday,
February 24, 2002 - 10:25 pm
Also, it depends on the kind of snail. Some are able to
reproduce without the help of another snail in the tank,
and others must have one of the opposite sex to reproduce.
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G
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Tuesday,
March 05, 2002 - 12:17 am
In addition, some snails actually need to crawl out of the
water to lay their eggs. If you have an apple snail of some
sort, you'll probably have better luck if you provide
a surface that the snails can access that sticks up out
of the water. If you want a LOT of small snails, ask your
local aquarium shop for a few of the small pond snails that
usually come in on live plants. Most places should just
give them away, as they're really nothing more than
a problem in pet shops. Get a few of these, and you'll
have more snails than you can shake a stick at. Maybe try
to find some Malaysian live-bearing snails too, these reproduce
like the dickens as well.
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Dory
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Sunday,
April 07, 2002 - 12:03 am
My son just started a small tank and he must have gotten
a snail on one of the plants that he bought. He now has
five! Are these little guys okay to have in there? Will
they do anything to the water levels? And last but not least,
what do their eggs look like? There are a couple of little
gel looking things kind of cresent shaped and polka-dotted...it
looks like eggs.
Thanks so much,
Dory
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joycedonley
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Sunday,
April 07, 2002 - 12:14 pm
They will multiply like crazy and become a nuisance. Best
to net out as soon as you see them. I never saw any eggs
from my snails as they are so tiny they blend with the gravel.
Some fish will eat them, but most of the fish that will
won't fit in a small tank.
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Dory
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Sunday,
April 07, 2002 - 03:24 pm
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. We'll scoop
most of the snails out today. But, I'm still wondering
what the heck the little egg-looking things are. When he
started the tank out he put 3 neons in it, and the two larger
ones were picking on the littler one. I understand this
is a little unusual so we called the pet store and they
suggested buying two more to make a bigger school and that
worked. A week later he got two Buenes Aires tetras, one
albino. The albino was nuts and started attacking the neons.
This too is unusual from what I've heard, he killed
one and bit the fins off another (which died the next
day). As soon as we realized he was going nuts we seperated
them and returned them (the BAT's) to the pet
store. After reading many posting on this website I found
out that we shouldn't have started out with neons in
a new tank anyway. I even wonder if perhaps the neons weren't
sick from the begining, which may have caused the BAT to
go after them. Unfortunately all the neons are now gone
My son was devistated! I'm so glad that the cat is doing
great. We will take your advise and wait five weeks before
adding anything new. We are now shopping at a different
pet store and their help seems much more knowledgable. One
guy there told us if we hadn't moved up to a larger
tank by the time the cat was getting too big he would love
to buy it from us. His family has eleven tanks in their
house and I feel much more comfortable dealing with him
than the other store.
Boy did I digress! Anyway my point in mentioning the other
fish is, is it possible they are eggs from one of them?
Thanks again...Dory
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joycedonley
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Monday,
April 08, 2002 - 06:12 am
Yes, I would think you would be able to see fish eggs before
snail eggs. They may not be fertile though as my angelfish
laid a lot of eggs a few months ago and they were all infertile
as I don't think there is a male in the tank. Anyways
I would just remove them with my gravel vac. Usually if
eggs sit around for too long they just get fungusized. I'm
suprised the catfish hasn't eaten them...usually the
will eat any eggs on the bottom.
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Pandora
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Thursday,
April 11, 2002 - 10:49 pm
Dory, we need a better description of the eggs before we
can tell. Snails tend to lay eggs in a clear, gelatinous
mass that sticks to plants. Fish eggs can come in various
forms depending on the species... there are egg scatterers
like barbs and danios, and then there are ones with parental
care such as almost every cichlid (angelfish, discus,
African cichlids, etc) which often adhere their eggs
to something (clearish, tannish looking in most cases)
or have special methods of brooding them. Also, labyrinth
fish such as gouramis and bettas make bubble nests on the
surface to put their eggs in. If you see them without the
parents around, the best chance is that they are snail eggs,
as non-parental care eggs often get eaten very quickly in
a community tank setting.
PS: neons are not great beginner's fish and usually
won't last long in an unestablished tank.
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