Raising Your Own Snails?

[cichlidsickness]

So I've been thinking maybe I could cultivate my own snails for my dwarf puffers. I don't really want to setup another tank to do this though.

Does anybody have any experience with this? Is it possible to cultivate some typical pest snails in a jar with a lid? What would I need to do this?

 

[tlindsey]

Its very possible to raise them in a separate habitat, say for instance a fish bowl or small aquarium. I would suggest not collecting them from a pond though. Go to your lps and ask will they let you have a couple. With the right setup most snails will breed, also a few species are asexual .

 

[cichlidsickness]

Yea that was my plan was to collect some from a fish store.

Could this be done in a jar with a lid though? What do snails need to thrive?

 

[tlindsey]

Yea that was my plan was to collect some from a fish store.

Could this be done in a jar with a lid though? What do snails need to thrive?

It depends on the species of snail, some graze on algae , plants some won't harm plants and some are omnivores. I would recommend the smaller species of snail for your pea puffers, just ask the lps employee what type he or she gives you and do your research on them .

 

[tlindsey]

I personally would just setup a small 1gal. Or 2gal. aquarium add plants add small light, air pump with air stone .

 

[benzjamin13]

Well...coming from a guy who's dealt with snail infestation for a couple of years, I would say some type of substrate would help as I had MTS outbreak in just about all my tanks. They tend to appear out of nowhere and I can only assume that the larvae are getting plenty of food to eat from food particles that fall in between the grains. Overfeeding has also has attributed to my infestation. I ended up getting Assassin Snails and while they are helping, they are far from eliminating the problem. So as long as there is substrate and a food source, you should be infested in no time.

 

[joe jaskot]

You don't need a lid on the jars, snails rarely crawl out of their containers. Ramshorn and common pond snails are the easiest to breed.

 

[cichlidsickness]

It depends on the species of snail, some graze on algae , plants some won't harm plants and some are omnivores. I would recommend the smaller species of snail for your pea puffers, just ask the lps employee what type he or she gives you and do your research on them .

Do you know of any species in particular that stay small?

 

[cichlidsickness]

How about temperature, will they do fine in a lower room temperature of 68 degrees?

 

[joe jaskot]

How about temperature, will they do fine in a lower room temperature of 68 degrees?

Ramshorn and pond snails will be fine at lower room temperatures.