Mystery Snail (P. diffusa) and Other Snails Questions

[HybridHerp]

hey, so in the 75 gallon planted tank I have (that seems to be the topic of all of my posts lol) I was wanting to add a few of these guys
I have one now, just a little golden one, about the size of a quarter I'd say
How quickly should I expect it grow? the tank is at about 78 if thats of any matter
Also, how many do you think would be a good number to have? I kind of want them for the purposes of eating uneaten food, possibly munching on algae here and there (though they aren't known for that I know) and for the every important reason of "I think they're cool"
I'm also getting a ton of trumpet snails going for this tank, figured that they would help to loosen up the gravel and all that, plus I kinda like the idea of having a breeding population of snails in a tank
I'm starting off with about 50+ of those, what numbers do you think they'd be able to end up at in the tank? I know they'll breed and that's actually what I want, just sort of curious though as to at what point they would be considered too much
I'm also half playing around with the idea of throwing in a few cheep olive nerites into the tank, but idk
sometimes I think I want too much ya know? lol
thanks for the help guys

 

[kissofcrimson]

hey, so in the 75 gallon planted tank I have (that seems to be the topic of all of my posts lol) I was wanting to add a few of these guys
I have one now, just a little golden one, about the size of a quarter I'd say
How quickly should I expect it grow? the tank is at about 78 if thats of any matter
Also, how many do you think would be a good number to have? I kind of want them for the purposes of eating uneaten food, possibly munching on algae here and there (though they aren't known for that I know) and for the every important reason of "I think they're cool"
I'm also getting a ton of trumpet snails going for this tank, figured that they would help to loosen up the gravel and all that, plus I kinda like the idea of having a breeding population of snails in a tank
I'm starting off with about 50+ of those, what numbers do you think they'd be able to end up at in the tank? I know they'll breed and that's actually what I want, just sort of curious though as to at what point they would be considered too much
I'm also half playing around with the idea of throwing in a few cheep olive nerites into the tank, but idk
sometimes I think I want too much ya know? lol
thanks for the help guys

It depends on how much they eat and the quality of your water. My apple snails grew to be bigger then golf balls. They were pretty big. I had 5 and before I knew it they had multiplied into the hundreds. I ended up selling them all because it was too much.

An important thing I learned is that if your water is too soft they will develop holes in their shells. This happened to my friend, who had soft well water. They also die off faster in warm water. They will eat algae and anything else they can find, including plants. Also if you plan to breed them, make sure you have somewhere they can crawl out of the water (sometimes they will lay at the edge of the water but mine laid them on the hood) to lay their eggs. They don't lay eggs under water and it will be a pink clutch. They also have to be kept moist otherwise they will harden and die. Apples also tend to be messy and produce a lot of waste. In sand its very noticeable but with gravel its not as bad.

I've never kept trumpets or nerites but I do know ramshorn will bury in gravel. Snails breed like rabbits once mature, so you only need a handful.

If you have any questions feel free to pm me lol

Sent from my LGL55C using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[HybridHerp]

I have a breeding tank of strictly rams horns and they are always out and about, I don't think they can fit under the gravel tbh lol
from what I;ve read though diffuse is different then the apple snail (I believe its species name starts with a c?) in that it stays smaller and only eats decaying plant matter, not healthy plants
I know about the eggs thanks , not sure when I would breed them but I would give it a try if i found the time

 

[kissofcrimson]

I have a breeding tank of strictly rams horns and they are always out and about, I don't think they can fit under the gravel tbh lol
from what I;ve read though diffuse is different then the apple snail (I believe its species name starts with a c?) in that it stays smaller and only eats decaying plant matter, not healthy plants
I know about the eggs thanks , not sure when I would breed them but I would give it a try if i found the time

Never had rams but my friend does in her tank. She has very small pebble rock type gravel and they will bury in it. I didn't think they'd be able to in bigger sized gravel though.

Pomacea diffusa (in the ampullariidae family) is the apple snail or commonly called the spike topped apple snail. Its the most common apple snail to be found in a lfs. They certianly don't stay small lol they get very big. There was a video of someones on youtube that got to be the size of a baseball.

They usually won't eat plants but the largest of mine did. I'm not sure if that was because it was bigger and didn't have enough to eat (which I read will happen). But yeah for the most part they don't. Didn't mean to put that. As for breeding, I never wanted to breed them. They just starting laying eggs one day and soon after I was finding pink egg clutches every couple weeks. Once they start they don't stop unless you seperate the sexes.

There's this really great site about apple snails and its got tons of detailed information on them. Helped me figure out a lot when I first started keeping them.

http://www.applesnail.net/

Sent from my LGL55C using MonsterAquariaNetwork App