Mystery Snails Quit Breeding. Why?

[JakeH]

My Ivory Mystery Snail culture was going great & producing plenty of eggs & babies until last week. They just quit laying eggs & I'm running out of babies. My water param's are all normal & consistent, so whats up?

I feed them to my GSP's & Loaches, so it sucks when the flow stops.

 

[JakeH]

Bump

 

[Lupin]

Did you add anything new to the tank? Fish for instance? Any change in diet? It's not just water conditions that should be looked into. If you are cutting back on feeding, they will sometimes stop spawning. Sometimes, it's their mood. My canas quitted laying eggs for a few weeks when I cut on feeding but when I overfeed them with several plants, they begin to lay eggs again. All clutches are fertile.

 

[Lepisosteus platyrhincus]

lupin,
quitted??

 

[JakeH]

Must be a technical term... JK Lupin! I dont feed them much as it is, due to the small tank size, but I will see if additional food helps. Would it help to add another adult or 2 for genetic variation?

 

[Lupin]

Doesn't hurt to add another snail but cross your fingers your female snails will not be stressed further if you add lots of males. Male apple snails don't stop copulating around. I had to separate my male and female apple snails for two weeks after the female refused to come out of her shell for a few days as she was stressed from the constant copulation by the male.

 

[JakeH]

How can I tell which are male & female? I thought they were hermaphrodites...

 

[Psyche]

They have gender. The male is, um, the one on top during mating. I would suggest checking your water parameters and the condition of the female. She may just need a rest.

 

[Lupin]

How can I tell which are male & female? I thought they were hermaphrodites...

Not all snails are hermaphrodites. Even then, hermaphrodites still need to exchange sperm to be able to generate plenty of eggs for a long time. Pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) and ramshorn snails do that. I had a lone pond snail at 1.5 inch that was never in contact with any other pond snail when I got him from a goldfish tank in the store. He died without leaving me a single baby indicating he never exactly had contact with other pond snails as he was a loner when I got him.

All apple snails are sexual. Males should have a penis sheath whereas females don't. Read this blog.
http://sexingapplesnails.blogspot.com/

Attempting to make the snails get out of the shell requires patience. Hold it by its shell and in the position as indicated in the blog. Some snails though will not come out but you can persuade it by gently tickling it.

They have gender. The male is, um, the one on top during mating. I would suggest checking your water parameters and the condition of the female. She may just need a rest.

That's not an accurate way of sexing the snails. Males are not discriminate to sexes and species and the snails they may be copulating is also a male. Here's a thread to find out how they exactly sex because there are cases where people mistake the snail crawling on another's shell as sexing and it is not.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198980

 

[JakeH]

Thanks for the info. I will need to consider a bigger tank, I think. Now that my adults have grown, there is maybe not enough room above the water line?