My 60L Cube

Jinx_ said:

Bruh I just hope these things won't start ruining my plants now...
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Most snails only eat dead/dying parts of plants, especially robust plants like swords or crypts. You're probably OK.

WhistlingBadger said:

Most snails only eat dead/dying parts of plants, especially robust plants like swords or crypts. You're probably OK.

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Well hopefully. I only know that mystery/apple snails have a reputation to eat plants. The crypt the thing was on definitely looked chewed on.

In the UK, before the EU banned them, we called all Pomacea snails apple snails but differentiated the species with a 'forename'.

The most common apple snail in shops was brig apple snails, P. diffusa, the name brig from when they were thought to be, P. bridgesii. These were smallish, growing to the size of a golf ball, and rarely ate live plants.
We also had cana apple snails, P. canaliculata. These grew to the size of a tennis ball and did eat plants.
There was sometimes other Pomacea snails but those two were the most common.

Fast forward to last year when the UK un-banned them. What species of snail are now being sold here? They could be anything. I've seen them called mystery snails, the US name for brig apple snails, though that doesn't mean they are brigs, we all know shops/wholesalers for mis-naming things.
What did the place you bought yours from call them?

Essjay said:

In the UK, before the EU banned them, we called all Pomacea snails apple snails but differentiated the species with a 'forename'.

The most common apple snail in shops was brig apple snails, P. diffusa, the name brig from when they were thought to be, P. bridgesii. These were smallish, growing to the size of a golf ball, and rarely ate live plants.
We also had cana apple snails, P. canaliculata. These grew to the size of a tennis ball and did eat plants.
There was sometimes other Pomacea snails but those two were the most common.

Fast forward to last year when the UK un-banned them. What species of snail are now being sold here? They could be anything. I've seen them called mystery snails, the US name for brig apple snails, though that doesn't mean they are brigs, we all know shops/wholesalers for mis-naming things.
What did the place you bought yours from call them?

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I didn't know that, I wasn't that interested in any snails until now.

I got them off eBay, and were listed as 'mystery apple snails'. Whatever that means at this point..

It sounds as though they are using the American term, mystery snail. Those are usually the smaller brig apple snail.

There was a website on apple snails which closed when the EU banned all species of apple snail, but we can still access it using Wayback Machine even if it does take longer to load than current sites. There are some diagrams on there for identifying several species.

A bit of history - one species of apple snail was found in a river in Spain, so as the EU operates a 'one size fits all' policy, the importing into and breeding within the EU was banned for all species of apple snail regardless of whether tropical snails could survive winter in many of the member countries. They also intended to ban the import of aquarium plants as well, but in the end settled for making it compulsory for plants grown in a country where apple snails live naturally to be treated with a snail killing chemical. Needless to say these chemicals also killed other species of snail and shrimps. The UK may have left the EU and the importing and selling of apple snails is now legal here, but you can bet that plant growers in the far east still ship plants here treated with chemicals.
What I'm getting round to is to make sure that any plants you buy are shrimp and snail safe. There are several EU growers who provide safe plants.

I think you might be right. It's why I'm paranoid over them eating my plants.

Tropica has shrimp and snail safe plants, only plants from them will grow for me. Plants from someone elses tanks won't for some reason.

These things are for sure are trying to destroy my plants... THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY VALLIS! Feckin' things ugh...

Those alien ravioli things ignore EVERYTHING I give them to eat. They won't touch anything besides my plants ffs.

Might be time for them to go away...

WhistlingBadger said:

Might be time for them to go away...

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That is for sure. I tried to feed them different things, but got no interest from the raviolis. I'll sell them all on eBay, let someone have the problem instead.

I woke up to the vallis being even more attacked, the poor thing

Wow. I guess these fall outside of the "most snails" category!

WhistlingBadger said:

Wow. I guess these fall outside of the "most snails" category!

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Yup..... I really hate these things... They are just here to upset me more and more until I make them officially criminals... bruh can't wait to get rid of them (and I don't say that often about anything)

The seeming pregnant lady:





Not perfect photos, but just showing how big she is. Males constantly dance for her, and chase her in spirals lol

SHE STARTED BIRTHING!!!

Not long ago I found two babies swimming, but still a lil weak. They're THREE mm at most.

When I came back tho, I didn't see them. Crossing my fingers they're ok.






Bad pics, I've been an emotional wreck lmaoo!

I was concerned about her wellbeing during the birthing process, the males kept ganking up on her. So I turned the lights off, and covered the rank with a throw to block ambient light and light from my vivariums. Hopefully this helps her calm down more and birth in peace.

I'm really excited

There definitely is a few babies! I couldn't count as I kept losing them out of sight

Some tried eating and chasing the newborns, had to scare all of them to stop the babies from being eaten. I hope that some of them survive, would be interesting seeing their colours