Apple Snail

[discoiii]

My Son wants to add an Apple Snail to our community tank after seeing them for sale in a LFS today..

What do they need to survive? will I end up with baby apple snails everywhere?

 

[iffles]

apple snailswon't tke over a tank easily. they need a male and a female (unlike pest snails) and most species lay the eggs above the waterline, including the most commonly available species (pomacea brigesi). If they do breed and lay eggs, you can just scrape it off, allow it to fully dry (so no baby snails hatch in your bin !) and throw it away. They eat algae, but in a clean tank with little or no algae, you can supplement their diets with blanched vegtables (cabbage and cucumber do well). Pomacea brigesi don't eat live plants unless starving to death, but eat dead and rotting plants so the veg needs to be soft and its structure preferably broken down so it replicates decaying plant matter.

I have 5 apple snails off ebay, but they seem to do better at cooler tamperatures (my tank is at 24 though). this isn't confirmed yet though, so dont take it from me

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I think the site is applesnail.net - it gives a lot of info and backs up what iffles was saying about the temperature on there.