Breeding Apple Snails...

[cuticom]

So I'm going to set up a tank specifically for breeding apple snails. The tanks 120l or 76 cm x 35 cm x 45 cm, but the water level will only 30cm so it'll just hold 80l, to allow room for the snails to lay there eggs comfortably.

I've been doing some reading about breeding them but still ahve some questions
How many snails would it be best to start with? I was thinking about six...
What substrate do they prefer? Sand? Gravel? bare bottom?
What would be the best food? just sinking fish food?
What sort of filter? Sponge filter? Internal filter?
Are there any fish that don't eat baby snails?

The baby snails will be used as feeder snails for my black ghost knife and valentini puffer, but if possible a few fish in the breeding tank would be cool, but not if their going to eat the baby snails before their big enough to be fed to the other fish..

 

[TylerFerretLord]

These snails will be used as food? It would be better to breed ramshorn snails or pond snails, as they reproduce faster. However, you cannot sell those for as much if you plan on selling any of them.

Six should be good, try to go for more females than males to maximize the amount of young produced.
Bare-bottom would be easier to clean, but can look a little plain.
You would only need a sponge filter or two, but a power filter would not hurt. Put some crushed coral in the filter to add calcium to the water for their shells. If the water becomes acidic the snail's shells will corrode and the young may not be able to even form one correctly.
Most fish won't eat snails. Just avoid large fish and loaches. Guppies would do nicely as they like a high ph.

What species will you be breeding?

 

[cuticom]

I also wanted some snails that don't get the ewww reactions you often get when people see a tank of ramshorns or pond snails, as the tank will be right tank to be my marine display tank.

The snails I'm looking at are a pomacea species, not sure exactly what species.

The baby snails will just be for food, though I'm fairly sure my Mum'll nick a few for her tanks.

Umm how do you sex em? I was under the impression you couldn't? guess I got that wrong.

Would sand be a suitable substrate?

So a small amount of crushed coral for calcium, substrates optional, a small filter and a heater....

Coolio, I already have all that, so I can get the tank set up this weekend.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

You could also use the crushed coral as your biological media in the filter if the pieces are large enough.

Sexing:

Despite the shape difference, it often easier to determine the sex by looking inside the mantle cavity to spot the penial complex or the absence thereof in case of a female snail. To do this one should take the snail out of the water and keep it upside down for a minute or 10 and blow some fresh air over the snails body. The animal will (hopefully) stretch its foot out to turn the shell upright. When this happens it's possible to look inside the right mantle cavity, where one should look for the relatively large penissheath in front of the gills. The female snail lack such structure (obvious). The picture above should help to see the difference between the sexes.

-From applesnail.net

Sand would be fine.

Also, some info on determining species. Not really important, but some Pomacea snails will eat live plants so you may want to know. Link