Calling all Snail experts!

[nene]

I bought a golden inca snail about a month ago and as an added bonus I found a tiny snail (about the size of a pinhead) had hitched a ride on it. I put the baby snail in my fry tank that has one baby platy in it. The snail is about the size of a pencil eraser head now and its shell has the same shape as an apple snail so I assumed that was what it was. This morning I found a jelly like small mass of eggs in the water. Now I know it wasn't the baby platy so it was the snail. But apple snails lay their eggs above the water line don't they? This snail has the same shell shape and everything like my golden inca, which is actually a color variation of the apple snail so I can't figure it out. The golden inca has never laid eggs. If this is an asexual egg laying maching I am going to take it back to the lfs. Any ideas or suggestions??

 

[platypus]

No idea what it is I'm afraid BUT I do know that a lot of snails are hermaphrodites (i.e. male and female sex together). They do prefer to mate with other hermaphrodite snails but in extreme situations, i.e. when there are no other snails around, they will participate in a bit of 'selfing' !!

 

[Dman]

Yea i do have to say that the snail u have will keep on laying those eggs because they are a common pest in most fish tanks and ppl normally try to get rid of them. and from the disciption from the eggs i do not think u will want them in ur tropical tank, unless u got hungry loaches whic always hunt them down


Damien

 

[mrV]

... eggs i do not think u will want them in ur tropical tank ...

And apple snails do not belong to tropical tank. They need basic, harder water - not acidic/soft.

 

[Alien Anna]

... eggs i do not think u will want them in ur tropical tank ...

And apple snails do not belong to tropical tank. They need basic, harder water - not acidic/soft.

Eh? Apple snails are tropical snails - they die if the water gets too cold! I have loads of them - I've ever bred them. They do prefer harder water, however, which is what I've got round here. But hard, basic water isn't mutually exclusive from tropical - otherwise why have we got an Old World Cichlid section?

 

[guppymonkey]

And apple snails do not belong to tropical tank. They need basic, harder water - not acidic/soft.

What does acidic/soft water have to do with being tropical? The water in my area is very hard but is about pH 7. Are you trying to say that its impossible to keep tropical fish in water that is not acidic or soft? It just makes no sense.

I just got some plants for my aquarium. I foolishly didn't clean them off before putting them in the tank. I really hope that I didn't end up with any tiny snails. I think they are ugly and my tank is only 20 gallons. Its not large enough to have a million little snails everywhere!

 

[AllusiveLife]

No wonder why my apple snails breeded so well.. I placed them in a tank by themselves and they were living in hard water. I think it makes perfect sense knowing how you have them in your tropical tank and they haven't breed and I had them seperately in a hard water tank... but they;re annoying... They get huge to

 

[William]

I agree with a lot of MrV's posts even his controversial ones But I can say that applesnails will do fine in a coldwater tank or a tropical tank, I've had them in both and had them successfully breeding in both as well.

 

[William]

And to the topic starter, yes the hitch hiker is a pest snail I advice you remove it and any eggs you find!