Golden Striped Apple Snail

[Chtheo]

Hi all,

I have posted about Nigel (My Striped applesnail) before and his suicidal tendancies. I am pleased to report he is doing well! and is still happily chugging along... in fact he may be too happy!

Last week i noticed that i had a large number of pest snails in the tank, it has been 3 months since i last added anything to this tank, and even when i did add things they were all thoroughly cleaned and rinsed in R/O. This tank is 100% R/O water (with mineral salts). So i do not know how these snails may have come to be.

Yesterday i was carrying out a water change and i noticed that in my hood there are 2 egg "sacks" positioned on either side of the tank, above the water level. These things are probably 4-5CM long and 2-3 CM wide.

upon closer inspection of the "pest" snails they all seem to be applesnail shaped and share similar colouration to Nigel, and they are begining to appear quite developed (I can see antenae etc) They are probably no bigger than 3mm in diameter, so it is still hard to tell if they will grow any bigger.

I am wondering if it is possible that Nigel is the Father/Mother he is the only snail in the tank, and as far as i knew it took two apple snails to "tango".

Any info would be greatly recieved as i would like to know what i am dealing with so i can decide what i can do to prevent this in the future (if that is posible?)

 

[Essjay]

Apple snails do need a male and female to reproduce but females can carry sperm for months. It looks like this is what happed with Nigel - or maybe you should rename her Nigella. The easiest thing to do is remove the egg clusters whenever you see them.
As for your 'pest' snails, you could advertise them in the classified section when they get big enough.

 

[Chtheo]

Apple snails do need a male and female to reproduce but females can carry sperm for months. It looks like this is what happed with Nigel - or maybe you should rename her Nigella. The easiest thing to do is remove the egg clusters whenever you see them.
As for your 'pest' snails, you could advertise them in the classified section when they get big enough.

Thank you, for this it seems quite amazing as i have had her for about 4 months (Since early April!) she was only 1 cm... they grow up so fast!

Obviously they arent pest snails, and when they are ready i will give them away.

Should i remove them from the tank they are in (there are other fish in there) and put them into their own one? If so, how old or what size should they be before attempting this?

Thank you,

 

[Essjay]

They should be OK with the fish. I got some once that were about 1cm diameter (from ebay) so you should be able to sell yours at that size. Mine were packed with damp tissue in a small rigid plastic box. You could also use damp filter wool.

 

[Chtheo]

That's how I got Nigella, it will be sad to just pack them up with a bit of damp cloth and a small slice of cucumber!