How fast will Apple Snails Grow?

[mandi]

I was searching on AppleSnail.net and couldn't find any very concrete answers, just stuff like "Depends on diet, temperature, etc."

I'd just like some estimates, from personal experiences -- how many weeks/months did it take till your Apple Snails were approximately dime-sized or so?

I'm wondering because I have bazillions of baby ivories right now, they're approaching a month old and still very tiny -- the biggest ones are about the size of a pencil eraser. I don't want to sell them or anything till they're at least dime or nickel - sized, but in the meantime they're taking over my tanks. I'm wondering how long till I can "thin out the herd" a little LOL.

 

[The-Wolf]

I can't answer that but maybe this site will help
http/www.applesnail.net/

 

[mandi]

Thx, that was the first place I checked -- like my first post said, that site didn't really say too much other than "Many young snails might die within the first weeks of their existence, but those who survive grow quickly" and that they had to have enough food, etc.
*Sigh* -- I wish they'd be a bit more specific LOL.

 

[William]

When I had mine I seem to remember it took them two or three months to be the size of a penny, not sure how that is in relation to a dime but approaching 2cm accross.

 

[mandi]

Okay that gives me a rough idea. Thanks!

 

[DannyBoy17]

I just bought 2 of these today. Will they have babies?

 

[guppler]

I have a golden mystery snail that is aproaching golf ball size she's grown since I got her and layed eggs a few times. the second time a bunch hatched i counted 257 babies. I think that was in october, so the first batch was probably born in Sept. I initially but babies in my boy guppy/comuunity tank be cause the golfish living with the big snail would eat all the babies if i left them them. (I float a breeder box directly under the egg cluster when it starts dropping snails.) Idecided to separate some snails for experiments, so I put ivory ones in one tank and yellow ones in a different tank. I was planning to put just one healthy snail in each of my betta tanks to see if they could reproduce alone like Mama Snelly seems to, but I actualy have at least 2 babies in each betta tank. I think I was going to thin them before i thought they were old enough to breed. My largest baby snails are the 2 yellow ones in the smaller betta tank, not quite dime size yet. The 4 or so white ones in my other betta tank are the next biggest. The ones in my 30g comunity tank appeared to be generally smallest even be fore I had a recent die off. That could be partly because the ones with fewer rommates have less competion or because the larger ones were easier to catch and move, and I did pick out some pretty nice ones to trade with my doctor. I haven't seen them since I put them in his tank before my third brood hatched.
So I would estimate it's taking at least 5 months for mine to reach dime size. (For non-USA people who know pennies, a dime is slightly smaller.) My very biggest baby might be barely 2cm if you measure the longest possible width from the whorl to the other side.
If I think they might not be finding enough food in the environment, I drop in algae wafers, but i've also seen them chew on pretty much any fish food they can find, as well as wall scum and the occasional dead fish if I don't find it before they do. You should see the way a hundred scattered newborns swarm to a brocken bit of algae wafer in the breeding box. I think they smell it or something because they start clustering imediately.

 

[rain-]

My Pomacea bridgesii babies sizes with links to pictures:
0 weeks: 0.08 inches
1 week: 0.2 inches
2 weeks: 0.3 inches
3 weeks: 0.5 inches
4 weeks: 0.75 inches

They are living alone in their tanks, no fish or adult snails there. I've been giving them lots of food, New Life Spectrum granules (they were the favourite for the first two weeks), frozen bloodworms, self made fishfood with fish and other yummy stuff, shrimp pellets, paprika, spinach, brussels sprouts and peas. Now when they are bigger they eat food from the surface too, freeze-dried bloodworms and tubifex. I have added vitamines to the water (specially meant for aquariums) and I've done lots of water changes.

Temperature was higher for the first two weeks, about 82 fahrenheit, but then I lowered it to 79 and that's the temperature where they are now. pH 7.5 - 7.9, 8-10 dGH, 6 dKH. The tank is a bit over 14 gallons and there were 150 babies, just recently I moved the smallest ones, about 1/3 of the babies to another tank , 11 us gallons, so they have a chance to eat too.

Here's some more pictures of my babies:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=71748&hl=

 

[bluzup]

I too am curious about this. bought two small blue ones  and one large gold one. the blues seem to be intimidated by the goldfish, don't know about the gold yet. but I think they are neat. ive been watching a lot of videos on them. they will definitely be an interesting addition to the tank. what the best thing to feed them?   I know anything I throw in the tank the goldfish will scarf up but I want to make sure the snails get nourishment too