Snails: can't breed, won't breed

[Wyld-Fyre]

I've had my snailarium set up for about a month now and I'm still waiting for that sought after snail explosion. They are fed to the max with hi-protein supplements, a large amount of brown algae, and kept in the most snail friendly environment as I could provide, and they still won't breed!

I'm at the end of my tether. Perhaps there isn't enough calcium in their diet? Perhaps the water is not 'stagnant' enough for them? Perhaps it's too bright for them? Or is it the temps not right?

So tempted to give my few snails to my Yo-Yo's. (I'm evil enough to too!)

 

[ger87410]

Don't give up yet. My snails (dunno/don't care what type) bred the other day. It's very boring to watch and takes 3 hours. They was in a community aquarium set up to suit fish not snails. Lotsa current and they was in brackish. Hope this helps. U might try somewhat matching the habitat I created.

 

[smithrc]

what type of snails are they?

If they are apples (or mystery) snails - they dont breed like pest snails...

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Hi Smithrc,

Remember the snail posting you had a few weeks back? Well, the first picture displayed is one of the two varieties I've got. The other is cone-shaped, and unfortunately, don't know what this is.

Can't get a good enough picture with my (crappy!) 2 mega-pixel Olympus camera, but I'll try to describe it. It's stretch cone-shaped. Mid-brown in colour. Feeds with an extended grazing mouth. It's generally active at night.

Looks like a brown Master Yoda with a snout.

However, the problem is that neither of them are prolific breeders as I've been led to believe. This leads me to believe perhaps they don't have enough calcium in their diet for shell construction.

 

[smithrc]

sorry - didn't notice it was you (your avatar isn'y showing on my PC tonight??)

Right - I think the first piccy was of what i called pest snails - which I now think are ramshorns.

Mine breed like mad in our 15gal (there are still some even with the new ladder loaches!)

Your other sound like Mylasian Trumpets... and agian are known to be good breeders.

the only thing i can think of is that they are eating eachothers eggs.


P.S. I'm getting into this snail lark now

EDIT: just read the old thread and it was you that told me they are ramshorns

 

[Donya]

If you've got apple snails they're not always easy to breed. To be really prolific, they often need temperatures around 80F, a really varied food supply including fresh vegies and/or live plants for some species other than P. bridgesii, 2-3" above the waterline to lay eggs (unless they are Marisa cornaurietis) and well-oxygenated water. Apple snails don't like stagnant water for breeding. On the other hand, if you have Viviparids, which also look like little brown icecream cones but don't get much over 1", they need colder water below 75F and a good supply of algae to breed. It's also possible with either of those that you could have all the same gender snails or immature ones. Brackish water for anything but the "freshwater" Nerites is really bad for breeding conditions and many apple snails won't breed if there is any salt in the water. Nerites require it, vivs I'm not sure about...I think it depends on the species with them.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Hey!, my second success during the site breakage. I now have noticed more snails in my snailarium. Perhaps leaving it to stagnate/mature was the right step?