Snails are amazing creatures in the aquarium, they are beneficial to your aquarium ecosystem since most of them are able to clean organic materials which will pollute your water, some specialize in cleaning algae while some specialize in cleaning organic materials in the substrates. They are always a fine addition to a planted tank or community tank.
Caring for snails is very easy and simple compare to caring of fish and other aquatic animals, they are quit hardy and require little attention. But, for them to thrive in your aquarium, you still need to put a little effort when keeping them.
Buying Snails
When buying snails, try to avoid mature snails, this is to avoid buying an old snails since snails have short life span. Avoid buying snails that come from outdoor ponds since there may be carrying disease or parasites transmitted through birds' dropping. However,aquarium snails are free of disease since there won't be bird's dropping in an indoor aquarium isn't it?
Introducing to aquarium
First, you need to make sure your aquarium temperature is not high, snails aren't afraid of polluted water but they are vulnerable to high temperature. Room temperature around 27 to 30 degrees work the best.
When first introduce into an aquarium, some snails will have air bubbles trap into their shells when transferring them from one place to another, this will cause them to float when release into the aquarium. This is actually not a problem or disease and it won't harm the snails, they will be back to the surfaces. Ramshorn snails are known to trap bubbles in their snails often.
Behavior of snails first introduced into aquarium
Ramshorn snails will be actively moving around once introduced into an aquarium while the trumpets will not move for a long time, sometimes until nights fall since they are only active during the evenings or nights. Apple snails and Sulawesi snails will either be active or inactive when introduced into an aquarium, this depend on the aquarium temperature and water quality.
Feeding
Snails in a planted tanks or community tanks don't need to be feed,, they will eat up the organic materials inside the tank. Snails won't attack plants except the big and hungry apples snails, those apples are known to cause massive destruction in planted tanks.
If you are keeping snails only in a tank, they will need to be feed once a day every two days, algae pellet or fresh vegetables are their favorite.
Disease
Aquarium snails are only known to have the shell's corrosion disease which is not transmittable or harmful to other snails or fish. As the name implying, this disease corrodes the shells of the snails, it is normally not fatal. This disease can be found on every kind of snails, this is cause by insufficient amount or calcium in the water. It can be easily cure by adding in lime stones or coral stones into the aquarium, frequent water change will be effective too.Please be noted that some snails have a little corrosion on it's core or "center", it is not considered a disease since this is normal on all sorts of snails even if sufficient calcium is in the aquarium. Sulawesi snails will always have a corroded shell's ends that cannot be cure or explain.
Breeding
Ramshorn snails lay jelly like egg sacks on the surfaces of the aquarium or any ornament inside the tank, this can only be seen by good lighting
Trumpet snails lay their eggs insides the gravel while the trapdoor snails will give birth to small trapdoors directly.
Sulawesi snails will lay egg sacks which are white in colour and can be seen by naked eye, each sac contains one to two snails.
Apple snails will lay lots of eggs which is pink in colour above water level.
Penang E-aquarium
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