My mystery snail eggs have hatched, and I have little baby snails amongst the gravel in my tank. They are so small, I would not have noticed them were it not for my observant 6-year old daughter. And, to make matters worse, they are practically the same color as the fish poop.
I usually vacuum out the tank once/week in order to freshen the water and clean up the gravel. But, this week, I am afraid to vacuum because of the baby snails. If you have had experience with this, please answer. But no speculation please. If I wanted a guess, I would make the guess on my own... The vacuum has some sort of a stopper on it so it won't vacuum up the gravel, but it will get the poop. As far as width and weight, I would guess the baby snails are slightly bigger than the poop, but smaller than the gravel. Will they get sucked up by the siphon???
2007-07-21 17:22:19 · 5 answers · asked by CharmedTeri 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
I have platies and gouramis and an Arican clawed frog who is too little to eat them right now. None of the fish seem to be eating them. And I really am not going to maintain another tank, so that is not an option.
2007-07-21 18:00:36 · update #1
Having vacuumed up many snails without realizing it i can tell you size doesn't matter the fact is the snail weigh very little and will get sucked up.
I find that letting everything settle in the bucket the baby snails will crawl up the sides and i just retreive them with a net and back in the tank they go. hope it helps
2007-07-21 17:31:34 · answer #1 · answered by john e 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
1. I would feed them at least twice a day, three times if possible. Fry food necessary. 2. Depending on the size of your snail I probably would not add him until the fry are a bit older and stronger. If you have a small snail it would be fine, like the size of your pinkie fingernail. 3. Perfectly fine to put back in the tank. Inbreeding is okay, the negative effects of inbreeding would only show up if it continued to happen for years and years. 4. You could keep the light on for 8 hours a day. It is good for them to have light for a good portion of the day. Algae should not form and if it does just wipe away when cleaning the tank. Snails would help a bit but you really would need an algae eater who would also eat the fry.
2016-05-20 04:41:14 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes they can. if you wish to keep them then get a small tank and fill it with water from your exhisting tank and add a bit of the substrate from the exhisting tanks as well. a 1 gallon will be fine. add the babies in that tank and you can raise them. will be a great project for a 6 yr old good luck and congrats on the babies.
addition: its not really maintaining another tank its always good to have a spare small tank in case a fish gets sick and you need to treat it. inverts are sensitive to the type of medication used to cure fish disease and they are considered doctor tanks. you wouldnt really need to maintain a 1 gallon tank.it would be no harder to change the water if you are already regularly doing weekly water changes on a larger tank. figure a 50% change on a 1 gallon is half a gallon of water and that would be a large water change.
2007-07-21 17:33:57 · answer #3 · answered by craig 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't mention what kind of fish you have with your snails. Some fish will eat snails if they are the right size. So will African Dwarf Frogs (learned that the hard way).
2007-07-21 17:53:03 · answer #4 · answered by Catkin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yep, suck them up. but you may never get rid of them completely. i hear that snails are persistent. like roaches, you never really kill them all.
2007-07-21 17:51:14 · answer #5 · answered by Chris P 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋