# Keeping and breeding pest snails



## JasonR (Mar 27, 2011)

As above I often get pest snails for free from local aquatic shops to feed to my turtles, I'd like to keeping them and breed them so it's a constant supply. Question is would they be ok to live in my 20 gallon cory tank withought damaging the plant life too much? I know some do and some don't so here's a few pics to try and get an I.d







would much appreciate your help


----------



## AnythingWithAShell (Apr 14, 2009)

Yeah....they'll probably eat your plants :?

But, you can keep them easily in a simple tank/container full of water. They don't need a heater, and you can go without a filter if you do partial changes and don't overfeed. They will climb out though, so cover it with something, and if you do use a filter, watch where the cable goes out


----------



## JasonR (Mar 27, 2011)

are there other aquatic snails that breed quickly but wont damage the plants? i know apple snails are safe but bit too expensive and nice as feeders, not sure how quickly they breed?


----------



## AnythingWithAShell (Apr 14, 2009)

Apple snails are fab, but they have separate sexes so don't breed so readily. Sexing them is a very tricky business that I've never even tried!

Malaysian trumpet snails breed loads, they are live bearing so tiny babies just keep appearing! You can get them on eBay cheap. But, they're a burrowing snail and may not breed so readily if you kept them in a separate bare tank. They spend most of their time in substrate so may be safer for the plants, but I wouldn't risk it if you have a nicely planted tank. In my experience, all aquatic snails will eat plants (even apples), some more than others mind. They flock to lettuce etc when I put it in :?

I would set up a separate tank and get some trumpet snails, ramshorns (cheap on eBay too), and more of the other 'pests'. The ones in your pic I think are Tadpole snails, also available cheap on eBay. Pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis) breed readily too, but they tend to be a bit more expensive on eBay generally. The tank doesn't need to be that big (or even a tank, a storage box would do), and like I said it doesn't need any equipment or anything unless you want to make it a little feature, so can be done on the cheap


----------



## bbav (Oct 17, 2007)

We have one of those small glass kids tanks with a bit of gravel in.

It's in my daughters room for breeding snails for her puffer fish.
It is stocked with ramshorn and tadpole snails and a couple of guppies for some interest.
Live plants just don't survive in there but the snails breed well and so have the guppies.


----------



## Pleco07 (Aug 15, 2007)

My ebay listings have finished now but I still have some malaysian trumpets left if you decide on them :whistling2:
20 for £1.50 inc p+p


----------



## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Pleco07 said:


> My ebay listings have finished now but I still have some malaysian trumpets left if you decide on them :whistling2:
> 20 for £1.50 inc p+p


Depends what kind of turtles, though. Musks will crush trupet snails quite readily, but my sliders obviously think they are too much hassle to crush- the shells are really hard. They make good clean-up crew in my clawed frog tank, though!:2thumb:


----------



## JasonR (Mar 27, 2011)

Thanks for the advice I have set up an old fry tank for them with some oxygenating plants and duckweed in. I scooped aload of duckweed out of a pond at local garden centre and there a few different snails in there too so hopefully they'll breed. Thanks for the offer Pleco07 but I don't have paypal or anything so it's bit of a pain buying online thanks anyway though. My slider and map both seem to love hunting down the snails and crushing them, although when the slider was a baby he didn't bother with them 


----------



## JasonR (Mar 27, 2011)

Should I put any other food in for the snails or would the plants be enough


----------



## bbav (Oct 17, 2007)

Algae wafers and a bit of lettuce or courgette goes down well


----------



## Daisy_ (Feb 16, 2011)

i managed to pick up two snails when i bought a plant the other day from [email protected], i have no idea what theyre doing to my tank their completely black and about | | that big, actual size, since theyve been in my tank one of my guppies has died :/ dunno if its because of them or because of something with the tank though :/


----------

