How to breed aquarium snails

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Snails can be seen in aquariums almost everywhere. These mollusks, firstly, serve as an excellent decoration, and secondly, they are quite good cleaners, since they eat food that is not eaten by fish. Among other things, snails destroy the mucus that settles on the walls of aquariums and plants. At the moment, there is just a huge number of aquarium snails.

They can have a variety of sizes and appearance. Some types are heterosexual, others are hermaphrodites. In any case, these creatures multiply instantly. Therefore, their population must be monitored.

To do it right, you need to know how aquarium snails breed. Heterogeneous, for example, snails, lay eggs on the walls of aquariums, coverslips or lids, that is, not in water. The eggs hold on quite tightly, and therefore rarely fall to the bottom. Small snails appear in one and a half to two weeks. As for hermaphrodites, even if in an aquariumonly one individual will be planted, her offspring will definitely appear. These snails can also mate with members of their own genus. In this case, the larger mollusk always acts as a female.

Large aquarium snails, such as snails, can be quite a good decoration for an artificial reservoir. However, in an ordinary aquarium (for 50-100 liters), the presence of 5-7 individuals will be quite sufficient. As for small hermaphrodites, in a short period of time they are able to fill the aquarium almost completely. The red snail is especially prolific - a small brown mollusk familiar to everyone since childhood. The number of hermaphrodites is more difficult to control, but it is quite possible.

There are only a few ways to get rid of extra aquarium snails. First, since they feed mainly on the remains of fish food, it is worth first of all to follow the fish after feeding. If after 4-5 minutes after placing food in the aquarium it will not be eaten, then the portion needs to be reduced.

The second good way is to acquire some predators, natural enemies of aquarium snails. It can be, for example, bots that attack mollusks and literally tear them out of their shells. The growth of the population of individuals that often enter the aquarium by pure chance (with soil, plants, snags and stones) can be stopped by launching catfish or ancistrus into the aquarium. These fish willingly eat eggs and young snails.

Some cichlids do the same.

If for some reason these fish are not suitable for keeping in your aquarium, you can use another method. This method is called salad. To get rid of aquarium snails, take a lettuce leaf and scald it with boiling water. In the evening, this bait is placed on the bottom and pressed with some pebbles so that it does not float up. In the morning, taking out a sheet and turning it over, you can see many small snails on the reverse side. By doing this operation several times, you can significantly reduce the number of individuals.

You can also use special chemicals that are sold in pet stores. However, this method has one significant drawback. By killing snails, these products also destroy beneficial bacteria. As a result, the biological balance in the aquarium may be disturbed. As a radical remedy, you can also wash the plants and soil in warm s alted water. This should surely help.