Originally I bought three. I noticed there were a bunch of babies in the tank so I nabbed a bunch of them too, for free (I can scoop my own fish there). Their shells were extremely weak from the pH and I accidentally crushed a few getting them out. I’ve now had them 2 weeks. They definitely go through cycles of activity. The largest and thickest one passed away a few days ago for no apparent reason, and the shell is extremely durable. I moved all the babies and one of the two adults I have left to my community tank since I’m treating my livebearer sand bottom for columnaris.
Babies! They’ve increased in size by about 1.5x over the two weeks. I’ve had them in this breeder net the whole time but I think I’ll release them into the main tank when I’ve eliminated the columnaris