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Early this morning, my husband called to me from the other room. “How’s snail patrol going?” He threw me way off guard. He’s curious about the snails?! (But not enough to go look. Haha)

Then a little later he made breakfast. Just off my kitchen is a sitting area. My kitchen table and aquariums are there. Everywhere else in the house is carpeted. As we were having breakfast, he stared for a good while at the aquarium! The two snails, York & Hampshire were cruisin on the front glass and the new gang from quarantine was frolicking about; they were added on the morning of “hatch day”. (The hatch occurred in the afternoon.) So there’s a good bit of activity in the tank now. I think secretly he likes the tank; he’s just afraid to admit it.

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On 5/31/2022 at 10:32 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

5/30 

Yawn, stretch…  Brew coffee..  Good morning, fishies! Good morning, snails! Wait, what?!! Another clutch?!  A lot bigger this time. Tinge of fear & panic hits right between the shoulder blades. And then this little voice in my head whispers softly, “Greater success rate.”

At least this time it is on the front glass of the tank. Welp, let’s do it. 👍 This is happening. Since the first clutch so small, I will incubate this one too. 
 

Also here is a pic of York carrying her carrot. 🙂 I told you she’s a character!

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Stay back this is my carrot!

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Daily check of clutch 2 - not ready but still progressing. 🙂

The cucumber was a hit with the minis.  Also they love love love 💗 java moss 🌿. Swapped cucumber with green bean this morning. Using up what's on hand. Extra green beans & boiled cukes go into the freezer in little to-go condiment containers. I don't have too many of those so I might utilize ice cube trays next. Because if you think about it, you have to open a whole can of green beans to give them half of a green bean per day.

Two babies were pale and their status was questionable. I observed them for a long time, maybe 30-45 minutes under magnifying glass but did not detect motion.  I've heard newborn snails are highly vulnerable and it's important to monitor this for the sake of water quality.  I have them in a cup of tank water while I'm off at work.  Same temperature as the tank. Will see if they are latched on to the surface of the cup when I get home.

Also my nerite snail (Hampshire) is absolutely creeping me out.  It did a lot of weird things this morning, and afterwards just went back to normal cleaning driftwood and other tank stuff.  

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Some snails were moved to observation today but all were returned to the breeder box. Turns out they were just lazy snails. 
 

The 2 snails that I posted about yesterday- status was unchanged all day. Sadly they had passed before I found them and before they were moved to observation.
 

Here are some photos of the observation area. I feel like I’m a lab technician or something.  
 

I’m struggling with either a mini-cycle or a false ammonia reading from switching to Prime. I’m researching and panicking. Tank is 10 years old and I hadn’t had an ammonia reading in YEARS. Last 4 days had water changes every day. Today was 50% water change. I’m going nuts!

 

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Some snails are getting adventurous! I found one on the lid of the breeder box and another one or two taking air baths.

York repeatedly returns to the breeder box even though I feed her at the same time. She is a bottomless pit, it seems. Since I put the breeder box in the tank she has stopped laying eggs.

Also here a cute snail at the antique shop that holds baby snail appetizer picks. 🙂

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That is part of the mystery of mystery snails. Sometimes clutches take considerably longer to hatch than one laid at the same time as others. Sometime they never hatch for me. 🤷‍♀️  It may be that it just is not showing up on camera. Can you see anything inside the eggs?  I use a flashlight and magnifying glass. If at this point you are seeing no internal developments the clutch in my guess is simply infertile for one reason or another. 

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Calcium chips?

 

what exactly are these and where does one acquire?

I have the hardest time keeping mystery snails alive even in well established tanks. I throw cuttlefish bone in and have moderate to moderately hard water and still no dice. 
 

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Guys I think today is another hatch day?! I  inspected clutch 2 and one egg was open and I saw the snail inside. I added the clutch to the breeder box, floating on a paper towel on top of styrofoam. The edge of the paper towel is in the water to keep it continually moist. 
 

@pcb09 Here is a link to the calcium chips I’m using. These are meant to be a supplement. Snails also need protein and vegetation. 
 

Here are some other great snail foods. 
 

Algae wafers

Crab cuisine

Banquet block

Nano banquet block


Green beans, canned, no salt

Green beans, fresh, boiled 20 min

Zucchini or squash, boiled 15 min

You were on the right track with the cuttlebone!  Calcium helps with their shells!

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On 6/17/2022 at 9:50 PM, pcb09 said:

Calcium chips?

 

what exactly are these and where does one acquire?

I have the hardest time keeping mystery snails alive even in well established tanks. I throw cuttlefish bone in and have moderate to moderately hard water and still no dice. 
 

I have never found calcium chips.  Try the nano banquet blocks from ACO. Also try more softened veggies. These little bugs eat AT LEAST their body size in food daily. 

On 6/19/2022 at 11:36 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I’m thankful for a baby snail that I can see well! That’s one great thing about longer incubation- bigger hatchlings. Look at how FAST this baby is!


 

Zoooom 💨 

😍😍😍

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I;m ORD😍😍😍

Zoom, zoom, zoom!

I take out dead snails, wash in H2O2 until all soft tissue is gone and shell is clean, then I return to tank. I have also discovered my snails like to clean/eat crushed oyster shells, anytime they need a mineral boost.

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That’s very interesting!  Eggshells are also a good source of calcium but they need to be powdered really good so the edges are not sharp. I put them in “Snello”- search for that on YouTube and there are recipes. Some people add the powdered eggshell straight to the tank, but I find that it makes too much of a mess.

Here’s a pic today of a perfect and pretty whorl.

These snails are eating more and I had to increase their portion! On the plus side, less cleaning time needed for breeder box.

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