Raising Mystery Snails - First Time!

[Guppysnail]

On 7/21/2022 at 3:55 PM, Katherine said:

Ok, here are some closer photos. I think we're visibly further along than yesterday. Those bubbly ones look promising, right?

Your getting close bi can see the dark shell or body  in these. 

[Katherine]

I have a single baby!

On the spoon. A little smaller than a sesame seed. It has been safely transferred to the breeder box and is moving around.

I will of course be obsessively checking the incubator until bed time. But then I'm not sure what to do with them overnight. The whole clutch isn't ready for me to crumble them if I needed to. Should I float it in the breeder box overnight? Help!?

Edit: Also, would it be beneficial for me to stick one of my moss balls in with them?

Edited July 21, 2022 by Katherine

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/21/2022 at 6:45 PM, Katherine said:

I have a single baby!

On the spoon. A little smaller than a sesame seed. It has been safely transferred to the breeder box and is moving around.

I will of course be obsessively checking the incubator until bed time. But then I'm not sure what to do with them overnight. The whole clutch isn't ready for me to crumble them if I needed to. Should I float it in the breeder box overnight? Help!?

Edit: Also, would it be beneficial for me to stick one of my moss balls in with them?

ORD! Happy birthday tiny snail!
 

When mine started hatching I floated the clutch on a styrofoam piece in the breeder box when I wasn’t able to watch it. I did put a piece of paper towel on the styrofoam and let an edge of it hang in the water so that the clutch would always be on a moist surface. I don’t know if the paper towel was a good idea or not, maybe @Guppysnail knows. I did it because the styrofoam would not stay damp, and I felt like they should always touch a moist surface. The snails will smell the aquarium water when they hatch and will jump in. 
 

I would recommend moss. Mine really liked moss. Powdery foods are good, if you can get them to coat the walls of the breeder box by stirring them in that would be beneficial, as most of them will probably start off by washing the windows. 🙂

[Guppysnail]

I just do one wet paper towel with a dry one on top. Yes moss ball. Yes float so they can escape into the breeder. Provide then with a calcium source if possible. Nano banquet etc. if not as soon as the clutch is done hatching crumble the leftover clutch so they can eat the shell. Often the very center is gooey. Don’t put that in. 
Since one has hatched you can crumble it now so you are not worried overnight. Gently with a feather touch. That is what I did with this one. I hate leaving them overnight for fear they will fry out. I don’t know if they will. I don’t crumble ahead of time like some folks but I do crumble once hatch starts.

You can see the clutch I crumble for them to consume as calcium

Edited July 21, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On second thought. The clutch I floated did poorly. Only part of it hatched. I would crumble yours@Katherine. I crumbled my first clutch after some hatched, and it went well.

Edited July 22, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
To give better advice based on past experience

[Katherine]

Alright. I crumbled them in, which felt really strange to do. I've observed several of the released snails moving, so I know I didn't kill them all somehow. It's hard to say how many are scattered among the clutch debris, but I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 20?

It looks like I've got at least 2 colors. Based on the colors of the parents (barring unknown genetic factors like recessive vs dominant traits) it's possible for me to end up with any of the 3 parent colors, but no others.

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Congratulations! Looking good!

Also I want to apologize if I seem to be intercepting your conversations. I get overexcited when it comes to snails! 🫢

[Katherine]

On 7/21/2022 at 8:35 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Also I want to apologize if I seem to be intercepting your conversations.

Not at all! You've been so helpful!

[Katherine]

Ok, now that the babies are spread out a little more in the box I got a better count. There are at least 23 of them. Best guess right now on colors I've got gold and blue. Not an obvious third color yet, so I wonder if the ivory is recessive. The ones I think are blue appear to be spotty, which I saw somewhere means they'll end up with a dark foot. Of course it's also possible that some of the ones that appear to be gold right now will turn out to be ivory.

[Katherine]

The babies are noticably larger!

Edited July 24, 2022 by Katherine

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

It’s nice that you have different colors! What have they been munching on?

Edited July 24, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 7/24/2022 at 6:11 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

What have they been munching on?

I've got a chunk of calcium chip type food in there, as well as some tiny bits of green bean, part of an algae wafer that I let soak for a few hours, them mushed up as much as I could, it pretty much dissolved, I've got a small piece of snail pellet soaking to do the same thing with, and I swirled in some repashy powder, not set into a gel.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/24/2022 at 7:20 PM, Katherine said:

I've got a chunk of calcium chip type food in there, as well as some tiny bits of green bean, part of an algae wafer that I let soak for a few hours, them mushed up as much as I could, it pretty much dissolved, I've got a small piece of snail pellet soaking to do the same thing with, and I swirled in some repashy powder, not set into a gel.

They’ve got options!

[Katherine]

The babies are getting larger at a very inconsistent rate. The largest are almost the size of a peppercorn.

I think I counted 24 today, so my original count of maybe 23 seems to be pretty close. A few more could be hiding in/under the moss ball.

There are many more blues than ivory/gold. I'm still unsure on the color of those ones.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Wow! A nice growth spurt already. How are you liking the net breeder? Does it seem to work well for them? I don’t believe any would be able to escape from a net breeder whereas mine were able to escape through the slats of the plastic breeder box.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 7/29/2022 at 2:57 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Wow! A nice growth spurt already. How are you liking the net breeder? Does it seem to work well for them? I don’t believe any would be able to escape from a net breeder whereas mine were able to escape through the slats of the plastic breeder box.

It was not easy to put together and I'm not sure how it would hold up over long term use. It was maybe $8 from a big box store. There may be better quality ones out there. I was concerned for a bit that one had gotten stuck in a tiny opening near where they snap together, but it was able to get itself out. Otherwise it's been good!

[Katherine]

All is still well in the breeder box. Most of these guys are at least peppercorn size now.

I'm not in a rush, but how big should they be before I take them out of the breeder box for free run of the 75g?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/2/2022 at 7:07 PM, Katherine said:

All is still well in the breeder box. Most of these guys are at least peppercorn size now.

I'm not in a rush, but how big should they be before I take them out of the breeder box for free run of the 75g?

How big are your fishes’ mouths? 🙂

Also do you have presponge filter?

[Katherine]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:15 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

How big are your fishes’ mouths? 🙂

Also do you have presponge filter?

None of the fish would be able to eat them, and I only run sponge filters. I'm more concerned with how slow they are and the ability to find food easily.

[Guppysnail]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:32 AM, Katherine said:

None of the fish would be able to eat them, and I only run sponge filters. I'm more concerned with how slow they are and the ability to find food easily.

If it is a well seasoned tank and you are feeding flake food they should be fine. Maybe crush a teeny bit extra flake. 

[Katherine]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:33 AM, Guppysnail said:

If it is a well seasoned tank and you are feeding flake food they should be fine. Maybe crush a teeny bit extra flake. 

I'm not feeding flake. Tiny pellets and repashy for the fish, all the usual noms for the snails.

[Guppysnail]

Maybe pick up some first bites or northfin fry food to put a pinch in so it’s everywhere for them since it’s a larger tank? 

[Katherine]

And the tank has been running since...April? Lots of algae at the moment.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:41 AM, Katherine said:

And the tank has been running since...April? Lots of algae at the moment.

Oh yeah, that's a good idea with the powdered foods @Guppysnail. I can't remember if it was you @Katherine or someone else that was swirling in just the Repashy powder.  And since you already have that on hand, that would be a convenient option.  But I would say let them clean your algae and when it's nice & clean then do powdery foods to coat walls.  Also you can coat objects (ie: coconut huts, rocks, etc) with Repashy.  Gotta do it right away when you mix it because it sets quick!

When I moved the snails to the growout tank it had a bunch of brown algae, and they ate it all.  Even the hair-looking stuff.  They were a very efficient cleanup crew.  Only took them 2 days, but that was just a 10 gal.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 8/3/2022 at 7:55 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I can't remember if it was you @Katherine or someone else that was swirling in just the Repashy powder.

Uh, yes, that was me. 🤦‍♀️ I didn't think to do that for the main tank. Lol.

I might have snailbreak (jailbreak) photos to share later today. We'll see if I get to it.