Taia naticoides Piano snails another adventure

[Guppysnail]

Up to 2 babies 🥰

[Guppysnail]

I now have 4 piano babies. I moved the WW to their own tank and thinned out the guppy grass. So now I can see them. 
 

three in the first pic two together one on the wall. The oldest is beside Dad in the second photo. The other photos are just random cuteness. 

[Guppysnail]

[Guppysnail]

Up to 5 babies(that I can see)  Busy little snails. 3 on floor. 1 on side wall, 1 on back wall

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Is the stuff on the bottom Repashy?

[Guppysnail]

On 10/18/2022 at 2:03 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Is the stuff on the bottom Repashy?

There is a piece but not in the picture. In the bottom is a combo of lazy pellets, Xtreme nano, calcium chip and a few catfish pellets. 

[Guppysnail]

We are at 7 babies I can see 🥰

[Katherine]

On 10/23/2022 at 12:43 PM, Guppysnail said:

We are at 7 babies I can see

Wow! What will you be doing with all the babies?

[Guppysnail]

On 10/23/2022 at 4:20 PM, Katherine said:

Wow! What will you be doing with all the babies?

Once I have enough for 2 breeding groups I’ll sell the rest but only to folks who are really into breeding them so they become more prevalent in the hobby. They are super cool. 

[Guppysnail]

Todays newborn putting us up to 11 babies 🥰

Dads shell is crazy

[Guppysnail]

I’m up to 14 babies now. This makes me feel confident that I have found their happy breeding care requirements. 
 

Tank temp 76. They were less active from 72-75

They were also much much less active with shrimp in the tank. They stayed clamped down or pulled in when the shrimp were there. There are still tiny shrimplettes I can’t get out yet but every time I see one where I can remove it without hurting it I do. 
 

DIET

This is a big one and different than my other snails. 
veggies they will not eat until they are so mush they disintegrated at touch. Then they flock to them. 
They show no interest in wafers or granules until they are mush and fall apart. Fry food they do show interest when it coats in a fine powder. 
High protein meat foods even when rotted they are not so interested in. Lazy pellets and primarily algae veg based foods they do like. I started using crayfish empire lazy pellets that are spirulina and calcium carbonate. Those they go after as soon as they fall apart and coat the floor but not when still in a pile. 
 

I also lost 2 shrimplettes. I left them in there. Watched the snails eat around them. As soon as their snoot encountered them they turned and went the other way. 
 

What I am concluding from this is they are not as much scavengers of dead animals. They seem to seek micro algae, fed hair algae and BBA algae as well as probably the biofilm. Anything they can skim from surfaces vs a lump meal to eat. 
 

Even the calcium chip they do not eat in a pile but if I swish it to a thin layer they eat greedily. They go through calcium quicker than mystery snails. Babies being birthed with fully formed shells is my guess why. I think that was the issue with the first few babies. I did not provide enough edible calcium carbonate. 
 

They are happiest with the floor being a mulm layer. When I remove the mulm and place in new food they all go to the walls. 
 

I’ve only seen 1 baby in the guppy grass no others. When lights are on the parents go under the terra cotta pot cave even though the tank has a solid layer of floaters and gobs of guppy grass. The babies don’t seem to care. 

Photos are today before cleaning up some mulm though they love it I have a rogue panda new hatch I’m hoping to at least grow until large enough to catch and remove. The clean area they do not often visit.  I find babies emerging from under mulm all the time but not on top  they plow through it like the parents  you can see some tracks  

HAPPY ADVENTURES…LEARN SOMETHING NEW 

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Guppysnail]

I am still at 14 babies. I think 2 are female so I am not certain if they all came from 1 or some from each. I was seeing a new baby every day or so now no new ones. So I’m thinking much like mystery snails their reproduction goes in cycles. 
The parents don’t like light. They stay under the cave and in darker parts when the light is on. The babies seldom go in the darker areas though. 
 

[TeeJay]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:14 AM, Guppysnail said:

I am still at 14 babies. I think 2 are female so I am not certain if they all came from 1 or some from each. I was seeing a new baby every day or so now no new ones. So I’m thinking much like mystery snails their reproduction goes in cycles. 
The parents don’t like light. They stay under the cave and in darker parts when the light is on. The babies seldom go in the darker areas though. 
 

The babies are children of the light. .....the adults children of darkness....😈

On 11/2/2022 at 9:35 AM, Guppysnail said:

I’m up to 14 babies now. This makes me feel confident that I have found their happy breeding care requirements. 
 

Tank temp 76. They were less active from 72-75

They were also much much less active with shrimp in the tank. They stayed clamped down or pulled in when the shrimp were there. There are still tiny shrimplettes I can’t get out yet but every time I see one where I can remove it without hurting it I do. 
 

DIET

This is a big one and different than my other snails. 
veggies they will not eat until they are so mush they disintegrated at touch. Then they flock to them. 
They show no interest in wafers or granules until they are mush and fall apart. Fry food they do show interest when it coats in a fine powder. 
High protein meat foods even when rotted they are not so interested in. Lazy pellets and primarily algae veg based foods they do like. I started using crayfish empire lazy pellets that are spirulina and calcium carbonate. Those they go after as soon as they fall apart and coat the floor but not when still in a pile. 
 

I also lost 2 shrimplettes. I left them in there. Watched the snails eat around them. As soon as their snoot encountered them they turned and went the other way. 
 

What I am concluding from this is they are not as much scavengers of dead animals. They seem to seek micro algae, fed hair algae and BBA algae as well as probably the biofilm. Anything they can skim from surfaces vs a lump meal to eat. 
 

Even the calcium chip they do not eat in a pile but if I swish it to a thin layer they eat greedily. They go through calcium quicker than mystery snails. Babies being birthed with fully formed shells is my guess why. I think that was the issue with the first few babies. I did not provide enough edible calcium carbonate. 
 

They are happiest with the floor being a mulm layer. When I remove the mulm and place in new food they all go to the walls. 
 

I’ve only seen 1 baby in the guppy grass no others. When lights are on the parents go under the terra cotta pot cave even though the tank has a solid layer of floaters and gobs of guppy grass. The babies don’t seem to care. 

Photos are today before cleaning up some mulm though they love it I have a rogue panda new hatch I’m hoping to at least grow until large enough to catch and remove. The clean area they do not often visit.  I find babies emerging from under mulm all the time but not on top  they plow through it like the parents  you can see some tracks  

HAPPY ADVENTURES…LEARN SOMETHING NEW 

 

Is everything on the tank floor food and mulm?

[Guppysnail]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:17 AM, TeeJay said:

The babies are children of the light. .....the adults children of darkness....😈

Is everything on the tank floor food and mulm?

Yup. These guys don’t eat the food when it’s new. They wait until it is YUCKY 🤮 They are not fast and do not seek and destroy food like mystery snails. they cruise and eat so I found  it but to let them do their thing  

I also have a few more panda fry stowaways I can’t really see unless they move. So I’m waiting til they are a touch larger. 

That does not cover the entire floor just the front corner. Edit…ok some of those photos were just before tank cleaning so yeah it’s a bit much  I should house clean BEFORE photo shoots 🤣🤣🤣🤣

They are very slow. 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Guppysnail

[TeeJay]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:21 AM, Guppysnail said:

Yup. These guys don’t eat the food when it’s new. They wait until it is YUCKY 🤮 They are not fast and do not seek and destroy food like mystery snails. they cruise and eat so I found  it but to let them do their thing  

I also have a few more panda fry stowaways I can’t really see unless they move. So I’m waiting til they are a touch larger. 

That does not cover the entire floor just the front corner. Edit…ok some of those photos were just before tank cleaning so yeah it’s a bit much  I should house clean BEFORE photo shoots 🤣🤣🤣🤣

They are very slow. 

It does not necessarily look bad. I've just never seen mulm look lighter like that. Anything I have is always black lol. Maybe a trick of light.

[Guppysnail]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:33 AM, TeeJay said:

It does not necessarily look bad. I've just never seen mulm look lighter like that. Anything I have is always black lol. Maybe a trick of light.

No I feed powder food and Xtreme nano and granules so it’s easier for babies to find. After half a day it just takes in so much water it looks fluffy. Mulm is usually fish poo. This is mostly food and the snail poo is the same color as the food. 

[TeeJay]

On 11/18/2022 at 7:39 AM, Guppysnail said:

No I feed powder food and Xtreme nano and granules so it’s easier for babies to find. After half a day it just takes in so much water it looks fluffy. Mulm is usually fish poo. This is mostly food and the snail poo is the same color as the food. 

Ah ok that makes more sense then.

[Guppysnail]

Piano snails were upgraded again. I traded fish for a 10g tank at the swap. 
When I transferred them there were 49 plus whatever was clinging to all the guppy grass. I still adore these guys. They definitely give birth in spurts and eat calcium chip like crazy. I put 1 a day in sometimes 2. Always gone by the next day. I spread the food out because they move pretty slow and the babies are tiny. 

[Odd Duck]

I’m sure you’ve said somewhere, but I’m old and can’t remember!  Do you make your own, or do you buy your calcium chips?  If so, recipe or brand you like?

[Guppysnail]

On 1/10/2023 at 1:04 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’m sure you’ve said somewhere, but I’m old and can’t remember!  Do you make your own, or do you buy your calcium chips?  If so, recipe or brand you like?

I buy crayfish empire chips. They have spirulina and the piano snails sit and eat them until they are gone. I was thinking of trying to make my own but…way to busy (lazy 🤣)to save a dollar or two and go through the hassle. 

Edited January 10 by Guppysnail

[Odd Duck]

How long do these hold together in the tank?  Can you break them into smaller pieces for small tanks or should I get some mini chips, too?

[Katherine]

I just want to give you a heads up if you plan on ordering from Crayfiah Empire that they are extremely backed up right now. I put an order in almost a month ago and have not heard anything, including no response to an email I sent asking about it.

[Guppysnail]

They hold together for about a day. But then they dissolve into this picture. This is 24 hours after I put that in the tank. They stay together in one area they do work into the gravel, but the snails love digging for the buried treasure. They aren’t like wonder shells they don’t dissolve out into the water, and they affect my parameters very negligible if at all. I put two at a time into their 5 gallon before I upgraded them and I still didn’t see any great parameter change. I cannot break them. When I gravel vac, it’s teeny teeny tiny balls are that still there that doesn’t dissolve out they have to eat it. This is another reason I’m hesitant to make my own because anything I make dissolves out in the water and sons my parameters crazy  

On 1/10/2023 at 1:52 PM, Katherine said:

I just want to give you a heads up if you plan on ordering from Crayfiah Empire that they are extremely backed up right now. I put an order in almost a month ago and have not heard anything, including no response to an email I sent asking about it.

They had a message up that they were ill. I get mine on eBay and they arrive in a week. 

I also remember they got hit hard by that hurricane 

[Katherine]

On 1/10/2023 at 12:53 PM, Guppysnail said:

They hold together for about a day. But then they dissolve into this picture. This is 24 hours after I put that in the tank. They stay together in one area they do work into the gravel, but the snails love digging for the buried treasure. They aren’t like wonder shells they don’t dissolve out into the water, and they affect my parameters very negligible if at all. I put two at a time into their 5 gallon before I upgraded them and I still didn’t see any great parameter change. I cannot break them. When I gravel vac, it’s teeny teeny tiny balls are that still there that doesn’t dissolve out they have to eat it. This is another reason I’m hesitant to make my own because anything I make dissolves out in the water and sons my parameters crazy  

They had a message up that they were ill. I get mine on eBay and they arrive in a week. 

Honestly, it's been the same message up at least since the spring when I last ordered. I feel like if you're that backed up that you can't even respond to emails after a few weeks you should probably be limiting orders.

[Guppysnail]

I spend way too much time crouched on the floor watching these guys. Their little snoot snuffling about and the trail they leave behind them 🥰 And the shrimp desperately trying to eat the calcium chips before the snails get there. 

 

Edited January 11 by Guppysnail