Am I going crazy? Mystery Snails unhappy?

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#1
Feb 16, 2006
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#1
OK, I have physically observed my mystery snails breeding for months on end now, I have a 4" space above the waterling for them, I have live plants in with them, I keep the water clean, it's well filtered, the only other living things in with them are plants, cherry shrimp, bacteria, and germs... so why do I not have any eggs from them yet?!

I'm not trying to make money or overpopulate my tanks, I am just wondering what I am doing wrong. I am worried I am compromising their health in some way if they are unhappy enough to hold back from laying when I am positive they have bred.

Any ideas? Any tips? Should I play my Slow Motion CD and hope they get the hint or what? LOL
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#3
May 16, 2003
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#3
Maybe you don't have a female? Either that or maybe they're not old enough? Once mine started laying them they wouldn't stop, even after I seperated them. Are you sure they're getting enough to eat?
 

Big Vine

Big Vine

Elite Fish
#4
Feb 7, 2006
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#4
FroggyFox said:
Are you sure they're getting enough to eat?
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Well I would think that "tennis-ball sized fish-eating monster snails" would find all the food they wanted, wouldn't you agree? ;)

Sorry Virgo...I couldn't resist! (FroggyFox saw my thread...she knows what I'm talkin' about. :p)

But seriously...I am interested in figuring this out too, since I recently put 3 mystery snails in with my platies. I'm not hell-bent on having the snails breed, but it would be cool if they did.

BV
 

rshxt9

rshxt9

Large Fish
#6
Sep 18, 2006
236
3
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rolla, missouri
#6
according to a site i found it's really easy to sex the yellow, golden, whatever you want to call them snails. they said if the inner twirls ( i dont' know what else to call them) where the shell comes to that point, if it's significantly darker, 9 out of 10 times, it's female cause the dark stuff will be the eggs. you can also hold them upside down and wait for them to crawl out to right themselves. basically, if you can see all the way back to the inside, it's female. if not it's male because the ***** sheth will be blocking your veiw.
 

Big Vine

Big Vine

Elite Fish
#7
Feb 7, 2006
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#7
rshxt9 said:
you can also hold them upside down and wait for them to crawl out to right themselves. basically, if you can see all the way back to the inside, it's female. if not it's male because the pen_is sheth will be blocking your veiw.
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(fixed that omitted word for you in the quote...hope you don't mind me 'removing' the censorship...err...'mechanism' :p)
With the proviso, like you said, that you wait until they emerge far enough from their shells so you can get a decent look inside. I remember trying this a while back. I even looked up various 'techniques' for getting them to come out quicker, but never really succeeded. I finally gave up.

rshxt9 said:
they said if the inner twirls ( i dont' know what else to call them) where the shell comes to that point, if it's significantly darker, 9 out of 10 times, it's female cause the dark stuff will be the eggs.
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Sweet! I've never come across this method before. Makes perfect sense though.

Thanks for the info.!
BV
 

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rshxt9

rshxt9

Large Fish
#8
Sep 18, 2006
236
3
0
rolla, missouri
#8
yup. with turning them upside down, it helps (and speeds up the wait) if you gently blow on the snail. it took mine about two minutes to come out (now she readily comes out) but it can take up to ten or fifteen. it's worth the wait cause then you can be definate about the sex.
oh..and if you name your snail (like i do) be sure to sex before you name..:)
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#9
Feb 16, 2006
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#9
LOL big V, yeah, you'd think these gigantic carnivores would be eating everything, my poor shrimp included! LOL (um.. no LOL)

Well I have observed them enough to know that there are at least a few females, I started out with 11 or 12, 2 died, but they were small and seemingly didn't take well to me moving them to a different tank. I gave a couple to family members and I now have 7 of them, so I assume there is at least 1 female. They have been devouring the dead plant matter and I suppliment their diet with some flakes, algae wafers, and shrimp food pellet things that they seem to love as much as the shrimp do, so I doubt they are starving.

I just don't get it... as I mentioned, I am in no way upset about them not breeding, just makes me feel like I am doing something wrong or somehow making them unhappy. :(
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#10
Feb 16, 2006
1,933
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#10
ERG! OK, so all the sudden all my females seem to be dying off, my males all seem perfectly fine, but my females are dropping like flies... Could this be realted to them retaining eggs or something similar?

It's really odd, the first sign was the biggest female (in a seperate tank) recluding to her shell and staying upside down, I figured the ram was picking on her and moved her back with the other mysteries. Now all I have is her, 1 other female (showing similar symptoms), and all the males... this is really odd.

FYI the pest snails in the tank (pond and ramshorn) all seem to be flawless! GRRRRR!!!

The only thing I have changed at all is adding some more plants that were aquired from a fellow (respectable) MFT'er. I don't think that had anything to do with it, but I wanted to include all possible factors so you guys can help me figure this out before I move these guys to a bigger tank and buy more females.

Thanks in advance for any responses, please respond if you have any advice or possible info on this, I really need to get it figured out before I have any more problems. Thanks again.
 

rshxt9

rshxt9

Large Fish
#11
Sep 18, 2006
236
3
0
rolla, missouri
#11
My female will float for a day or two. Mostly I blame it on snail pms...I mean every girl gets it regardless of species right? Maybe you should do a qt tankwith low light and lots of dead matter and/or a few algea wafers to see it that will perk them up
 

Big Vine

Big Vine

Elite Fish
#12
Feb 7, 2006
3,895
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#12
Mine tend to hunker-down like that too for a few days at a time. Not sure if it's the males or females that do that for me, since I haven't taken a close look at sexing them yet, but anyway...

I guess just pick it up and if it smells dead, then you'll know. Otherwise, I'd just assume she's 'hibernating' or something. I've read that they tend to do this sort of thing more in the winter/colder months, supposedly, but maybe that's a bunch of B.S.---not to mention that it's been warmer as of late, so who knows? :confused:

BV
 

VirgoWolf

VirgoWolf

Superstar Fish
#14
Feb 16, 2006
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#14
It's not a case of me thinking they are dead, it's a case of me finding them decaying, they are definitly dead and the pest snails love feasting on the remains.

I do think it is odd that the first one to show any symptoms is one of the last ones left.

Toam, a mystrery snail is in the apple snail family, as well as the canna snails. Canna snails are what we refer to as apple snails, they are the golden ones that get soft ball sized. Mystery snails come in a variety of colors (from black, to white, ivory, and even blue, pink and purple) and they stay much smaller, only about golf ball sized.
 

Big Vine

Big Vine

Elite Fish
#16
Feb 7, 2006
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#16
VirgoWolf said:
It's not a case of me thinking they are dead, it's a case of me finding them decaying, they are definitly dead and the pest snails love feasting on the remains.
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Woops...didn't realize they were dead already. Sorry, Virgo. :eek:

BV
 

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