Giant aquatic snails as pets?

[bugmankeith]

I went in the pet store today and I saw this aquatic snail with a shell the size of a baseball, I was amazed! I got me thinking, mabye keeping 1 aquatic snail as a pet would be interesting, i've never had a snail as a pet. Trouble is I dont know what species it was, so I dont know what species to research? I have a 5 gallon tank, either with a current or bubble filter. I would like to know what species this was, and how to care for them.

 

[AneesasMuse]

Can you get a pic? What shape of shell was on it? Was it more round or more cone shaped? What color was it? What color was the body of the snail? What kind of set up was it in... water, substrate, half and half?
I have some nice sized Mystery snails... I think that's the most common name for them. They are P. bridgesii or Apples. One of em... Reka... is a little bigger than a golf ball, closer to a tennis ball. And I've had a few golf ball sized ones in the past. These are rounded sort of. The more cone shaped ones are like African Land Snails and such... and elsewhere. These are more likely the ones people eat as escargot, too. I don't think we can get them legally here... not in CA, anyhow.

Show us a pic...

 

[Scorpendra]

what pet store was it?

 

[TheDarkFinder]

http://www.applesnail.net/

 

[bugmankeith]

The shell was more round, and it was brown in color, the snail was inside it's shell, sleeping I guess. it was in a 50 gallon shallow aquarium with a large african clawed frog, just gravel and a bubble filter. This shell was baseball sized, no joke! Cant get a pic, but it may be an apple snail, I heard they get rather large.

I'll have to look at more snail pics and see if I can match it.

 

[bugmankeith]

I looked at many pics, and it seems this is an almost perfect look-alike, just without the eggs. This is an apple snail, so I guess thats what I saw.

 

[dtknow]

Almost certainly pomacea canaliculata. They eat plants like crazy, but are alot of fun. Illegal in CA but still commonly sold. The smaller P. bridgesi doesn't eat plants and isn't banned in CA. Petsmart carries these.

 

[TNeal]

One thing to remember about aquatic snails in generally and very important for apple snails. They need water that is rich in calcium to maintain good shell structure. Snails that are kept in soft acidic water has tones of shell problems and usually die, their shells very brittle and or mishapen.

Breeding the apple snails are easy if they are given the correct food. Veggies are very important. Blanched zuchini is awesome. Also, canned string beans, and the wafers sold for plecostomus catfish are also a good source of food. They will eat tons of food.

These guys must get out of the water to lay their eggs. The eggs are laid above the water line. When they hatch the young fall in and head for the gravel. Where they bury in to let their shell harden.

Tom

 

[AneesasMuse]

It's an "apple"... yep! I have quite a few of these little beasties cuz I used to breed them. I love all the colors and some even have a tiny little personality. Hehe. One of my goldies used to seek me out and climb around on me while doing clean up in their tank. She left me with plenty of little ones, too. I would always find her eggs under the light fixture, on top of the filter lid... she was happy to put them anywhere. (and I would always remove them to the snaily incubator anyway, so they were safe)

I agree with TNeal though... if it's as big as a baseball, it is likely a P. cana and they get HUGE!!! And man can these things eat! I'd put a few slices of cuc or zuc or some spinach, etc. in the tank at night and the next day... nothing, not even a skin.

If you get one, and house it with other fish, etc.; try to house it with species that are tolerant of high calcium, more alkaline pH's and so on. I use crushed egg shells in my "snail only" tanks and I put a few oyster shells (whole) in with my betta and snail tanks. It keeps their shells healthy looking. You can also supplement their diet with hermit crab cakes... full of calcium... or Seachem makes a calcium supp for marine tanks and you can use this, as well. Feeding them dark greens like kale, chard, spinach, etc. will also help with their shell health.

good luck if you decide to get one or more... they really are interesting

 

[bugmankeith]

I just read up on their care, and realized they are too complicated for me to care for. You think a snail would be a simple, easy to care for pet, but it seems everything these days is so complicated to care for.

I'm horrible with water quality, and I thought snails live great in any type of freshwater, never realized their shells get damaged from bad water, so that eliminates a new pet with my money after Christmas.

Plus I only got a 3 gallon, not a 5, so too small anyway. And my 10 gallon has no cover or filter or anything.

 

[Randolph XX()]

hope u have better management for this fast spreading animals, cuz back home in Taiwan, they are invasive species that can be found anywhere with water, and no joking, this things should be tightly regulated since u can leak out hatchlings pretty easily
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_snail

 

[bugmankeith]

I'm not getting them did you read my previous post?