20-04-2003, 06:13 AM
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Ramshorn snails
In article ,
oSpam (LeighMo) wrote:
No snails seem to survive in any of my tanks except that one 20
gallon, not the 72, not the 55.
Interesting. That says to me that the Onyx substrate isn't the problem,
then.
If the problem was a substrate incompatible with burrowing MTS, then ramshorns
and other non-burrowing snails should be fine in the tank.
I can vouch its not the onyx. I've got onyx sand and gravel in tanks with
trumpet snails, ramshorns, and bridgesii apple snails as well as one
sneaky canna. They all do just fine. OTOH my water comes out at 6.6-6.8
so I up it to 7.4 for them.
But they aren't. So it's probably either snail-eating predators or water
quality that's the problem.
FWIW, I've never had any problem with ramshorms of any color.
As for the variations in color...a lot of that seems to be related to
environment. I got some ramshorns that were pale brownish gold with darker
spots (hitchhikers on some plants). But after a few weeks in my tank, their
shells darkened to the point that they looked like "normal" red ramshorns. I
think they tank they came from was just so acidic that their shells were very
thin. Thin enough that the color of the snail's body showed through the
shell.
The coloring is in the protein coat on the snails shell. When that gets
damaged by bumping/falling etc then the white that shows is the shell.
The shells can get more or less color due to food though. I've got two
albino apple snails (bridgesii) that are pink/purple from eating the pink
guppy food.
I've heard of people putting cuttlebones in their tanks for the snails (the
kind sold for birds). I have no idea how well it works, though.
It works but I just get straight Calcium Carbonate for them. The brewing
stores sell human food grade CaCO3 that I just dump in directly until I
get up to a pH from 7.4-8.0. The cuttlebones supposedly work but they
dissolve slowly and they get gunky. Mine got gross and I threw it out and
switched to the CaCO3.
BTW, if anyone wants bridgesii babies they don't eat plants and I've got a
bunch left that are about 3/4" long now. I'd be glad to trade them for
plants or ship them to you if you want them.
-Eileen
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Why do I always think of great sig lines when I'm nowhere near a computer...
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