Snails in the aquarium are adjacent to the fish or are independent owners of a transparent dwelling. Mollusks can be beneficial or harmful to the aquatic ecosystem. Regardless of its purpose, snails are the same full inhabitants of the aquarium as the rest of its inhabitants - fish, crustaceans or shrimps. Invertebrates are amphibians: they can live both in water and on land. How do snails in an aquarium exist, do they bring benefit or harm to other inhabitants? This article will give an answer to these and other questions.
The benefits of snails in the aquarium
Mollusks are not only very interesting inhabitants of the terrarium. They are also excellent orderlies. In a general aquarium, snails feed on the remains of food that other inhabitants have not eaten - fish or crustaceans. Scraps are a favorable environment for the emergence and development of a variety of harmful bacteria that not only pollute clear water, but also become a source of aquarium population diseases.
The coarse snail tongue is an excellent device that helps clean mucus and other impurities from glass walls. In addition, they willingly eat the remains of plants. All this favorably affects the microclimate of the water home.
Some species of snails can serve as indicators of the state of water in a terrarium. The behavior of the mollusks indicates how much oxygen is in the water. If it is not enough, the snail rises closer to the surface of the aquarium and breathes air. In this case, the solution to the pollution problem is to replace the water or purchase a high-quality aerator.
Why are aquarium mollusks harmful?
The negative side of mollusks is their active reproduction. Small snails in an aquarium can fill almost the entire space, leaving no room for its other inhabitants. As a result, the amount of oxygen in the vessel decreases, which destroys the microclimate of the mini ecosystem.
How to get rid of snails in an aquarium? First, caviar should be removed from the vessel in time. Extraction of excess adult individuals will also help.
In addition, aquatic plants suffer from snails, which simply eat invertebrates. In addition, many gastropods produce mucus, which also pollutes both the water and the walls of the terrarium.
To prevent the development of infection among the inhabitants, do not place mollusks directly from ponds. Buying invertebrates is recommended only in specialized stores.
What to feed
Getting a pet, future owners are wondering what to feed the pet. In this sense, there are practically no problems with aquarium snails.
Gastropods swallow food through a miniature funnel, which is formed from the upper half of the clam leg. A transparent film with small particles of feed appears on the surface of the water. This mixture is snail and is sucked through an arbitrary "lip". Eating the contents of the film, the snail gains the next batch. The process lasts until the animal is fully saturated.
Most mollusks are omnivorous and eat everything that comes in their way. This rotten plants, and dead fish, and the remnants of food, and even algae, which serve as decoration of the water dwelling. Eating, they simultaneously serve as good cleaners of the aquarium from pollution.
Large types of snails can eat larger pieces of food - slices of cucumber, carrots, spinach, and even caviar of fish living in the same vessel. However, it should be remembered that the gastropod "by the teeth" is only the food that they can grind and swallow. As a result, pets are preferable to feed boiled fruits and canned spinach.
Snails in the aquarium and small slices of meat and salad, which were previously scalded in boiling water, do not shun. Also with pleasure they feast on crumbs of white bread. With such feeding, it is important to ensure that food debris does not pollute the water. They are recommended to be removed immediately after the invertebrate meal.
Snail breeding
In nature, there are heterosexual mollusks and gastropod hermaphrodites, that is, creatures with signs of both sexes. Some species are viviparous, which produce babies who are ready for a full existence.
The only common feature of all snails is their rapid and rich reproduction. This is especially true of hermaphrodites. It is enough to acquire one or two individuals to soon receive a whole population of mollusks. To preserve harmony in the ecosystem of the water home, you should remember how to get rid of snails in the aquarium. To do this is quite simple: you just need to remove the excess gastropods or their eggs from the reservoir in a timely manner.
How do snails reproduce in an aquarium? It depends on many factors: the health status of gastropods, climatic conditions, capacity, etc.
Reproduction of hermaphrodite snails is as follows. Gastropods lay eggs mainly on the lower parts of aquarium plants, walls or decorations. The film of eggs is so dense that it is practically not afraid of other inhabitants of artificial reservoirs. After a fairly short time, small invertebrates hatch from it. The most common hermaphrodites are snail coils.
Mixed-sex mollusks can be viviparous (for example, melania or helena), or also lay eggs (ampullarium).
How to equip a dwelling for mollusks
Snails are creatures with shells on their backs. To build and maintain the integrity of the natural shelter, gastropods need calcium and a water pH of at least 7. Therefore, it is recommended that the bottom of the aquarium be lined with a ball of small particles of marble, limestone, and sea shells. You can also add drugs to the water that increase the hardness of the water.
The size of the home reservoir should depend on the size of the inhabitants. Small gastropods can only be accommodated in a small vessel, while the achatina (one of the large invertebrate) snail aquarium should be at least 10 liters.
For the correct arrangement of the terrarium for gastropods, it is necessary to line the bottom with soil on which decorations, shells and plants are placed. If you decide to use the soil from your own garden, you must first roast it in the oven to prevent the occurrence of infection. Quality soil for the terrarium should consist of sand, earth and coconut substrate.
For the comfort of snails, which are nocturnal creatures, it is recommended to place a building in the terrarium where pets can relax during the day. Broken flower pots set upside down are great for this purpose.
The temperature in the aquarium should correspond to the natural climate of snails and should not exceed 25-28 degrees.
What the snail does in the aquarium depends on the state of the ecological climate in the pond. In a favorable environment, the mollusks will feel comfortable and calm. In the event of water pollution, invertebrates will become worried and may even become ill.
Plants for terrarium with snails
Although snails are omnivores and can eat various plants, some fauna should be present in the pond. In an aquarium with clams, ivy, fern, different types of water mosses are perfect.
Before planting plants in a pond, it is necessary to hold them in warm salt water. So you can get rid of possible infections. After ten minutes, the plants should be thoroughly rinsed. Freed from harmful parasites and other uninvited guests, the aquarium can be enriched with green spaces.
Top 8 Popular Snails
The most famous shellfish are:
- Coil. It is present in almost every terrarium. She became famous thanks to her original appearance and small size. The harm from snails in the aquarium is their rapid reproduction. At the same time, mollusks diversify the ecosystem of the home reservoir and are worthy neighbors to its other inhabitants.
- Ampouleurs are more capricious in leaving. This is one of the largest aquarium gastropods. As a result of this, amulets have excellent appetite and, with a lack of feed, they easily eat young sprouts of aquatic plants.
- Tilomelania until recently were not popular. However, recently they have become more common due to their beautiful appearance. They are very selective in content. These exotic specimens are recommended to be kept in a separate terrarium and looked after more carefully than other species.
- Melanias are as popular as coils. However, there is a difference in appearance and lifestyle. Melania live and breed in the soil, automatically shoveling it. Like coils, they are prone to rapid population growth, which threatens overpopulation of the aquarium.
- Neretins are not only very beautiful, but also very useful. The use of snails in the aquarium is to thoroughly clean the pond from algae. Shellfish are a rather expensive treat. The short age of neretins is also a minus.
- Marisa belongs to giant snails. An individual can grow up to six or more centimeters. Marisa should be kept in a separate terrarium, as it is very voracious and consumes aquatic plants up to the roots.
- Helena is one of the most unusual snails. Helens are almost the only cannibal snails, since they feed on their small relatives. On the one hand, it helps get rid of excess clams from the aquarium. At the same time, it is recommended to keep helena separately, since it can also be enjoyed by exotic species of snails.
- Physa belong to the Lilliput snails. Small and easy-to-breed physicists can survive in harsh conditions. The snail's disadvantage is the ability to gnaw holes in very hard plants, which greatly spoils their appearance and harms survival.
Snail diseases
Like all living things, mollusks are susceptible to various diseases. Gastropods exported from the tropics can be carriers of parasites.
Crawling along the walls of the aquarium, the snail can fall down and, falling, damage the shell. Chipped must be treated with an antiseptic to prevent infection. Soon the “wound” will heal and the shell will recover.
It is not recommended to often pick up pets. Thus, phlegmatic creatures can be disturbed. When taking a pet, you should wet the animal’s leg with water and gently move your palm under it. With your second hand, it is recommended to hold the snail by its shell. Holding the clam in hands should not be long so that it does not begin to worry.
Gastropods can fall into suspended animation. The duration of hibernation depends on climatic conditions and the level of humidity.
Features of snail coils in an aquarium
The mollusk of this species is a frequent inhabitant in domestic ponds. These invertebrates can be bred intentionally, but most often they end up in the aquarium with plants.
Externally, snail coils are easy to distinguish from other species. They have a sink in the form of a tightly twisted flat spiral. Between the turns, the seam is clearly visible. Under natural conditions, some types of coils can reach 3.5 centimeters. But in an aquarium they usually do not grow more than 1 centimeter.
A feature of the mollusk is the ability to swim down on the surface of the water. This is possible due to air bubbles that are inside the snail's house.
The following types of coils are known in nature:
- Horny. The largest of these mollusks. Its size can reach 3.5 cm. The color of the shell is brown, and the body is reddish-brown. The horn coil feeds on fodder waste and plant debris.
- The horn red coil is the second largest (2 cm). Unlike simple horny, this species has a bright red shell. The horn coil is an excellent nurse eating bacteria and leftover food.
- Far Eastern. The homeland of this type of coil is East Asia. The coil is unpretentious in leaving. Shell color ranges from reddish to brown. As a food, the Far Eastern mollusk prefers plants.
- The keel-shaped coil is entered into the aquarium along with plants and soil. The drab color of the shell is a good disguise of the mollusk in the soil. Kilevatka eats what it finds in the ground, and also cleans the walls of the reservoir.
- A wrapped coil is a pest. Observing how snails reproduce in an aquarium, one can understand that a rapidly growing population can significantly affect the state of the ecosystem of a home reservoir. In addition, wrappers pollute the soil and water. The color of the shell of the coils is dirty yellow, the body color is light beige. The coil can also exist freely outside the aquarium.
Beauty ampoule
The birthplace of this species of snail is the mouth of the Amazon. Over time, the population has moved to Hawaii, Southeast Asia and Florida. In vivo, the mollusk leads an exclusively aquatic mode of existence. However, like all his relatives, he needs air from time to time. For a breath of oxygen, the ampoule rises to the surface of the water. There she draws out uses a breathing tube and sucks in air through it. The snail, like fish, has a similar respiratory system consisting of gills and left-sided lungs.
Difficult natural conditions led to the fact that the ampullarium has a well-developed limb, protected by a kind of sash. During times of drought, the sash closes and the snail hides in the sink, waiting for an unfavorable period.
Ampoules need partners to reproduce.
The color of the shell of the mollusk can be varied. But the main color of the shell is yellow. In addition to it you can find white, brown and even black invertebrates.
Ampoule snails in the aquarium take root very well. When buying, you should remember that these are mollusks of considerable size. They can grow up to 8-10 centimeters, but there are larger specimens. Some individuals can be compared in size with other giants - marises.
Different types of ampoules can differ not only in color, but also in the shape of the shell. Snails usually live about two years.
Luxurious Achatina
Noble and elegant creatures depict photos of snails in an Achatina breed aquarium. This type of mollusk is very prolific. At one time, a gastropod can bring from 100 to 600 eggs, from which babies will soon hatch.
Achatina native to Africa. Invertebrate is one of the largest mollusks on Earth. Large shells are painted brownish yellow and decorated with a dark pattern. The length of the shell can reach 40 centimeters, and weight - up to 600 grams.
Achatina possess lungs and are hermaphrodites. It is noteworthy that pregnancy inhibits the growth and development of the animal. Therefore, mating snails up to a year is undesirable.
Akhatinov is quite simple to contain. They are almost omnivorous and do not require special care. Maybe that’s why Achatina are very popular as pets.