Habitat - Indoor :: Snail Reproduction Solutions?

[ChangTang]

So my girlfriend caught the snails trying to freak. So I'm expecting some snail eggs here soon. Since the tank is still a 10 gallon tank for little Chang, how can we control the snail population. Can we take some of the eggs out and flush them? Or should we do something more humane such as take them to a pond. I was thinking of keeping a few (3-4) because i have one yellow snail and one blue snail, and was curious to seeing what the babies would look like. What should I do with the rest?

[steve]

What type of snails are these?

[Love of Animals]

You can leave them. My turtle loves pond snails. They stay small though. Maybe he'll eat them while they are babies.

[Tokapeli]

and you dont have to worry about the shell causing an impaction or anything?

[Love of Animals]

No, I'm not certain but I believe I read somewhere that the shells are a good source of calcium.

[Tokapeli]

makes sense, i spose they would eat them all the time in the wild anyway

[ChangTang]

no, theyre Mystery snails. Theyre about as big as little Chang.

[Snowboi]

The mystery snails are harmless. You can sell them on Craigslist.org, let your turtle eat them while they are small (will do regardless of where they try to hide), or keep them as odd pets (which will become a huge problem in a year, when your turtle wont have anywhere to swim).

[ChangTang]

haha yeah I was thinking the same thing. I'm hoping we dont have eggs. If we do, could I throw some away / flush some and keep a couple? I know it seems a bit unethical, but maybe letting them hatch in the tank and taking the snails to a local pond or creek?

[steve]

Offer them on Craigslist... someone usually takes anything.

[cmbarker]

ChangTang, I'm not sure where you live but it is a bad idea to introduce a population of any foreign animal to an area. You do not want to introduce the snails into your native area because it could have, possibly eventually, serious repercussions on that habitat.

[elwray]

I'd advise against putting the eggs/baby snails into local waterways. It can negatively impact the ecosystem, and is likely illegal.

If they are indeed mystery snails, I'm surprised that the turtle hasn't eaten them yet but they shouldn't cause health problems if the turtle does. Mystery snails will lay a "clutch" of eggs on the tank wall or top edge above the water line - . Unless the tank is mostly enclosed and that area is fairly humid, they likely will dry out and not hatch unfortunately.

If they do manage to hatch, you could leave them in the tank and the turtle will likely start picking off the small ones. I personally wouldn't just get rid of the eggs or baby snails, simply because I've tried to breed mystery snails in the past and always failed miserably but if you really don't want them, list them on craigslist and I'm sure someone will take them off your hands quite quickly!

Also, just because the snails have been crawling around on each other doesn't necessarily mean that eggs are on their way. And if you really want to keep the two snails you have, I'd suggest moving them to their own tank with more "peaceful" mates like tropical fish. It's been my experience that anything living in a tank with a RES is a potential meal, even if they've been getting along just fine for months before.