if you have brown algae, read this…

[Piscesgirl]

I'm sure she doesn't want any
snail the size the apples get

Yes, please no snailzillas at this time -- I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my clown loaches....

[stormhawk]

The problem with the snails is that some species (usually not the Clithon or the nerites) are hosts to some particularly nasty parasites. Thats why them F&WL folks would be pretty concerned about a shipment of snails.

See this for a disgusting GIF for the parasite that attacks snails and birds are an intermediate host:

http://people.smu.edu/eheise/Leucoch..._paradoxum.htm

And this particular human disease linked to snails being the intermediate host for the parasite:

http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~schisto/O...rchis.egg.html

and this:

http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~schisto/O...ragonimus.html

plus this:

Snail Fever/Bilharzia/Schistosomiasis
http://www.lenntech.com/Waterborne-d...istomiasis.htm

[stormhawk]

I'm sure she doesn't want any
snail the size the apples get

Yes, please no snailzillas at this time -- I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my clown loaches....

Deb and Bill,

The "snailzilla" Nerite is actually harmless. My crew of tiger nerites and the horned snails wiped out ALL of my spot algae within a week and actually munched on parts of the BBA. Good snails really. I'd keep these nerite "Snailzillas" anytime.

I find them to be tough critters and they have survived longer in my tank than any other invert I put in. Yes, my shrimps all died once they entered the tank. It was within hours and all of them turned pink and died.

But right now it's a good sign seeing the red rams running all over the tank. Even the little juveniles are zipping about with no problems.

Since they will readily interbreed with the regular brown rams, I won't add these to my tank since the brown colour is the dominant colour and any resulting babies would be all brown and the red will disappear since its recessive.

[ruyle]

Jian Yang,
Yes, give them a bath in a praziquantel solution before sending!
The horn snails' natural habitat is salt marshes, not a schistosome-friendly
environment. Anyhoo, will be checking tomorrow

Bill

[Piscesgirl]

Yes, my shrimps all died once they entered the tank.

Why did the shrimps die? Was it related to the snails or just an entirely different thing?

[stormhawk]

Deb, I'm really not sure what killed them. I know I hadn't been cleaning up my canister filter for ages so I guess maybe the waste matter building up in there had something to do with their deaths. Right now I keep seeing the snails remaining pretty happy with their new surroundings.

[Piscesgirl]

Oh ok. I guess it would be a definite possibility that the filter muck would kill shrimp -- my friend lost her Crystal Reds within an hour of disturbing her tank substrate (not just a little disturbance I suspect). I'm very careful now not to mess with more than a plant at a time.

[stormhawk]

Oh well, finally succumbed to temptation and I took home two tiny striped horned snails like what Choy pictured in the 1st post for this thread. Their shell is not more than 1cm in length. Really tiny but the black stripes are very vivid. I'll try to take an image of them and post it up.

At the price I paid, they cost me 16 cents per 1 mm (and that's just one snail!)

[Piscesgirl]

*anticipates the pictures of the snails*

[stormhawk]

Deb, I want to take a pic of them in my photo tank and position them nicely on a small piece of driftwood.

I'll post it up later when I've taken it. They're really small and real cute too.

[Piscesgirl]

I'm going to bet they are easier to 'position' than the Killies!

[stormhawk]

Well they sort of are easier to position. Besides, these guys really stick to your hand! They're not like the zebra nerites. Those take time to come out and stick on your palm.

[stormhawk]

Okay finally got an image of one of little fellas.



I did some research online and some Japanese hobbyist sites think these are probably young Clithon corona. A German site however, thinks they're probably small Clithon souleyetana.

But one thing's for sure, this little bugger is definitely a Clithon species. Nothing much I could get out of from applesnail.net forums but a trip report on www.molluscan.com (a local SG site) documents the presence of this particular species in Pangandaran, Java, Indonesia.

If anyone has a shell guidebook, especially for Indo-Pacific shells, it would be great.

[Piscesgirl]

Oh he's cute, Jianyang! (by the way, do you sleep ever?)

Here's some good info:

http://members.aol.com/mkohl2/Neritidae.html


http://members.aol.com/Mkohl1/Gastropods.html