ok, so here are some pictures of Lazerus' shell. what kind do you think he was?? and here are some not so good shots of the babies i brought home from the sunday school tank. there were more than i thought. and some very strange colors!! there are some that are so light colored in the shell that they are almost clear and thier bodies are bright red!! they are soooo cool! then there one that i grabbed that is kind of bluish in color and the other one is very dark, not sure what actual color it is, but pretty. now once i started learning from you all the different kinds of snails, looking at photos and going over to AS.com i suspected that these are indeed ramshorns. they must have hitchhiked somehow. BUT when i got them home and actually started examining them closely, i'm not sure. they don't have a big spire ( i think i have the right word) but they aren't flat like the photos of ramshorns i've seen they start flat and then curl out, does that make sense? i hope you''re able to see that in the photos, they kind of suck. sorry. i'll try to get better ones soon. ok here's the link. see what you all think.

my snails


thanks!

I can't really tell on some of the other babies, but I suspect they are Rams. The red Rams are like that because their shells are albino and it's the hemoglobin in their blood.

Lazerus looked like a Cana.. I'm not quite sure though. Mostly from the indentation in the spire and the flatness of it. No offense but he wasn't in great condition.

oh and i forgot to mention, these babies are in a temporary home, but i am going to seal the leaks in my other ten gallon and start a snail tank of my very own! my hubby thinks i've absolutely lost it!!

see what you all started??

I don't know...I'm certainly far from being an expert,but they look like ram'shorns to me.I never saw them blueish,but I just recently saw someone on the snail forum talking about them.

Those baby snails are exactly the snails I saw in my bowl!
Can I borrow one of those pictures, Cyndl?

I started with one Ram'shorn,and I cant even begin to tell you just HOW MANY yopu will end up with! I clean them out of my tank weekly.They're everywhere including the insides of the filter's .Now I like them -dont get me wrong,but they just breed 24-7.

If you put just one of them in a tank, will anything happen? I suck with snails.

The babies are ramshorns. They reproduce at the speed of lightning. I cleaned out my filters today and found about 100 of them. I won't tell you what I did with them.

Your big snail is an apple, probably a female cana, because of her size. I'd need to see her body to tell.

I must tell you that your apple snail has SEVERE erosion and shell damage. This can be caused from poor water quality and or poor diet.

Here's a link to a good website to learn more about snails.

snails

thank you everyone for the quick responses! i thought thats' what the babies were once i started learning more about snails.

eather.hey- my poor lazerus WAS in poor shape. s/he is now gone. Laz was a BEAUTIFUL snail when i lent him to the sunday school tank. the tank has not been cared for properly. i tried to help. and the shell was pretty nice even after he died. but they let the shell sit in the tank since then! it's just been sitting at the bottom of the tank. my boys had been very sick last winter and in & out of the hospital. so iwasn't at church much. when we were able to start going again, laz was gone, all that remained was his shell. at the time i didn't know that shells aren't so good for tanks, so i just left it. and it has looked worse and worse since then. you're right it look pretty nasty now. it used to be smooth and all cream/peachy in color. he was a gorgeous snail. i hope to find one again soon. i really enjoyed him. i guess i shouldn't have shared him with those who didn't know how to care him. it's sad, but live and learn. now there are still ramshorns living int his tank and i did find some egg patches. should i suggest that they clean out the tank or they'll be infested? or what? and i'm guessing that since they breed so quickly that no one is going to want to take them off my hands, huh? so how can i keep the pretty ones i have and not have a billion of them? or should i send them away too and find some pretty cana or briggs to have instead?

hey, do canas comein different colors? i've only seen the creamy ones.

ok, sorry to "talk" you ears off.

THANKS!!!

oooo! eather.hey! i didn't see that page before! i have been to the site and done alot of reading, but i missed that page before. there are some pretty colors of cana! not as many as the briggs, but still! i like the one that is almost a chocolate color, the "Brown Pomacea canaliculata snail". i'll have to look for one of those!


OH! and Kameira you sure can borrow one of my pictures! not a problem! have fun! B)

Thank you Cyndl!!!
*grabs the pic and runs away*

hmmm......my Gumby has his shell eroded like that....what can be done with it at that point??

I mean, I polished him, but its worn off since.

Yup, polish, and

calcium, calcium, calcium!! Hehe.. obviously calcium is important.

You can add calcium by using crushed coral, oyster grits (I think that's what they call it), cuttlebone, Kent Marine Liquid Calcium (easy & works well) or even eggshells.

I use cuttle bone now.....all the others are fine, but this guy has a really crappy shell

It's possible that he had a bad shell before you got him. It's harder to reverse damage than it is to prevent it. I'd also use another form of calcium- I use cuttlebone and Kent Marine Liquid Calcium.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was just a shell. :crp Sorry for butting in like that. I have 3 apples with bad shell damage because I didn't realize my crashing pH was hurting them too.

If you're ever interested in an apple snail, let me know. I have a bunch of super healthy babies!

hey heather! actually i am currently setting up a snail only tank to start my own snail breeding. i have learned alot from all of you ( with TONS more to learn still!) and all your excitement over clutches and babies, I WANT TO DO IT TOOO! i already know that i caould probably give first dibs to my snail friends here and then i called my favorite lfs and asked if they would be interested in buying snails from me. they said yes!! i know that they get snails. that's where i bought my first few for my sons tank. but that was before and they never lasted long. and several times when we went back they just didn't have any and didn't know when they'd get more in. sooooo, that's why i called them they seemed pretty eeger about it. so i am excited to start. i have already started getting things ready in the tank and now i need snails!!! soooo, what kind do you have? i would like to do a pair of canas and a pair or two of colored brigs. i just love all those colors and have never seen anything but gold and different browns here. i think the colored ones would go over huge! i personally love the blue and the purple one. they are jsut gorgeous!


ok so i guess the short answer is.... yes please i'd like some babies!