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Post by siobhan on Jul 23, 2014 12:31:52 GMT -5
I know you guys will at least not roll your eyes, or I won't be able to see you rolling them  , but I have to relate this experience. I have two 10 gallon tanks, each with one betta and several ramshorn snails. I took some of the snails in Opie's tank -- he has tons -- and gave them to my newer betta, Otis. Each betta also has a "floating log," which is just what it sounds like, and it's got an opening all the way through plus one in the top so they have a place to rest near the surface. Bettas breathe air as often as they breathe water and a 10 gallon is kind of deep if they don't have a place near the surface to hang out, too. Night before last, one of Otis' snails was in his floating log. Its shell was resting in the log and it was sucking on the glass as snails do, but he was lying in the log and pulling himself and the log along by holding on to the glass with his mouth (you know how snails stick themselves to things and ooze along?). This was obviously deliberate. This way he didn't have to hold up the weight of his shell and he could just lie in the long and move along. |
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Post by easttex on Jul 23, 2014 13:08:49 GMT -5
No eye-rolling here. I firmly believe there is far more intelligence (and emotion) in the animal kingdom than we generally give them credit for. We just haven't been smart enough ourselves to figure that out.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Jul 23, 2014 16:34:32 GMT -5
Wow, that's pretty impressive. It's good to hear about the snails which seem to be doing very well under your care - why am I not surprised!!
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Post by siobhan on Jul 24, 2014 13:01:29 GMT -5
There are far too many snails now to name them or even to recognize individuals in the herd, but they fascinate me and I love to watch them. I try to do right by them and give them good lives. Otis is kind of a stinker and likes to sneak up when one is oozing along and knock it off, but I don't believe he's harming them, just annoying them. He was bugging one last night and I examined it and it was fine, even still had both its antennae, which would be an obvious target if Otis wanted to harm it. It amuses him and doesn't seem to do them any harm. When he poked this one, it stopped oozing along and as soon as he swam off, it went back to oozing along. And I even noticed some teeny tiny bitty babies, so somewhere along the line we've had a blessed event. If they feel secure enough to reproduce, they've decided they're established in there. Opie occasionally annoys his snails, but usually it's just him taking their food -- he likes their veggie pellets, so I put a little extra in to make sure he gets some but they get enough, too.
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Post by benegesserit on Jul 29, 2014 21:27:50 GMT -5
I can see why you'd be fascinated. I remember having snails in one of my tanks and they're strangely compelling. I could watch them for hours! I wish I could lay on my side and nibble along a buffet.  |
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Post by siobhan on Jul 30, 2014 11:28:37 GMT -5
We've had another blessed event, in both tanks this time, so there's a whole batch of itty bitty tiny babies sticking themselves to things in both bettas' tanks now. LOL The fishy friend who gave me the first few snails warned me that they'd reproduce out of control and I'd have to thin the herd (and I can't!) but actually, they seem to know when they've reached critical mass and they stop laying eggs until some die off, and they're numerous but not ridiculous. I do a 50 percent water change weekly and siphon the gravel when I do that, and the mess isn't even bad. Both tanks have filters and heaters and seem to be thriving. Otis' gravel is white so I'd see if it were getting icky.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Jul 30, 2014 16:45:45 GMT -5
Oh dear, I can just see you buying a larger tank for the snails.
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Post by siobhan on Jul 31, 2014 15:39:28 GMT -5
That's why I got the original 10 gallon tank, was for snails. Then I saw Opie at Walmart or Petsmart (I don't remember which) and couldn't leave him there, and I didn't have anyplace else to put him, so he got to move in with the snail colony. That seemed to work pretty well, so when my other three bettas died one right after another (I suspect a different brand of food that I gave them had something wrong with it) and Rex the leopard gecko decided he was never going to eat another cricket, I released the survivors into the yard, cleaned their tank, and set it up for another betta, and then went to Petsmart and got Otis. Otis looked lonesome in that 10 gallon tank all by himself, so I scooped out some of Opie's snails and dumped them in there to keep him company. The thing about snails is, they're adaptable. Not a one of them was even marginally annoyed at being scooped up and moved to a new tank. As soon as they landed, they started oozing around and went right back to business as usual.
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, but I have to relate this experience. 
