# nerite eggs have hatched...and they are planktonic!



## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Short story - I have 100's of planktonic olive nerites in my brackish tank now, which goes against most documentation on the web on how nerites are born.

Recently I decided to try to breed olive nerites snails. I thought it would be fun and certainly a challenge. I did a lot of research, all of it very conflicting. Some (very few) said the eggs hatched into a planktonic form, and almost all said they hatched into small shell-less snails, some claiming success raising them. Some even claimed to see the shell-less snails crawling out of the eggs. Most agreed brackish to full salt water is needed.

I decided to setup a 5g brackish tank (1.012sp) with plenty of light and algae, a very low flow sponge filter, and 6 olive nerites I got from azgardens.com, which I'm pretty sure are caught wild in Florida.

The egg laying started immediately. I waited for eggs to hatch. Then I started seeing quick a few eggs that were broken open. However, I could not find any tiny snails anywhere.

About a week ago I noticed plankton in the water column. I didn't know what they were, and didn't consider that they might be hatched nerites because they were so small (dozens could have fit in an egg), and every mention I read of nerite plankton quickly got refuted as not being true. Some of my nerites have live barnacles, so I thought maybe they had spawned. But they didn't look like (under a microscope) any pictures of barnacle plankton I could find. Also, I had just tossed in a bunch of crushed coral, and thought maybe the plankton had hatched from it.

Today I dug some more on the web and found the following post:

http://www.applesnail.net/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=18327

This person claims to also have had planktonic nerite offspring, which I learned are called veliger larvae, the name givin to planktonic mollusks. What convinced me I was seeing the same thing was a great video he took of the plankton under a microscope:

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/5hadox/?action=view&current=1Veliger200x.flv

This is what I had seen under the microscope a week before. Their small size relative to the size of the eggs also made sense now. I had previously look at backside (bottom) of an egg laid on the glass and noticed it looked like it had dozens of little eggs in it. Turns out it did, and what we think are nerite eggs are actually egg sacks (at least in my case).

So now I need to see if I can feed them and raise them. All I have right now to try is a smelly green power fed to brine shrimp. I'm going to shake it up real good in a bottle and feed it to them like green water. I'm not actually too hopeful, but it's worth a try.

Now, for all those who have said nertite young don't have a planktonic form, and have actually seen the snail eggs hatch into shell-less snails, I'm not sure what to say. My guess is different nerites have different life cycles, or they were looking at something other than a nerite. Hard to say for sure.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Very interesting. I bet you will have success with raising them. Just make sure to add ammonia resins and lots of carbon to remove waste products as water changes are obviously out of the question.

Keep us updated! And take some pics of the snails when they start making shells!


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Zapins said:


> Very interesting. I bet you will have success with raising them. Just make sure to add ammonia resins and lots of carbon to remove waste products as water changes are obviously out of the question.


Water changes should be possible since they are attracted to the light at the surface. I just have to turn the filter off to kill any current, and then siphon with an airline hose to avoid making any turbulance in the water that might force them to the bottom. I can also add an airstone to the end of the airline tub.

I don't think ammonia resins will be too effective given the very low flow of the tank. One problem I have is my nitrates are 40-50ppm out of the tap. I'm not sure if this will be a problem or not. Maybe I should start using distilled water with the ocean salt mix instead of well water.



Zapins said:


> Keep us updated! And take some pics of the snails when they start making shells!


They have shells already! Look at the video link in the above post. I'm guessing it will be at least a month or two before they are even as big as the sesame size egg sack they hatched out of.


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## Gobies et al (Jun 7, 2008)

Great going!

Please keep us posted. I don't have ready access to Olive Nerites, but I'm hoping to give a try with Zebra's or Orange Track later this year. I'd love to see how things go for you.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I used to have zebras and red spot. They laid plenty of eggs, but never in an aquarium setup so the hatchlings had any chance of survival. I didn't have much luck keeping either type for very long. I started with about 20, and the last just died after about a year. I haven't had any olives die on me the past year.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I looked at one of the egg sacks under a microscope today. It was one that was starting to get dark, which is a sign that it is about to hatch. It looked like it had about 100 veliger larvae in it, and the were trying to move around.

I got lucky and found the egg sack on a decaying leaf that was pretty transparent, so the microscope could light it from below. If I tried lighting it from above, all I saw was the white outer casing.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I decided to "redo" my 5g brackish tank. I was concerned that my nitrates were 40-50ppm out of the tap and the tank was loaded with rotting plants (left over from before the tank was brackish, but kept because they had eggs on them). There was also few weeks of snail poop from 7 nerites, and the sponge filter also needed cleaning.

From what I've read, ocean water nitrate levels are usually very low (less than 2) and in general ocean invertebrates don't do well with high nitrates, so it was time to use distilled water mixed with marine salt.

I think I've done this in a way that should spare most of the nerite veligers and keep the n-bacteria colonies in good shape. Here are the steps I took:


Siphon almost all the water into a 5g bucket (bucket #1), being careful not to stir up or siphon up the detritus. This way I get most all the veligers separated from the real dirty stuff. An airline hose works well for this.
Siphon water from bucket #1 into another 5g bucket (bucket #2), this time using an air stone on the input to the siphon hose. Leave about 1qt of water in bucket #1, which will contain almost all of the veligers.
Poor water from bucket #2 into the tank. Siphon out into bucket #2 again, this time using a gravel vac to clean thoroughly.
Clean sponge filter in bucket #2, and then put sponge filter in bucket #1.
Clean out bucket #2.
Prepare new tank water in bucket #2.
Slowly siphon new tank water from bucket #2 into bucket #1. Start very slowly at first, doubling the water in bucket #1 over a couple of hours.
Dump bucket #1 into tank.
Took a long while from me to think that process through, but I think it is generally useful whenever you want to preserve small living critters in your water column during a water change.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

The water change seems to have been successful. 24 hours later and I'm still seeing roughly the same number of veligers.

These things are tiny. I couldn't catch them in my brine shrimp net. I think a newly hatched brine shrimp would make a meal of them.

I found a good way to feed them. I turn off all but one CFL and move it to the very front of the tank. I also turn off the filter. They are attrached to the light, and form a fairly narrow column right under it, with half the column moving upwards and half downward. I looks like what you see in the follwing video (I didn't make this video).

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/5hadox/?action=view&current=Veligers.flv

Once they start doing this, I put a drop or two of food right above the column about every 15 minutes for about and hour. I plan on doing this twice a day. This way I don't need to fill the whole water column with food.

I'm not sure the best food to use. Probably green water, which I don't have. I decide to put an algae wafer and about 1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp food in a 4oz dropper bottle, let it dissolve, and then shake it well so it clouds the water. It looks edible, but I'm not sure if it is what they need or like.


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## Nue (Dec 27, 2009)

Very Cool. Major props! I didn't know nerites went through planktonic phase. This is a nice find.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Have you looked at liquid filter feeder foods (such as for corals?)

And green water is SUPER easy to make; just boil some greens, pour off the liquid into a jar, put the jar under a light or in some direct sunlight. You might even try "seeding" it with a little bit of mulm from one of your established tanks.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> Have you looked at liquid filter feeder foods (such as for corals?)


I was going to look for something like this next time I'm at PetCo, which probably will have to wait until Thursday.



lauraleellbp said:


> And green water is SUPER easy to make; just boil some greens, pour off the liquid into a jar, put the jar under a light or in some direct sunlight. You might even try "seeding" it with a little bit of mulm from one of your established tanks.


I'll give that a try. Last time I had no luck with just mulm in a jar. Maybe boiling in the greens is needed.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yes, boiling the greens provides the food to fuel the culture.


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## Gobies et al (Jun 7, 2008)

I use Kent Marine Phytoplex and also Nutrafin Max Spirulina Meal Tablets (crushed and dissolved) to feed Amano Shrimp zoae. I thought that might work for snail veligers. In a 5 gal tank, I use ~ 15 drops of the Phytoplex every other day, and ~ once a week crush 1 tablet of spirulina, dissolve in 30 mls water, feed 30 drops. Later, I used Golden Pearls 5-50 microns size and progressed to larger.

Good Luck!


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Gobies et al said:


> I use Kent Marine Phytoplex and also Nutrafin Max Spirulina Meal Tablets (crushed and dissolved) to feed Amano Shrimp zoae. I thought that might work for snail veligers. In a 5 gal tank, I use ~ 15 drops of the Phytoplex every other day, and ~ once a week crush 1 tablet of spirulina, dissolve in 30 mls water, feed 30 drops. Later, I used Golden Pearls 5-50 microns size and progressed to larger.
> 
> Good Luck!


That's good to know. So I assume you had success with your amanos. I was hoping to also raise amanos in this tank, but the netting for the breeder net I got didn't end up containing the shrimp zoae, so I'll need to wait until next time and try something different.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Some interesting info on the planktonic veliger stage:

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Veliger

One area of concern from the above is the following:
"Metamorphosis of both feeding and non-feeding competent larvae is usually induced by a chemical cue that is characteristic of the proper habitat for the juvenile. In gastropods, this chemical cue is often a substance produced by the juvenile food source. In bivalves, the chemical cue may be produced by bacteria that are specific to the biofilm growing on the adult shells. As a result of this inductive response, the veliger will metamorphose in a habitat where it can successfully feed and grow to adulthood."​So, getting these little guys to morph into actual snails may require unknown conditions that I will need some luck to reproduce.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

"A chemical cue."

Very specific and helpful. :icon_conf

I'm sure there's got to be more info than that available on olive nerites, though...


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> "A chemical cue."
> 
> Very specific and helpful. :icon_conf
> 
> I'm sure there's got to be more info than that available on olive nerites, though...


I've looked, but can't find anything. I see comments like "never been done in an aquarium before" and "need to constantly switch between brackish and fresh water", although I believe both are just speculation.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

By last night there had been a noticeable drop in the population, and that has continued today. I'd say probably down to about 10% of the original population. Maybe I found that "chemical cue", but more than likely they are dying off now.

I've started looking around the substrate along the edge of the aquarium with a 30x jewelers magnifying glass. I'm getting real tired of looking at tiny bits of poop, trying to convince myself they are moving slowly. :icon_conf

I also just got some Kent Marine Phytoplex, so I'm starting to feed with that also. There are still more eggs to hatch - some freshly laid by a couple of nerites I just removed, and some I moved in there that were laid in another tank, which I will continue to do.


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## Gobies et al (Jun 7, 2008)

If you haven't done it, check the nitrite level. I'm mentioning this more out of curiosity than concern. In one of the articles on breeding Amano's, it mentions them having success rate of 1 of every 4 or 5 attempts. I don't know if the nitrite levels were monitored in their attempts. If it is any consolation the survival rate would probably be ~10% even then.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Nitrite and Ammonia are 0ppm.

I looked a bit closer later last night and I think I overestimated the losses. Seems that they are not quite as attracted to light as before. Now they are spread out over a much wider and deeper area when I put one small light above them, so my losses at the time were probably closer to 50%. Having said that, this morning the numbers are definitely down a lot more from last night.

I've spotted a couple of other small critters in the tank. Last night I saw somthing about 8x the mass of the nerite veligers swimming near the surface. It was a lot quicker than the nerite veligers, and did a lot of zig zagging, and stopping for very short pauses. Not too sure what it was.

This morning while following a nerite veliger around near the substrate with a 30x magnifying glass, I saw what looked like a very tiny shrimp nymph on a piece of gravel. I was about 2-3x the lengh of a nerite veliger, mostly clear, but with a very orange digestive track and two dark eyes. It crawled around like a shrimp would, but I couldn't make out any claws.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

What else do you have in the tank? Where'd the algae come from?


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

lauraleellbp said:


> What else do you have in the tank? Where'd the algae come from?


Nothing else is intentionally in the tank at this time.

This tanked started with as freshwater. I intentionally grew a lot of algae in it (nothing special done to seed it), plus a few plants had been in and out. When the algae was ready I put about 6 nerites in. They cleaned it up pretty quickly and then started laying eggs. I then slowly converted it to brackish, about 1.012 s.g., over a couple of weeks (it's at 1.014 s.g. now). The nerites were kept in during this time. Most of the plants died, but there is still a java fern and anubia nana that are doing well.

After I saw and identified the nerite veligers, I removed the nerites over the next few days. About 10 days ago I added some crushed coral. I'm not sure if that could have had any eggs in it. There's also the marine salt. I would assume it is sterilized, but I'm not certain if that is the norm.

I should also add that a couple of the nerites have live barancles, but the shrimp-like critter didn't look anything like barnacle larvae. I'm not sure about the other guy bouncing around. He just looked like a white dot. I couldn't get a close enough look.


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## diceroller00 (Aug 31, 2006)

First let me say I'm glad somebody is taking a step toward captive breeding of nerites, very useful and industrious snails in both fresh and salt. The "unknown" shrimp like object you mentioned earlier is most likely either a copepod, amphipod, or Mysid shrimp. All common and harmless, and in most cases seem to "pop up" on their own in salt systems. You have 2 problems, What salinity is necessary for planktonic transformation and prolonged growth.(does it need to fluctuate at any point for sucess?) And 2, what types of foods are suitable for the planktonic veligers. (and beyond) The major problem with these questions are, nobody knows. As far as I know, no in-depth studies on the larval stages or reproduction of these gastropods has been done. It may be impossible to recreate the natural cues and environmental conditions that make it possible to for the veligers to metamorphosize. That being said, I'm very interested in your future updates and wish you luck. I can help to try and answer any questions you may have. 
~Jon


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the input. Most of what you've pointed out about nerites is what I've pretty much concluded over the past week. If it is possible, I'll probably need to get lucky and hit the right combination that gets them to mature. Unfortunately, unlike in nature, I'm somewhat limited on the number of different and changing ecosystems I can provide for the little guys.

Last count tonight I just saw a few scattered around. I can't see the whole tank, so I'm guessing there are probably only about 50 now. I think there were 500 to 1000 at one point.

So now I need to figure if they've settled into the substrate and are on their way to adulthood, or if they've just died off and I need to change my approach.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

It's been a bit over a week, so I figured I should give an update. Was hoping for some good or interesting news by now, but nothing significant to report. Over the past week the veliger population fluctuated a lot. I would go from near zero in the morning, to a few hundred at night, but lately I haven't seen any big bumps, and now rarely see any veligers. I think all the eggs have hatched, and I haven't added any in about 10 days.

One interesting thing is about a week ago I observed 3 veligers that had gotten trapped in about a 1mm pit (7x the size of a veliger) on a piece of gravel. The pit was facing and pressed up against the glass, so they must have fallen in through a small hole at the top and couldn't find their way out. One of them was moving for at least 5 days, but they all seem inactive now.

I'd like to experiment some more. My plan is to setup 3 or 4 2.5g tanks with varying conditions. I'll probably try from barely brackish to nearly full marine salt. I also would like to try allowing the veligers to hatch in the barely brakish water and then move them to brackish and then full salt, which will more closely mimic what happens to them in nature.


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## Gobies et al (Jun 7, 2008)

cjp999 said:


> One interesting thing is about a week ago I observed 3 veligers that had gotten trapped in about a 1mm pit (7x the size of a veliger) on a piece of gravel. The pit was facing and pressed up against the glass, so they must have fallen in through a small hole at the top and couldn't find their way out. One of them was moving for at least 5 days, but they all seem inactive now.


Are you still able to see them? If they were dead, I would think they would decompose rapidly given their small size.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Gobies et al said:


> Are you still able to see them? If they were dead, I would think they would decompose rapidly given their small size.


At this point they are at best wasting away. I'm not sure if the specs I'm looking at are what is left of them, or some decomposing material. For the first 2 or 3 days, I could usually observe one moving a bit if I looked for long enough. For the next 2 or 3 days after that, I could only determine movement by observing that they were no longer in the same place as last time I checked. After that they started wasting away.


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## hhnguyen504 (Sep 20, 2009)

This is definitely worth subscribing to. I hope you have some luck with this.


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## fhqwhgads (Jan 18, 2005)

are you sure theyre not in a pupal form, if there was a larval form then there has to be some kind of in between maybe they just need some time


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

Well, they have a shell, even in their planktonic form. I haven't seen any literature discussing a larval form. It does discuss a transformation, some sort of twisting of the body, that goes on when it transforms from planktonic to a crawling snail. I didn't quite understand what it was saying, but it sound like the veliger is backwards in its shell, and has to reverse its position, or something like that.

I've been looking closely in the tank with my 30x magnifying glass the past couple of weeks. I haven't seen any snails moving about (a couple other interesting life forms though). However, I do still see some stationary things that look a lot like the veligers did. Since they are not moving and are not decaying, maybe they are just alive enough to prevent decomposition, but too weak to move at all.

It will be a while before I get a few tanks setup so I can start doing some experimenting. Looks like at least a few weeks. In the meantime I haven't made any more attempts to hatch more veligers, but will keep the tank they were in setup as-is for a while and see if anything develops.


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## cojo0667 (Feb 21, 2008)

Wow, this is a great thread. I am trying to breed nerites right now myself.


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## cojo0667 (Feb 21, 2008)

So i see a whole bunch of little specs on the surface of the water. a whole bunch. not sure if it is because of the food I added a few days ago. Some of the specs are food but im sure that not all of them are. I dont really know if they are moving but I do know i have had eggs hatch. I just started my tank about 2 weeks ago and it is brackish.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

The nerite veligers are very hard to see with the naked eye unless they have gather in large numbers. Use a magnifying glass. If you spot one, you will see it moving. They are very active.

Although they do head for the surface when lit, they seem to like to ram into it and bounce off it like a trampoline (although upside down). Kind of fun to watch. They do not, however, just sit still right at the very surface of the water.


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## cojo0667 (Feb 21, 2008)

Ever have any luck with the snails?


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I'm still getting setup for a serious attempt to raise them. I have four 2.5g tanks setup with sponge filters now and am getting them cycled. Their salinity is 1.024sg (full marine), 1.017sg, and 1.009sg, and 1.000sg (I'll explain why freshwater in a second).

I'm just now am starting to move some snails to the 1.009sg tank. Only one is in there now, because I don't think it is that well cycled. I was doing fishless cycling by adding ammonia, but after two weeks was not seeing any progress in the tanks with salt. I think for brackish and marine tanks you need to seed with something marine based. So I then added some Kent PhytoPlex and a bit of frozen "Marine Cuisine", hoping this would provide the needed bacteria. I also seeded from a 1.007sg brackish tank I have.

However, after about a week more of cycling (and still unsure if any progress was being made), my female amano gave birth (that's what the freshwater 2.5g was for). I wanted to take a stab at raising the babies, so I quickly replaced all the water in the other 3 tanks to get rid of the ammonia, and now have amano larva in all 3. That was last monday. I also moved a nerite over to the 1.009 tank that time.

So, I'll continue to raise the amanos and move more snails to the 1.009sg tank, and once they start laying eggs and hatching I'll move some of the veligers to the 1.0024 and 1.0017 tanks. I'll also need to keep in eye on the cycling. I may need to find some other method to seed the salt water tanks (maybe just by a snail or something from the lfs).


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## bulrush (May 7, 2007)

I got my olive nerite snails from Wilma about 2+ years ago. They lay lots of eggs, and eat lots of algae, but they don't appear to have multiplied. Wilma says she breeds them in freshwater. Here is her website: 
http://www.wilmasthecause.org/index.php?main_page=page&id=2

p.s. I still have those same snails.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Interesting stuff, it isn't easy at all to say the least. I had some clithorns reproduce in my tanks I think, but it was a bit weird and I lost all the young snails because I was breaking down the tank, I got lucky and managed to get a FW breeding species I guess, I never really looked into it.

Also, a now inactive member Freshlinny originally freshnewby had a true FW breeding group of 'Olive Nerites' if they were true olive nerites or a FW species that was the exact same looking is debatable, but the point is that there is some debate over the existence of a true FW breeding species of them that was once collected somewhere. This may be why there is much conflicting information. 

Either way they're cool snails I almost bought some new Zebras yesterday.
-Andrew


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

bulrush said:


> I got my olive nerite snails from Wilma about 2+ years ago. They lay lots of eggs, and eat lots of algae, but they don't appear to have multiplied. Wilma says she breeds them in freshwater. Here is her website:
> http://www.wilmasthecause.org/index.php?main_page=page&id=2
> 
> p.s. I still have those same snails.


Well, I red your post with a lot of speculation, and then even more when I read Wilma's page. Then something clicked. I had heard her name before. It was just a couple of weeks ago when I looked into breeding amano shrimp, which she also claims could be raised in freshwater. She further claimed they hatched as little shrimp that hang out on the plants, also known not to be true (they are free floating).

This is the link article I read that referred to Wilma's amano breeding web page as "completely useless."

http://caridinajaponicabreeding.blogspot.com/

His link to Wilma's article doesn't work, but I believe this is the one he was referring to:

http://www.frankmgreco.com/breeding_amano_shrimp.htm

So, given all the research I've done on Olive Nerites and Amano shrimp breeding, I'd have to say Wilma is either very confused or yanking our chain. But heck, I could be wrong.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

It's been a year since I started this thread, and about 10 months since last posting. During this year, I first focused on getting a few 2.5g tanks of various salinity cycled. This proved to be harder than expected. The full marine tank just didn't want to cycle until I eventually found myself near a the beach, and grab a bit of sand and seawater to seed it with. Even then it took quite a while. Then I had problems with various tanks crashing when I changed out water. Must have caused too drastic a change in salinity when I did.

After finally getting the tanks in order, no eggs! I had 4 2.5g tanks loaded up with algae that the nerites feasted on, but they refused to lay any eggs. This went on until 3 weeks ago, when suddenly they started laying eggs in large numbers. Makes me wonder if they are seasonal egglayers, since it was one year ago when they last laid a lot of eggs.

So, I now have veligers again in 3 different tanks: 1.025sg, 1.019sg, and 1.013sg. Too soon to tell if anything will come of it.

As a side note, I finally managed to raise some amanos. I had success with the 1.013sg tank, which is the only one that seems to get cloudy with food for them to eat. They died immediately in the 1.025sg tank, and didn't develop in the 1.019sg tank (I did supplement with Kent's PhytoPlex) . From what I've read, seems that either 1.025 or 1.013 is the right salinity, depending on the strain of amanos you have.

Some of the larva metamorphose in less than two weeks and could be transferred to freshwater (over a period of one day) at that time. From my readings, it usually takes 25-35 days so I was quite please with how fast they developed.

I now have about 40 young amanos from the first batch being raised in freshwater. The survival rate seems to be high once you get them to fresh water. As far as I can see none have died, but there are too many to count accurately.

Just had another batch of amano larvae born today, with a much larger batch due very soon, so I'm hoping for a lot more in round 2.


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Wow! Pictures are a must!


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

They are way to small to take pictures of without a microscope, and I don't have a camera for mine. I estimated them at about 140 microns (takes 7 side-by-side to measure 1mm). Here's a video someone else took using a microscope:

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/5hadox/?action=view&current=Youngernon-swimveliger.mp4

Plus a video that shows what they look like to the naked eye:

http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh310/5hadox/?action=view&current=Veligers.flv


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Congrats on your success and for your persistence!


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## WannabeNeriteBreeder (Apr 8, 2011)

I know it's been a few months, but are you still keeping up the nerite breeding efforts? Have you had success? 

I'm making a sort of half-cocked low-tech attempt myself with a brackish 2.5 gal--shell substrate, no heater, light, or filter. I'm figuring they won't hatch but since my snails keep poopin out eggs onto perfectly sized pieces of gravel that it was worth a shot .

Anyway, would love an update if you've had success!


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

No luck with the nerites. I had 4 tanks 2.5 g tanks. That were roughly 1.001sg, 1.012sg, 1.018sg, and 1.023sg. I had olive nerites in all of them. They all produced an abundance of egg sacks, which hatched in all 4 tanks. This was over about a 6 week period from late december to early february. That's two years in a row they were very busy during this time. Somehow they seem to know what time of year it is. They rest of the year I just get a few eggs sacks here and there.

During this period, there were probably about 30-40 egg sacks per tank with about 100-200 eggs in each. That's about between 3000-8000 veligers floating around. If definitely frequently saw 100's at the same time in each tank. I tried moving them between tanks a few times. Had plenty of algae growing in all of them, but I never had a nerite develop.


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## cjp999 (Nov 18, 2008)

I figure I should update on the amanos also, since someone asked about them in a PM. The first batch was very successful. Growth rates of the larvae was faster than what I've read from others. I think the first one matured in just over a week. The longest was about 3-4 weeks.

I plucked 42 metamorphosed shrimp out the tank over a period of a few weeks. I'd do this every 3 days or so using a turkey baster. I acclimated them to fresh water over a period of 24 hours by just periodically dumping small amounts of fresh water in with them, but I'm not sure if this was necessary. After about 3 months I moved them into the big tank...and all 42 were still alive!

The PM asked about acclimating from fresh to salt as they hatch. I did no acclimation. Just dumped them in the 1.013sg brackish water as they hatched (which seems to take a week for all of them).

Now for the bad news. I've tried twice more with zero success. I can't get any of the larvae to mature, or even grow for that mater. I'm having trouble with the food supply. I think the reason the first attempt was so successful is because I had a lot of algae growing in the water column, and I think they mostly fed off of this. I wasn't been able to get any growing for the next two attempts, so relied on Kents PhytoPlex and a some algae tabs pulverized in a blender with water. This doesn't seem to work at all. The larvae only lived about a weak before they wasted away.


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## eustoma01 (Apr 21, 2019)

https://www.myaquariumclub.com/breeding-nerite-snails-874005.html

Breeding nerite snails | Tropical Fish Forums

There are two nerite breeders here who responded with some good info... maybe if you feel the need to try again? I enjoyed reading your thread and stumbled upon it because I've also been hit with an urge to attempt to breed them...


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