# Does anyone have yellow apple snails or golden mystery snails?



## Elli (Sep 7, 2013)

I have an ivory mystery snail, and he's definitely plant safe. But they're not the best cleaners and they have a huge bio-load. I love them anyway; they're like little aliens with their long siphons and antennae!

If you just want snails to clean your tank get nerites (if you can stand the eggs) or ramshorns.


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## neilshieh (Sep 6, 2010)

malaysian trumpet snails also do a great job cleaning algae off walls and plants and they eat the mulm in your substrate too. They're nocturnal so you won't see very many of them during the day.


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## Kat12 (Aug 11, 2013)

The yellow ones are Golden Mystery snails. Some stores call them Golden Incas for cutesy names, they are mystery snails the same as the other colors.


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## Kat12 (Aug 11, 2013)

and mystery snails are Pomacea diffusa the bridgesii is the OLD name that was found to be wrong.


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

I have a tank full of snails. They have a LARGE bioload and eat really slowly.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Thanks everyone, I'm gonna get two of the yellow mystery snails _aka_ apple snails. I think there cool and maybe they will be of some help with dead plant matter. 
There is a Wal-Mart I visited a few months back and there tanks were infested with snails of all different shell shapes... I don't buy fish or inverts form Wal-Marts normally, but I may go back and look at there snails again. I think I can get some of several different kinds there.. All the snails that were there were small, no bigger than a pond snail, so I'm not sure if all of them will be welcome additions. Are Ramshorns and malaysian trumpet snails about the size of pond snails?

Now on the black Mystery snails, are they the same species as the yellow mystery snails _aka_ apple snail?


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

mystery snails comes in black, brown, yellow, blue, purple, ivory, olive, jade












http://www.angelfire.com/va/myevolution/snails/bridgesii.htm
old site but still very imformative.

Applesnail.net is also good too.

Also. APPLE SNAILS is a family species name. Kinda like corys but there is many different kinds.

The one you are buying is pomacea diffusa. The only one of its kind that eats dead plants. If the plant is dying it will eat it. Possible that it will eat live if not fed.


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

Melanoides tuberculata aka malaysian trumpet snail can be up to 1 1/2"









Planorbis rebrum aka ramshorn snail can be as big as a quarter if kept well


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## honest (Dec 17, 2013)

i had one before, they will eat soft plants like stargrass stem plant..


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## SouthernGorilla (Mar 22, 2012)

We at one time had in excess of 100 apple snails in one of our tanks. Never expected all those eggs to hatch.

Anyhow, we have kept these snails for quite some time now. Our experience is that they will definitely eat live plants. But not all live plants. Fine plants like hairgrass, or needle-leaf plants will get eaten. But broad leaf plants are normally safe.

When you have a population explosion, all bets are off. The baby snails are like locust and will eat everything they can find. We lost two bamboo shrimp to the swarm of baby apple snails. No joke, we caught the buggers eating the arms off one of the bamboo shrimp and moved the poor guy to another tank for safety.

Also, don't expect them to reduce the bioload of the tank. Apple snails are big. And their poop is as big as a similarly-sized fish.

We've enjoyed the snails. They're fun to watch as they cruise around the tank. But we've decided we won't be adding them to future tanks.

Also, the trumpet snails don't always disappear during the day. Right now, our substrate has so many trumpet snails on it they look like maggots on a carcass. And that's in a tank with two loaches. Trumpet snails will explode in population quite quickly. If it wasn't for the nerite snails I'd buy some assassin snails to help clean out the tank.

So I guess my advice would be to get some nerite snails. They won't successfully breed in fresh water. So they will never overpopulate the tank. And get some shrimp to help clean up.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

nyxkitten said:


> mystery snails comes in black, brown, yellow, blue, purple, ivory, olive, jade
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for the links, I will read them as soon as I finish this. Those mystery snails in the pic are way prettier than the black and yellow ones at the LFS.. 
The picture of the malaysian trumpet snail and ramshorn snail look just like what that Wal-Mart had. I guess it's a safe bet that's what they are then. Thanks again for the info. 
You seem very knowledgeable about snails so I will ask for your opinion please.. If you were choosing between the trumpet, ramshorn, and mystery snail for a planted tank, which would you get? Or would you say they are all about the same as far as good in a planted tank goes? I hope that makes sense.. Thank you


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## honest (Dec 17, 2013)

^ lol my mystery snail laid a batch of eggs too, didnt look like much but i ended up getting 100s... i ended up feeding them to my assassin snails, there was so much food for them that the assassin snails started breeding... i soon ended up with 100s of assassin snails... lol true story


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

SouthernGorilla said:


> We at one time had in excess of 100 apple snails in one of our tanks. Never expected all those eggs to hatch.
> 
> Anyhow, we have kept these snails for quite some time now. Our experience is that they will definitely eat live plants. But not all live plants. Fine plants like hairgrass, or needle-leaf plants will get eaten. But broad leaf plants are normally safe.
> 
> ...


Well reading your experiences with the mystery snails make me a little nervous about getting them. Gosh I don't want to potentially put locust in my tank  :icon_eek:
These are the kinda things I was wanting to know though, peoples experiences. So thank you for sharing that.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

honest said:


> ^ lol my mystery snail laid a batch of eggs too, didnt look like much but i ended up getting 100s... i ended up feeding them to my assassin snails, there was so much food for them that the assassin snails started breeding... i soon ended up with 100s of assassin snails... lol true story


Oh wow, that's a LOT of snails! Did your 100's of baby mystery snails eat your plants if you had any?


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

I have a golden Mystery snail.










He's pretty plant safe although he likes to uproot my DHG as he grazes over it. He also keeps my tank really clean (Small Fluval Edge, and he's the only cleanup crew.) I notice he'll eat the fish poop and he does poop a lot but his poop gets broken down really fast.

As far as the bioload I don't know but my tank has been pristine since I started it up, and I'd like to think it was because of him. He is also very active and really fun to watch.


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

You can prevent having babies with mystery snails. They lay their eggs above the waterline and you can squish them in the water as food for the snails and fish or trash them.

As for other snails you can not find the eggs and you will eventually end up with lots DEPENDING on how much you feed. 

Snails is a love hate relationship with people.

I LOVE THEM and have no problem caring for them to the point that I have two tanks with nothing but snails. Malaysian trumpets, ramshorns, and mysteries. I have about 200 of the mysteries. 100 of the rams and countless of trumpets. I rarely see the trumpets because they burrow in the gravel.


With planted I would go with trumpets. they burrow so they can aerate the substrate and they eat the mulm/fish poo/leftover fish food in the substrate. They are nocturnal so you don't see them often. IF you do see them and lots of them going for the water line it is a good time to test the water and see what is going on.

Downside with trumpets is that when they die. You'll have shells everywhere lol. BUT the shells will break down eventually


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## honest (Dec 17, 2013)

annyann said:


> Oh wow, that's a LOT of snails! Did your 100's of baby mystery snails eat your plants if you had any?



cant really remember, this all happened a couple years ago... apple snails are pretty cool though, i might pick some up again and try to breed them for some assassin snail food.. i like how they fly(glide) in the water.. but if you got hard plants like anubias and ferns they wont be able to eat them


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Menace said:


> I have a golden Mystery snail.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Awww, he is a cute little guy LOL. He looks just like the ones at the LFS that I'm thinking of getting. Thanks for the info, he sounds like a good resident in your tank!


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## Sluuuder (Feb 7, 2012)

I love my golden mystery snails. I started with about 4 from petsmart about 2-3 years ago in my shrimp tanks and then after they decided to lay some eggs ended up with around 50+ in one tank and then 50+ in another. Sold most of them for about 100 dollars. Awesome little guys and very friendly for planted tanks. They do have a big bio load so I would only keep a max of 4 in 10 gallon tanks if you have other fish. But I kept mine with RCS and they were fine. Awesome addition to any tank with plants.


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> Awww, he is a cute little guy LOL. He looks just like the ones at the LFS that I'm thinking of getting. Thanks for the info, he sounds like a good resident in your tank!


He was only $1 too.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

nyxkitten said:


> You can prevent having babies with mystery snails. They lay their eggs above the waterline and you can squish them in the water as food for the snails and fish or trash them.
> 
> As for other snails you can not find the eggs and you will eventually end up with lots DEPENDING on how much you feed.
> 
> ...


Thanks so much for all the information, I do appreciate it. I like to find out as much as I can about possible tank inhabitants before I get them. I really like snails to. The fact that the trumpets are always hiding makes me not so enthused about getting them. I would like to see some active snails cruising around my tank, that's the main reason why I want them, second is for cleaning.. I have Wisteria and creeping Jenny right now, I plan to get some other plants over time, maybe some other stemmed plants. Do you think that the mystery snails will bother these type plants?


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Sluuuder said:


> I love my golden mystery snails. I started with about 4 from petsmart about 2-3 years ago in my shrimp tanks and then after they decided to lay some eggs ended up with around 50+ in one tank and then 50+ in another. Sold most of them for about 100 dollars. Awesome little guys and very friendly for planted tanks. They do have a big bio load so I would only keep a max of 4 in 10 gallon tanks if you have other fish. But I kept mine with RCS and they were fine. Awesome addition to any tank with plants.


Well that's encouraging thanks! I really do want a couple to go in my tank, I was just so worried that they might hurt my plants.. I've spent too much time and money on plants to lose them.. How about all your babies, did they bother your plants? Some say when they lay eggs and the babies hatch they will eat plants.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Menace said:


> I have a golden Mystery snail.
> 
> 
> He's pretty plant safe although he likes to uproot my DHG as he grazes over it. He also keeps my tank really clean (Small Fluval Edge, and he's the only cleanup crew.) I notice he'll eat the fish poop and he does poop a lot but his poop gets broken down really fast.
> ...


Ditto, my experience as well, in my Edge. 

The Mystery Snails are active and kinda hilarious in their bumbling, as these time lapse videos show.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

kman said:


> Ditto, my experience as well, in my Edge.
> 
> The Mystery Snails are active and kinda hilarious in their bumbling, as these time lapse videos show.
> 
> ...


I love your tank! Thanks for the videos, those videos are like endorsements for the snails lol! :hihi: I am gonna get at least a couple now. Your smaller black snails was all over the place and your yellow snail is huge. Are they both Mystery snails?


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> I love your tank! Thanks for the videos, those videos are like endorsements for the snails lol! :hihi: I am gonna get at least a couple now. Your smaller black snails was all over the place and your yellow snail is huge. Are they both Mystery snails?


The yellow is a mystery snail, the black one is a nerite snail I think.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

annyann said:


> I love your tank! Thanks for the videos, those videos are like endorsements for the snails lol! :hihi: I am gonna get at least a couple now. Your smaller black snails was all over the place and your yellow snail is huge. Are they both Mystery snails?


Thanks! 

Menace is correct, the smaller one is a Zebra Nerite snail. I like having both, because they both seem to like to eat different things. Between the two, the tank stays nice and clean!


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Thanks everyone! I got two Mystery snails today, ones black and ones yellow. I like them already. I put them in my five gallon quarantine tank to keep an eye on them and make sure they seem healthy also to make sure I didn't get some rouge little guys that have a taste for plants or something. So far they are adjusting, starting to cruse around and havent bothered the Wisteria, I wasnt expecting them to though.

I was hoping that blacks and yellows cant breed.. Does anybody know if they can or not?


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> Thanks everyone! I got two Mystery snails today, ones black and ones yellow. I like them already. I put them in my five gallon quarantine tank to keep an eye on them and make sure they seem healthy also to make sure I didn't get some rouge little guys that have a taste for plants or something. So far they are adjusting, starting to cruse around and havent bothered the Wisteria, I wasnt expecting them to though.
> 
> I was hoping that blacks and yellows cant breed.. Does anybody know if they can or not?


I think Mystery snails are mystery snails, despite coloring. So if you have a male and female there is a chance they'll mate. As far as the wisteria I don't think they are into climbing plants because they can't really scale them unless they're sturdy plants.


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## Jesseman445 (Jan 19, 2014)

They can breed regardless of color. I have black, ivory, and golden. It's a constant gangbang regardless of the color combination.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

I had ivories once...which was fine until they all died at once on me.

The resulting ammonia spike was horrifying. I just recommend that anyone wanting these check the pH, KH, and GH of their water to make sure that the snails will survive alright.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Okay thanks for the info, I guess I'll just have to keep a check for snail eggs above the water line at feeding times or something. At least they should be easy to remove. The snails look good today, they're moving around more.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

My new Mystery snails were doing great in my five gallon with gravel. They were out eating happily, so I moved them to my 25 gallon which is where I had planned to put them. They seem to hate the sand, they kinda buried down in it and wont move! They have been like this since yesterday! Does anyone know why they would do this, can they not deal with sand?


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> My new Mystery snails were doing great in my five gallon with gravel. They were out eating happily, so I moved them to my 25 gallon which is where I had planned to put them. They seem to hate the sand, they kinda buried down in it and wont move! They have been like this since yesterday! Does anyone know why they would do this, can they not deal with sand?


I have petco "aquarium" sand in my tank, and my mystery snail has no problems navigating through the sand. 






He's actually quite active pretty much all day.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Mine is Petco sand to, but for some reason both snails seem very unhappy with it. I don't know, it might be something else going on with them. The pond snails are fine, and these were fine till they crawled down into the sand..
Thanks for the video, your dude is happy in his sand!


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> Mine is Petco sand to, but for some reason both snails seem very unhappy with it. I don't know, it might be something else going on with them. The pond snails are fine, and these were fine till they crawled down into the sand..
> Thanks for the video, your dude is happy in his sand!


Mine doesn't bury itself so I'm not sure what is going on with yours. Did you acclimate them to the new tank?


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

annyann said:


> My new Mystery snails were doing great in my five gallon with gravel. They were out eating happily, so I moved them to my 25 gallon which is where I had planned to put them. They seem to hate the sand, they kinda buried down in it and wont move! They have been like this since yesterday! Does anyone know why they would do this, can they not deal with sand?


Snails don't have issues with sand, in general. Could be just the shock of a new tank... or it could be the opposite: They LOVE the sand and are simply luxuriating in it. 

Give them time to adjust and I'm sure things will return to normal.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Menace said:


> Mine doesn't bury itself so I'm not sure what is going on with yours. Did you acclimate them to the new tank?


I did acclimate them and I'm not sure what with them either. It's weird!


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> I did acclimate them and I'm not sure what with them either. It's weird!


They're still motionless?


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

kman said:


> Snails don't have issues with sand, in general. Could be just the shock of a new tank... or it could be the opposite: They LOVE the sand and are simply luxuriating in it.
> 
> Give them time to adjust and I'm sure things will return to normal.


Thanks Kman, I like the idea there just giving them selves a sand facial or something lol
I will give them time and hope they perk up, as of right now there still in the same spots they were yesterday =(


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> Thanks Kman, I like the idea there just giving them selves a sand facial or something lol
> I will give them time and hope they perk up, as of right now there still in the same spots they were yesterday =(


I'm no snail expert but I think no movement in over 24 hours isn't a good sign...


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

annyann said:


> Thanks Kman, I like the idea there just giving them selves a sand facial or something lol
> I will give them time and hope they perk up, as of right now there still in the same spots they were yesterday =(


Try moving them to a new spot in the tank. Could be a jolt they need to wake up and start exploring. 

I've seen mine chill in one spot for over a day before. I was starting to worry, and moved him to be sure he was alive, and after that he was fine and cruising normally.


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

Test your aquarium water. What is the temperature? Did you add any medication to the water? Some medication has copper and that can harm the snail.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

They were acting normal this morning! I cut the light on early to check on them and they both were out of the sand and on the driftwood eating. 
Thanks everyone for helping with my snail troubles. 

Here's yellow dude, brown dude hid on the underside of the stick, must be photo shy..


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

Nice Anny! I'm about to evict my snail if he doesn't stop terrorizing my DHG (Keeps uprooting it) and he even dug out the DIY root tab I just planted today.


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## annyann (Aug 31, 2013)

Menace said:


> Nice Anny! I'm about to evict my snail if he doesn't stop terrorizing my DHG (Keeps uprooting it) and he even dug out the DIY root tab I just planted today.


Oh your snail is being rouge!
My snails still are not active during the day, only at night.. When the lights cut on in the morning they go find a spot to rest and stay there all day. Is that normal?


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## Menace (Jan 15, 2014)

annyann said:


> Oh your snail is being rouge!
> My snails still are not active during the day, only at night.. When the lights cut on in the morning they go find a spot to rest and stay there all day. Is that normal?


Probably. They kind of do what they want. Mine naps periodically throughout the day.


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## colaudrey (Oct 4, 2013)

the other day i saw my golden MS climb up on a struggling piece of rotala sp.?, and open his mouth extremely wide and chomp off the top portion of the stem!! i read that mystery snails could be plant eaters, but i didn't believe mine would! i'll probably be moving him to another tank that's plantless. i have a black MS in this tank too, but i haven't seen him up to any naughty work. he checks out fine...for now


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## nyxkitten (Jul 24, 2012)

golden snails(Pomacea Diffusa) maybe confused with Pomacea canaliculata. Also if the plant is dying the snail will eat it

To tell difference read below

http://applesnail.net/content/species_genera.htm


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

colaudrey said:


> the other day i saw my golden MS climb up on a struggling piece of rotala sp.?, and open his mouth extremely wide and chomp off the top portion of the stem!! i read that mystery snails could be plant eaters, but i didn't believe mine would! i'll probably be moving him to another tank that's plantless. i have a black MS in this tank too, but i haven't seen him up to any naughty work. he checks out fine...for now


It's normal for them to eat dead and dying plants. As long as they have enough food, they won't usually eat healthy plants. I wouldn't worry about it.


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