Breeding question

(Is breeding the correct term for asexual reproduction?) Anyway, I've got a couple of unknown snails in my tank, pretty small with flat round shells - I'll post a picture up here in due course to get a species ident, but my question is really about rate of reproduction and size before mature etc - I realise it's probably pretty species specific, but is there a rule of thumb regarding how long before I can expect to see more little snails appearing and will I go from seeing one or two snails to seeing a full-on invasion?

I've got a small 60L tank with only four fish in at the moment, one is a freshwater pufferfish so I'm not hopeful that these cute little stowaways will make it (but I hope so, the puffer is well fed and there's loads of cover for ickle snails that keep their heads down).

:-)

btw, I'm very happy to see that the online SnailShop is hanging in there.

It sounds like you have one of the small Ramshorn species which find their way into aquaria through eggs on plants (usually).

They are probably going to be maximum size at around 4mm, more likely 3mm. The babies are so small they are very hard to see! Generally, they take a few months to grow up, but this is very rough as they are hard to spot and single out when very young. The eggs too are very small and you are unlikely to see them. They tend to build their numbers up slowly at first, then with increasing rapidity, but with a puffer in there you should see that their numbers do not blow sky high!

Which species of puffer is it?

Severum Boy wrote:

Which species of puffer is it?

Thanks for the response, I recently added a handful of new plants so I think your assessment is spot on on.

The puffer is a Collumesus Asellus (common name is South American Puffer I think), pretty young at the moment and though very inquisitive and active I've not seen anything I'd recognise as hunting behaviour.

Thats no problem.

C. asellus are avid snail eaters, and will probably remove almost all of them from your tank. To be careful thougj, their teeth grow continously so you will need a constant supply of snails to feed it. Trumpet snails work well thanks to their tough shells and fast reproduction rates.