Also known as Jinbao snail, large bottle snail. Taiwanese farmers are commonly known as 巧寿 snails, and the term "夭寿" has the meaning of "short life and early death, excessive, and vicious". Hermaphroditic animals of the apple snail family, mainly distributed in Africa and the Americas. Their lungs/gills allow them to tolerate hypoxic water, burying themselves in the bottom soil during the dry season, closing their shells to sleep. In addition to drought resistance, gill covers are also self-defense tools. Pomacea, South America, has a breathing tube , the lungs , and when it comes time to breathe, snails breathe air under the surface of the water to avoid bird attacks.
Apple snails
Apple snails sold in major foreign pet stores are called Apple Snail in English, and Ramshorn Snai is called Nautilus or Flat Snail by foreign Chinese.
Apple snails are aquatic snails that are artificially bred in German fisheries. The original species is the planorbariuscorneus, a flat-angled snail from Europe to Central Asia, and the flesh color of wild individuals is mostly gray-black, showing red due to the lack of skin pigment variation, thus showing the color of its blood, and its shell itself is pale yellow. Interestingly, it is also possible that this snail blood is blue, so now the apple snail also has many different colors. The shell of the apple snail is left-handed, and the maximum diameter of the shell can reach about 2.5 cm. This species is a snail that breathes air directly, so the shell mouth is open, there is no mouth cover, only a pair of antennae, and its base has eye points that can distinguish between light and dark. Its eggs are good fish and shrimp feed.
Chinese scientific name: flat angle snail
Latin scientific name: Planorbarius corneus var
Nickname: apple snail, golden snail, large bottle snail
Two-name method: Planorbarius corneus
Realm: Animal kingdom
Phylum: Phylum Mollusk
Class: Gastropods
Subclass: Pulmonary snail suborder
Order: Base eye
Family: Spirogyrae
Genus: Genus Oblateral snail
Distribution area: Africa, Americas
Food: Algae
Distribution area
It is found in Taiwan and the Paracel Islands. It is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific Warm Water Zone, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia (north), Samoa, the Hawaiian Islands, the Social Islands, New Caledonia and India.
Hermaphroditic animals of the apple snail family, mainly distributed in Africa and the Americas. Their lungs/gills allow them to tolerate hypoxic water, burying themselves in the bottom soil during the dry season, closing their shells to sleep. In addition to drought resistance, gill covers are also self-defense tools. In Pomacea, South America, there is a snorkel - when the lungs are ventilated, the snail breathes air under the surface of the water to avoid bird attacks.
Morphological characteristics
The apple snail has no ears and is completely deaf. They can "see" their environment, but their vision is only enough to distinguish between light and dark. Apple snails do not require water quality, and they are more able to survive in harsh environments than most fish. However , snails need calcium to make a shell and prefer hard water ( pH higher than 7 ) . If the water is soft (low in calcium), limestone and shell powder can be added.
Apple snails are aquatic snails that are artificially bred in German fisheries. The original species is the planorbariuscorneus, a flat-angled snail from Europe to Central Asia, and the flesh color of wild individuals is mostly gray-black, showing red due to the lack of skin pigment variation, thus showing the color of its blood, and its shell itself is pale yellow. Interestingly, it is also possible that this snail blood is blue, so now the apple snail also has many different colors.
The shell of the apple snail is left-handed, and the maximum diameter of the shell can reach about 2.5 cm. This species is a snail that breathes air directly, so the shell mouth is open, there is no mouth cover, only a pair of antennae, and its base has eye points that can distinguish between light and dark.
Habits of life
Wild apple snails live in slow-flowing, algae-rich, calcareous ponds.
The apple snail is more adaptable, but it wants to grow well and multiply in large quantities, the water quality cannot be too acidic, and there are algae for it to eat. Their lungs/gills allow them to tolerate hypoxic water, burying themselves in the bottom soil during the dry season, closing their shells to sleep. In addition to drought resistance, gill covers are also self-defense tools. In Pomacea, South America, there are suction tubes – when the lungs are about to breathe, the snail sucks in the air under the surface of the water to avoid bird attacks. The apple snail has no ears and is completely deaf. They "see" their environment, but their vision is only enough to distinguish between light and dark.
Those that should not be polycultured with apple snails include snail-eating fish (such as chocolate dolls) and snails (such as killer snails), as well as lobsters, loaches, etc. Small snails may also be eaten by small shrimp such as crystal shrimp.
reproduction
Not all snails are hermaphrodites, and apple snails are sexy. Apple snails are hermaphrodites, and are hermaphrodites at an early age, which can be distinguished when they grow up.
As long as there are 2 apple snails, they can breed, and the eggs they lay are wrapped in a colorless transparent gelatinous substance, as long as the water quality is suitable, they can be propagated all year round, and they are very explosive. If there is too much reproduction, you can use biological methods (chocolate dolls, submarines, etc.) to go and remove by hand, but you must first fish out the small tropical fish in the same tank, otherwise they will be removed together. If the number is too large, drugs can also be used but are not recommended.
Let's go
The action of the apple snail is gradually active as the temperature rises. In winter, the apple snail is often motionless, and when the season is right, the apple snail can not only feed on the bottom and wall of the cylinder, but also inflate its shell and float in the water. Apple snails also often swim on their backs to the water to forage for food. However, at any time, the movement speed of the snail is not fast.
sense organ
The sensory organs of the apple snail are less developed and rely mainly on a pair of tentacles. Moreover, the apple snail does not have a closed shell cover, the self-protection ability is relatively poor, and when it is polycultured with the more ferocious fighting fish and cichlid fish, the tentacles will occasionally be pecked off. However, the regeneration ability of the apple snail is very strong, as long as it is kept alone for a period of time, the tentacles can grow well.
Culture methods
Apple snail is not picky about hydrological conditions such as water temperature and water quality, as long as three points are paid attention to:
1. When the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water is insufficient, it climbs up to the waterline to breathe.
2. When the water contains irritating chemicals, the apple snail will turn yellow, motionless, and further die.
3, apple snail needs relatively hard water quality to help develop the shell. Therefore, you can put a little coral sand or shells in the water. However, the water quality is too hard, and the shell of the apple snail will be white.
These characteristics of the apple snail can be used to monitor the water quality in the fish tank.
Apple snails
The food of the apple snail is mainly the algae attached to the fish tank, and it can also eat the residual ornamental fish feed in the fish tank. Therefore, in the absence of algae, it is also easy to raise in captivity.
The water temperature of the apple snail is a tropical snail should be kept in the range of 18-28 degrees Celsius.
As the water temperature increases the activity of the apple snails also increases, at 18 degrees they are almost motionless. Their elegant way of acting can only be observed at temperatures of 24 degrees or more. Temperature not only affects their amount of activity, but also determines their longevity. At high temperatures, their life cycle (from birth to death) decreases from four years (in low temperatures) to less than one year, and their reproduction rate increases with water temperature.
Common varieties
There are many different artificial variants of apple snails, in addition to the common red apple snails, there are also blue apple snails, leopard-print apple snails, pink apple snails and so on.