Trying to decide...

Going to clear out my 2.5G tank on my night stand. I've just been raising my first batch of Apple snails in it, plus some mosses and plants. It's in a sunny window and does grow algae nicely for the snails.

I'm also thinking about breaking down my 5G quaranteen tank. I think the JDs are now big enough to go into the planted tank at work that has the blue crayfish and bichirs in it. In this 5G I also have five green snails - which I've identified as olive Nerites. I know that there are 2 pairs in there from their behaviors.

Now, this algae-coated 2.5G seems to have to right living conditions for the Nerites and I could slowly increase salinity and see if I can successfully breed them. These snails are staying much smaller than my Apples and it would be very interesting to be potentially the first to breed them in captivity.

Seems to me you already made your decision lol. I think it sounds like a great idea.

Do you think they'll be ok with the undergravel filter - or should I get another small sponge filter for this tank?

Definately do away with the UGF. The larvae are free floaters and will surely get sucked in. For best results though, it's advised to raise the larvae in a tank without a filter. Just a small stream of air to keep a gentle current going should be sufficient.

Got overwhelmed with work/master's program this week, so instead of creating a separate tank for them, I just caught three of them and threw them in my apple snail breeding tank. I've read several articles stating they've bred successfully in FW - so why not try?

Tell ya'll if it works.

Post pics if you get successful! I love snails!

They will lay eggs in freshwater but will need brack to full sea water to grow into the adult form. Sry.

You could always collect the eggs and send them up my way. ;o) I have a few such projects going on at the moment.

Others have reported differently. There's the standard tbs per 5G of salt in my snail tank. I should know in a month if that's enough. Found eggs all under the rocks in the JD tank I pulled them out of, so they're already producing eggs. We'll see if I notice any small non-mystery snails crawling around in the next few weeks.

So the eggs will be in a salt environment if I'm reading this right? Excellent. What's your SG?

The eggs will be in what is considered a FW environment. SG is approx 1.003 - safe for the Mystery snail breeding tank. I'm raising these snails to handle the salinity level I maintain in my other tanks.

Interesting. I'm definately not an expert on Nerites, but do believe your going to need a higher salinity than that for the zoea.