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RE: Snails

Hi Scott,

They have been loose stateside for decades. I think that they were
originally imported long ago I believe that they are sometimes called the
"original mystery snail". They have a limited range though. They can survive
winter almost anywhere. There is supposed to be an indigenous species which
is similar to them but they are supposed to be smaller and photos I have
seen show a heart shaped foot. These have a heart tear drop shaped foot
similar to photos of the Giant Jap.

They originally lived in a town park pond. Could have been dumped there as
there were also goldfish living there.  Without predators they were very
densely populated. They were transplanted in the early 1970's to a pristine
private lake in the mountains and have since become part of the food chain
and ecosystem and are over all in balance so far.

They are easily the best aquarium snail I have ever found. They do not
usually eat fish eggs or plants and only reproduce at a rate of one to two
large babies at a time. If your pH changes significantly they close up and
will close and not move until the water conditions are restored. They close
up about 4 days before killifish die. How convenient.

I am not advocating the introduction of foreign species into our waters, but
as they are already here I have no problem transplanting them into my fish
room.  And I might add that during my lifetime trout, pike, various feeder
fish and channel catfish have been introduced into the lake on purpose as
sanctioned by the state and none have improved anything other than to stress
the indigenous population of species. The snails are about the only thing
ever put there that did not harm anything.

I should be making another collection later on this month or early next
month. If any snails survive the grasp of my local friends I will let anyone
interested on the list know. I had about 2 dozen go overnight after the last
trip.


Best regards,

~RJ~


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-killietalk at aka_org [mailto:owner-killietalk at aka_org]On
Behalf Of Scott Davis
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 9:30 PM
To: killietalk at aka_org
Subject: Re: Snails


Several days ago JR wrote

>I use Giant Japanese Pond Snails. I collected two dozen a
> few weeks ago. As soon as friends heard about them they were sold out in
one
> evening! I will need to get some more later on this summer. If any survive
> my past my friends I will post their availability to the list.

Hey JR, what are the advantages of the Japanese pond snails over the more
run of the mill snails?

Oh yeah, and in reference to collecting them, did you collect them from the
wilds of your fishroom or have they gotten loose state-side?

Thanks and all the best!

Scott


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