Pomacea Bridgesii and other Pomacea Snails Information

Apple Snail Information
“The Perfect Snail”

Scientific name: Pomacea Bridgesii (spike-topped apple snail, you can see little spikes along the outer opening on top of the shell). Apple snails are known by several different names as well. Including; Mystery snail, golden mystery snail Inca snail.
Pomacea Bridgesii My own BigMama DSP:

Telling the difference in the variants of Pomacea is not easy to do if there isnt a major size difference the opening of the shell and the spiral are what shows the difference.

There are several species of Pomacea including but not limited to:

Pomacea canaliculata (illegal to see anywhere in the USA.)

Pomacea insularum

Pomacea lineata (same general size as a brig)

Pomacea haustrum

Pomacea gigas / maculata

Pomacea paludosa

General Information
They are equipped with a shell door enabling the snail to close its shell (to prevent drying out while hiding in the mud during dry periods).
Apple snails can breath both air and under water using both gills like a fish (at the right side of the snail body) and a lung (at the left side of the body) using a tubular siphon that they extend above the water to breath air while staying below the water.

Apple snails are in fact the biggest living freshwater snails on earth. With Pomacea Bridgesii growing to be around Golf Ball size. This species comes in a huge variety of colors including but not limited to; brown, albino, ivory, gold, blue, purple, pink, red and jade. All those can include solid shell color or stripes. The body of these snails also shows great variation from black, gray to pure white and pretty much everything in between.
Life span is 1-2 years.

Reproduction
Apple snails deposit their eggs above the waterline in a solid clutch which can be easily removed preventing over population. If you want to hatch them out all they have to be kept humid and moist but not wet, being to wet will drown the baby snails. If they get to dry they clutch will never hatch.

In spite the fact that many snail species are hermaphrodite (being male and female at the same time) apple snails are definitely not: they have separated sexes and a male and a female are needed for reproduction.

Size is more a factor than age on when they will start to lay eggs. Usually at around quarter size the female will lay her first clutch.
They grow quickly especially with the proper diet and can reach quarter size in about 2-4 months.

Feeding and Care
These snails do just fine eating the tropical fish flakes that fall to the bottom but they do enjoy algae wafers for bottom feeders and they also enjoy most fresh vegetables. Some favorites are broccoli, carrots and leaf lettuce. Adding some on occasion to the tank helps their shells with calcium and most fish will nibble vegetables as well. They also help keep algae under control.
They do prefer at least 7.0 PH, but will live in lower PH but their shells will suffer for it.. Like most snails they are hardy and can handle many different types of water condition. Even salt in low amounts does not cause them issues.

For more info and how to order please visit http://aquatropicalfish.com/forum/index.php