Blueberry snail

[NorthCoast]

Thought someone may be interested in these. They are “blueberry” snails and I believe they have yet to have a proper scientific name.

I have two females, and one gave birth during transit. I guess it is pretty common to get a stress birth during transit. So far the two moms have been cruising the tank pretty actively. The baby has snuck off to the back somewhere but I saw him active yesterday.

Pretty cool looking and great colours depending on the lighting

 

[Sneffles]

I enjoyed your photos, thankyou for sharing. Im hoping to add some blueberries soon.

 

[SSK101]

Discovered by celebrity biologist Chris Lukhaup during a trip to Indonesia, can be difficult to feed,most people have not been able to keep them alive long term,the stress birth thing seems very common

 

[NorthCoast]

Discovered by celebrity biologist Chris Lukhaup during a trip to Indonesia, can be difficult to feed,most people have not been able to keep them alive long term,the stress birth thing seems very common

It seems there have been issues properly feeding and keeping them alive.

A number of people have also reported issues with inactivity, but I have observed the opposite. In fact I have seen them cover as much/more ground than most of the other snails I have been keeping (variety of nerites and rabbit snail, mini ramshorn). Some people have speculated that they require higher oxygen, and my tank has pretty high flow so that may help.

The guy at the fish store said they have had them around three weeks and I specifically chose two females that were active in the tank and appeared healthy. He really didn’t know much about them but seemed to think they were eating algae wafers. I have also heard they love crab cuisine, which are both on the menu now anyways. I have also heard that they are filter feeders, so I supplement the tank with bacter ae. Hopefully this will be enough to keep them alive and grow out the young. My understanding is once impregnated the females give live birth to a single offspring every 3-4 weeks, and will do so for a while. I am hoping/expecting both have another baby or two although I’m tempted to go back and find a male.

I have been told that when the foot extends past the operculum it is a sign of health/good feeding. Both have a decent sized foot currently so I will monitor that.

Haven’t seen the baby in over 24 hours but honestly he’s about the size of a grain of aqua soil so he could be anywhere.

I haven’t seen it but I believe they burrow as well

 

[Sneffles]

Your info changes my plans for them. I think they will go into my 32 G with assorted shrimp (cherry, amano, bamboo, vampire), miscellaneous and young mystery snails, kuhli loaches and endlers. Since Im already raising mystery snails, I thought I might try to raise a few blueberries but it sounds like they need an established tank. Its getting a bit crowded but Im thinking they would be much better off in there than a new set up. Most info and comments make them sound easy, like they just need average snail care. Thankyou for sharing.

 

[Sneffles]

As an odd coincidence, Im in progress of trying to set up a biotope aquarium for peacock gudgeoun and it just clicked that blueberries are from New Guinea as well? Maybe they could eventually go in same aqarium? Id do a trial with bladder snails first.

 

[shangman]

Are they similar to wizard snails? I tried keeping those a few years ago, though they did have a baby or two, they never seemed to thrive and would only last 6 months or so max.

 

[NorthCoast]

Your info changes my plans for them. I think they will go into my 32 G with assorted shrimp (cherry, amano, bamboo, vampire), miscellaneous and young mystery snails, kuhli loaches and endlers. Since Im already raising mystery snails, I thought I might try to raise a few blueberries but it sounds like they need an established tank. Its getting a bit crowded but Im thinking they would be much better off in there than a new set up. Most info and comments make them sound easy, like they just need average snail care. Thankyou for sharing.

Yeah it has been interesting because a lot of people post about their struggles, then i will find comments like “hey mine are thriving not doing anything special.”

it does seem to be pretty standard snail/invert care with some additional considerations. Certainly an established tank would be best. Mine was about 3 months old when I added them. The mothers still seem to be doing great and are popping up all over the tank. Still no sign of the baby but I’m hoping to see him again in the next few days here there is plenty of areas he could be hiding.

Couldn’t get my phone to focus properly? But here’s one pretending they are a Buce leaf:

 

[NorthCoast]

Are they similar to wizard snails? I tried keeping those a few years ago, though they did have a baby or two, they never seemed to thrive and would only last 6 months or so max.

I haven’t had a chance to get a wizard snail yet but they do seem to be quite similar in terms of breeding and care info from what I have seen. I’m not a snail expert by any means but it seems like they may be distant relatives and are both variants of Japanese trap door snails