Snail Urban Legends

[pbgroupie]

You've heard them , you've rolled your eyes , you couldn't believe your ears , or you accidently passed on incorrect information yourself . That's right folks, it's the mysterious snail urban legend, usually told at the local fish store, but also found in other places on the net. Remember back when you were a newbie and think about some of the misconceptions you had about snails and snail keeping. I'm thinking ahead for an article for the calendar and I'd love to hear your story of how you were told one thing about snails and then found out how wrong the information was. If you can find quotes on the forum to support your story that's even better.

(This thread was inspired by a comment made by Annie Anderson and it gave my brain a jump start --thanks Annie! )

[pbgroupie]

Oh, come on and fess up. We were all newbies once and it took time for us to learn what was right and what was wrong. Okay, I'll start.

I was told by the fish store that the snails would be great to clean algae and they wouldn't eat plants. So I got the pretty round yellow ones and my girlfriend got the flat ones that went in circles. I found out later that mine were pomecea bridgesii/diffusa and they didn't really want the algae and my girlfriend's snail was a marisa that ate every plant in site, including the plastic ones!

There, now you tell one.

[Steph]

I don't know if this counts but...

When I told a friend that I had gotten an (apple) snail, she told me that soon I would have hundreds because snails reproduce by division - one snail divides himself to become two, then those two divide to four, and so on, and so on...

Fortunately I'd found this site and started reading before I got my snail so I wasn't alarmed.

Cheers!

[pbgroupie]

Yep, that counts! Thanks for sharing.

[Steph]

Here's another one courtesy of my LFS...

I went in looking for a specific brand of food because I read here on this board that snails were really fond of it. I couldn't find it, so I asked the staff if they had it or knew about it. (The place is a bit disorganized, with fish food in 3 or 4 different parts of the store.) She said she'd never heard of it, and asked what was I planning to feed it to? I told her, snails, and she said "Oh they don't eat food. They just eat the algae off the glass." She did go on to suggest that they might eat algae wafers, perhaps...

Now pet stores make me sad.

-Stephanie

[Annie Anderson]

when I bought my first 4 snails, they were in a bare tank--no plants, food, algae, zip! Most were closed up. I was told that they mostly came out at night and ate and stayed closed up all day. I asked what kind they were and was told, some kind of mystery snail I guess. All the same. So I just picked 4 colors--yellow, gray, black and white.

Well, the "black" one was dead when I bought him, not sleeping. Looked all over my living room trying to find out what that terrible smell was . The yellow one was a cana, that's why she ate my plants and got so big, the white one's shell just dissolved away and the fish picked it off and ate it. By then I'd found this site and got a clue about what was happening. Luckily for him, Dorian Gray--actually a blue snail but looked gray--had a much better life and lived for over a year. Fathered some pretty babies too! Thank you applesnail!!!

[Furex]

Hmmm I'm afraid I can't really help: I knew about AppleSnail.net long before I got my first brig

But as long as urban legends go... I think I've read somewhere that in the US LFS employees say apples are called mystery snails because nobody knows what they are or where they come from.

Well it's not that great a story but at least I tried

[LloydTheSnail]

I know this topic is old but, it seems to be stickied or something.

I have faced a common issue with a local pet store last year; the ol' "snails don't have genders" deal. I asked them to help me see if the snail was female or if they knew and had separated them, and this older woman at the counter just said "nope they don't have any, son". I explained to her how they most definitely do, but she just said "well in my 20 years experience in a pet shop I have never come across it". Ignorance to the max.

One of the staff even tried to convince me they would just lay eggs by themselves randomly.

I bought the snail anyway, then sent a complaint in later to the store haha. Luckily it was female.

[Chickadee]

Oh, I have a few. How did I never see this sticky before?

"Get a snail for your betta and it will eat the poop and you'll never have to clean the bowl." That's what brought me to applesnail.net!

"Keep your water filled to the rim and they will never lay eggs." A seller on Aquabid has this in her bid description. Grrrr.....

"They mate with themselves and will have hundreds of babies in no time." I'm sure we've all heard this one.

"It won't hurt them," says the Petsmart employee using her net as a croquet mallet to knock the snails out of her way:
Photo of said snail after bringing it home: