How to prevent snails breeding?

[herecomethegals]

Hi,
My snails came from a friend whose origanal 2 had over time had over 200 babies . Anyways, I knew that (unlike my friend) I don't have nearly the amount of space to keep lots of babies if they decided to mate; so he suggested 1) Keeping the soil layer slightly thinner than normal and 2) keeping the temp slightly cooler (about 20 C). Does anyone know if these methods would work/ other methods I could use as well?
I know you can freeze eggs, but I'd rather not take the option if it can be avoided (i.e. if I can stop them laying in the first place).
Thanks

[siobhanc54]

the only way I know of that stops snails breeding is to make them unhappy, but noone wants an unhappy snail, so freeze or crushing eggs is the only way to control it.

[Katie]

I heard that you could prevent them from mating by not putting enough soil on the floor. So that its not enough to bury them competely. May just be my imagination though :/ xD

[coyote]

The only fool-proof way to keep snails from breeding is to keep them separate from each other. The alternatives (cooler temperatures, less substrate) will make the snails uncomfortable (although less substrate would make it easier to search through to find eggs).

[Dusk]

Although they prefer to bury eggs, if there's not enough substrate, they will leave them partially buried or on top of the soil.

Even snails kept alone have the risk of self-fertilisation. There's no effective means of population control except destroying eggs before they hatch or destroying the young hatchlings - some people sell them as alive food for other animals.

I think the egg thing is kinder.

[Bumblebee]

I think that to change the snails envirment, like lower temperature or no substrate is a bit cruel, its not really natural for them and it could make them unhappy =/ Ok, keeping snails at all isnt natural either but you get my point
But why not just make sure to have regular checks in the tank after eggs and dig through the substrate and check the flowerpots? I got four snails and they are all fertile now so I check the tank about two times a week after eggs, which I then freeze.

[infiltraitor]

I notice from the info pages on the front site that a few types of snail tend to reproduce at times that coincide with the 'rainy season' in their natural environments.

From that, I wonder whether keeping snails in slightly drier conditions might discourage them from breeding?

[coyote]

That's a good question, and I imagine it would depend on the species (assuming that some species are more adaptable than others).

[aerliss]

I'm falling in with the "if they're not laying eggs, they're not happy" group. Although my fuli laid eggs two days before he got his heat mat (which took almost two weeks to arrive!). It was rather chilly in his tank... and he self fertilised.

Really, I don't think there is a way to prevent them from laying... just ways to stop them laying so often and these all involve making them uncomfortable.

[coyote]

I've had aspersas self-fertilize, but those eggs never hatched. I don't know how true this is for GALS species, though.

[snailysnail]

My snails have sometimes had their tank vary from dry to wet and cold to hot at different times of for different reasons(like my brother looking after them for a week!) and they still laid eggs. But they are just less active(which in my book means unhappy) when the conditions are too cold or dry for their liking. and they simply lay eggs on top of the soil if they isn't much substrate.

[crossless]

Why take snails, if not bother destroy eggs. Or then just take one snail. I'm so times fed up digging eggs, but my dad is uilding new tank from me. It's going to stand with own legs, bottom is going to be glass so I can see where to clutches are.. Or then you should change species to those species which don't lay so many eggs or much at once. After 8 a.fluicas die I will take some bigger species only two snails so I don't need to dig hundreds of eggs per month. I think adding or taking soil away won't help. Why you should take way from snails they protection, and they "feel of been safe if they can't hide in soil and soil prevents hard hits when they some reason drops down fro sealing, yes a.fulicas will lay eggs low temperature too. I would not low humidity, if humidity is already low and get lower it takes some much strength from snails to get ready for hibernation and from waking up from it all the time.

It's natural to snails lay eggs when there's good condiditions, choose then some snail that don't lay eggs as often or give up snails.. I just think it's snailskeepers responsibility to destroy eggs if they are not wanted or don't sell too much baby snails from one clutch. Or nother thing is you could sell hatchlings for reptile food or get cannibal snail or some other snail eating animal.

[Bumblebee]

The other day something came to mind to me, wich I havn't really put to the test untill today, I took this low plastic bucket, it maybe is roughly 35x20x10cm or something like that, and I thought I'd try to keep a bit less substrate in the entire tank except from that bucket which I would fill up with peat to try and lure the snails to lay their eggs in there instead.
I usually used to have about 10cm of peat in the entire tank, but since my snails Never dig except when laying eggs, I thought this little idea could be worth a try at least.

Its gonna be interesting to see if it works, and if they begin to lay their eggs in the bucket, of course I will probably still have to search through the rest of the tank for eggs, at least untill i know that it works

[aerliss]

Oh, interesting idea! You'll have to let us know if it works XD

[coyote]

Let us know how the experiment goes!

[Bumblebee]

Haha I will xD Just gotta wait for the slow buggers to actually lay eggs

[crossless]

I would not take subsrate away from snails then there's nothing to give safe soft landing if they drop down.

I have seen pictures from snail tank that substrate is towel and then there's egg laying box, but I think it's harder to have towel as substrate it's starts to smell so fast and have to wash after use right away.