How Many Hypoaspis Miles Is Too Many?

[marinaneira]

Question for those with direct personal experience please.

The situation:

- 8 Helix Aspersa with the bad kind of mites. Not severe yet but enough that snails are definitely unhappy.
- 12,500 (!!!) hypoaspis miles arriving in the mail next week. This was the smallest amount I could find from a USA seller I felt was reputable enough.
- 12x12x12 tank

I hear hypoaspis miles won't hurt snails at all. Do I really dump the whole thing in there? 12,500 is a lot. I hear the more you add the faster the problem is over with.

Did you do this? How many mites did you use? How many mites is too many? Again please note these are small helix aspersa, not GALS.

Thanks in advance!

[morningcoffee]

Jun 20, 2020 2:45:45 GMT marinaneira said:

Question for those with direct personal experience please.

Should be fine. I just checked the last time I had to order Hypoaspis, and at that time I got 10,000 to use in a tank about 40cm x 30cm x 30cm on a colony of Cepaea. They don't bother the snails and will just die off once there's no tiny mites or bugs left to eat.
In my experience the Hypoaspis usually arrive in vermiculite substrate so what I tend to do is put the tube they come in into the tank with the lid off and let them come out rather than scattering vermiculite everywhere, as snails don't seem to like it.

[marinaneira]

Jun 20, 2020 7:33:18 GMT morningcoffee said:

Jun 20, 2020 2:45:45 GMT marinaneira said:

Question for those with direct personal experience please.

Should be fine. I just checked the last time I had to order Hypoaspis, and at that time I got 10,000 to use in a tank about 40cm x 30cm x 30cm on a colony of Cepaea. They don't bother the snails and will just die off once there's no tiny mites or bugs left to eat.
In my experience the Hypoaspis usually arrive in vermiculite substrate so what I tend to do is put the tube they come in into the tank with the lid off and let them come out rather than scattering vermiculite everywhere, as snails don't seem to like it.

This is a great help. I thank you very much!

[marinaneira]

morningcoffee, hoping you see this. I forgot to mention I also have a number of baby snails, less than a week old. Perhaps 60 helix babies in a little container. These babies are moving to a more suitable container when it arrives on Wednesday. I do not think they have mites, but it is possible: the eggs were taken from the original tank and placed on new soil, however the surrounding old soil came along as I picked them up with a spoon, as well as some moss from that tank.

My questions are, could a small amount of hypoaspis miles bother such tiny snails in any way? Three of them could fit on my pinky nail. They are such wee things.

Second question is timing: my hypoaspis miles should be here tomorrow morning. I intend to have the parent tank ready to receive the hypoaspis miles immediately. The baby container is of poor quality and the risk of damage to some baby snails when opening (and even more so if having to close again) is very real. So I want to only deal when opening it when it is time to transfer the babies to the tank that arrives on Wednesday. This means I cannot put hypoaspis with the babies until as late as Wednesday evening. How should I set some hypoaspis aside until then? Will they be okay?

Oh, let me ask you one final thing... how many Helix Aspersa would you say can comfortably live in a 12x12x12 tank once they are fully grown (think just about or under the size of a quarter for the shell)? I have 8. Could such a tank take any more? They have lots of free room still at this time. What about in an 8x8x8 tank? At some point I will have to release most of my babies. I do not intend to breed more. I want to keep as many as possible. I'll have an 8x8x8 and 12x12x12 tanks available.

Thanks in advance!

[morningcoffee]

Jun 22, 2020 13:37:20 GMT marinaneira said:

My questions are, could a small amount of hypoaspis miles bother such tiny snails in any way? Three of them could fit on my pinky nail. They are such wee things.

I don't believe so. The hypoaspis are absolutely miniscule, I don't think they could or would cause harm to even the tiniest snails.

Jun 22, 2020 13:37:20 GMT marinaneira said:

Second question is timing: my hypoaspis miles should be here tomorrow morning. I intend to have the parent tank ready to receive the hypoaspis miles immediately. The baby container is of poor quality and the risk of damage to some baby snails when opening (and even more so if having to close again) is very real. So I want to only deal when opening it when it is time to transfer the babies to the tank that arrives on Wednesday. This means I cannot put hypoaspis with the babies until as late as Wednesday evening. How should I set some hypoaspis aside until then? Will they be okay?

I think that would be OK. Probably best to keep the hypoaspis in their original container and keep them in a cool place out of direct sunlight until you are ready to use them. They are perfectly fine to be shipped which often takes a few days so I don't think an extra day, or day and a half, in their packaging would cause any issues.

Jun 22, 2020 13:37:20 GMT marinaneira said:

Oh, let me ask you one final thing... how many Helix Aspersa would you say can comfortably live in a 12x12x12 tank once they are fully grown (think just about or under the size of a quarter for the shell)? I have 8. Could such a tank take any more? They have lots of free room still at this time. What about in an 8x8x8 tank? At some point I will have to release most of my babies. I do not intend to breed more. I want to keep as many as possible. I'll have an 8x8x8 and 12x12x12 tanks available.

Is that measurement in inches? I definitely wouldn't keep more than 8, that seems a fairly small tank size even for 8 adult aspersa to me. Last time I had aspersa, I kept 4 in a tank that was 40 x 30 x 23 cm (roughly 16 x 12 x 9 in inches).

[marinaneira]

morningcoffee (I wish I could do the quotes thing as you do, I can't figure it out, I'm sorry)

The hypoaspis miles, at least the ones I can buy in the USA, are only ever sold with overnight shipping. This caused my mites to cost nearly $50. Because the seller seems to emphasize using the mites immediately, is that I worried waiting any further.

I'm shocked about the size thing. Based on what I learned before getting my first snails, I thought my 12x12x12 was a bit overkill... they seem to have all the room they need to roam happily, have hideaways, have a little (shallow) water dish they often drink from and bathe in, have branches to hide under. I used to have four rats in a cage that was 6 feet tall, so, my animals being comfortable is obviously a concern to me. I won't put more than these 8 in this tank then, but I would like to understand how size is calculated, to make better decisions going forward. I know more space is always better for any creature. But my snails are pretty lazy. They don't do very much. Would a bigger tank really make such a huge difference and if so why? Forgive me if I sound argumentative, before I coax my husband to letting me get a huge enclosure I would like to have a good argument to bring forward

[marinaneira]

I should add, according to petsnails.co.uk:

How many snails with a shell length of 3.5cm can I fit in a tank 31cm x 31cm x 31cm?

Each snail has an adult shell length of about 3.5 cm

Each snail is approximately 9.32 cm³ in volume.

Your tank has a volume of 29791 cm³ ( 0.03 m³ or 1.06 feet³ )

Your tank has a horizontal plane area of 961 cm²

Minimum Tank L x H x D for 2 full-size Snails: 20 x 15 x 12 cm

(Note: Small tank sizes are probably best avoided even though comparatively, a small snail may have as much room as a large one in a big tank.)

The area of your tank is sufficient for at least 2 full-size snails

Maximum No. Snails: 11

Is this wrong?

[morningcoffee]

Jun 22, 2020 17:26:20 GMT marinaneira said:

I'm shocked about the size thing. Based on what I learned before getting my first snails, I thought my 12x12x12 was a bit overkill... they seem to have all the room they need to roam happily, have hideaways, have a little (shallow) water dish they often drink from and bathe in, have branches to hide under. I used to have four rats in a cage that was 6 feet tall, so, my animals being comfortable is obviously a concern to me. I won't put more than these 8 in this tank then, but I would like to understand how size is calculated, to make better decisions going forward. I know more space is always better for any creature. But my snails are pretty lazy. They don't do very much. Would a bigger tank really make such a huge difference and if so why? Forgive me if I sound argumentative, before I coax my husband to letting me get a huge enclosure I would like to have a good argument to bring forward

If they seem happy and active in their tank then I wouldn't worry too much. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule with this, just personal choice/opinion, along with observation of the snails' behaviour. If they seem to be doing fine in their tank then there shouldn't be any need to make sudden changes.

[marinaneira]

Jun 22, 2020 18:09:14 GMT morningcoffee said:

If they seem happy and active in their tank then I wouldn't worry too much. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule with this, just personal choice/opinion, along with observation of the snails' behaviour. If they seem to be doing fine in their tank then there shouldn't be any need to make sudden changes.

After my last post, I did some thinking, and searching. In truth my current setup does not leave my snails much soil surface available. I wish I had considered soil surface over anything else now. I want to have more snails, so I will invest in a new tank. My husband doesn't seem too averse, anyway. Thank you for all your kind advice!

[marinaneira]

Hey morningcoffee, so my hypoaspis miles arrived with absolutely zero sign of life on the container, even though I brought them in seconds after delivery. I've read I should be able to see them (I know mites are very small, but I do see the "bad" mites on my snails, so I believe I know what I'm looking for.)

It's been a bit of a nightmare with the seller (including being told stuff like "we ship hundreds of thousands of insects to farmers all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, and have not the time nor patience to deal with the end consumer" --I am not kidding, I promise I wasn't even being a Karen, I was basically sitting there quietly on the phone while the guy vomited all of this at me.) Later I was called by a kinder gentleman who told me that due to the high volume of hypoaspis miles they are shipping at this time of year, it is likely most of what is in my container hasn't hatched, and I should see them within a week tops.

What are your thoughts on this? Today I saw a mite walking on the side of the tank. This would be the first time ever I see a mite not directly on a snail, since my mite situation is not very bad, yet. Could this be a hypoaspis finally appearing? Are they white too? From videos I thought they were darker but I've been searching so much, I don't know anymore. FYI, my mites were delivered Tuesday morning, and shipped overnight, with an ice pack.

(Unrelated: my snails want to thank you, as they have been moved to a 20 gallon tank yesterday, directly based on your feedback. My myriad of babies have taken residence in the smaller tank, moving from their tiny hatching container, until they grow a little larger and I decide which ones to keep.)

[morningcoffee]

Jun 25, 2020 13:14:08 GMT marinaneira said:

Hey morningcoffee, so my hypoaspis miles arrived with absolutely zero sign of life on the container, even though I brought them in seconds after delivery. I've read I should be able to see them (I know mites are very small, but I do see the "bad" mites on my snails, so I believe I know what I'm looking for.)

It's been a bit of a nightmare with the seller (including being told stuff like "we ship hundreds of thousands of insects to farmers all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, and have not the time nor patience to deal with the end consumer" --I am not kidding, I promise I wasn't even being a Karen, I was basically sitting there quietly on the phone while the guy vomited all of this at me.) Later I was called by a kinder gentleman who told me that due to the high volume of hypoaspis miles they are shipping at this time of year, it is likely most of what is in my container hasn't hatched, and I should see them within a week tops.

What are your thoughts on this? Today I saw a mite walking on the side of the tank. This would be the first time ever I see a mite not directly on a snail, since my mite situation is not very bad, yet. Could this be a hypoaspis finally appearing? Are they white too? From videos I thought they were darker but I've been searching so much, I don't know anymore. FYI, my mites were delivered Tuesday morning, and shipped overnight, with an ice pack.

(Unrelated: my snails want to thank you, as they have been moved to a 20 gallon tank yesterday, directly based on your feedback. My myriad of babies have taken residence in the smaller tank, moving from their tiny hatching container, until they grow a little larger and I decide which ones to keep.)

I really couldn't tell you honestly, what the first person on the phone told you sounds bizarre but the second person's explanation sounds plausible? I've only bought hypoaspis twice from what I recall, and I can't remember if I could immediately see them moving around or not.
If you saw a mite on the side of the tank I would suspect it to be a hypoaspis rather than a Riccardoella but again there's no way for me to be sure.