Mould Erevention in Snail Tank

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CrazyNut

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Hey,

I currently keep Richmond River Keeled Snails (Thersites richmondiana) and Australian Coiled Snails (Pendinogyra hayi).

I am having issues with mould growth in the enclosure they are kept in. They are kept in a well ventilated "critter keeper" style enclosure and food is replaced daily or at latest every 48hrs. They are also kept with springtails (although they didn't seem to help much). The mould is growing on the once sterilised leaf litter and branches as well as branches.

Thanks for the help
Cheers
CN
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This can be a reoccurring problem with inverts and is directly related to airflow, depending on how handy you are I strongly suggest incorporating ventilation holes lower down, critter keepers can crack easily so would be preferable to either melt holes with a soldering iron or use a new sharp drill bit with a light hand.
Solution 2, I understand most ppl don't want to modify stuff so here's another option. The mould is associated with dead air so keep the enclosure where it will get better air flow, by a window for example, when keeping enclosures on solid shelves with not much gap above will grow mould like a boss. Having a small fan click on with a timer once or twice a day for 5 minutes works wonders, even using your breath to blow out the stale air once a day can be sufficient.
We keep and breed all kinds of inverts on a semi commercial basis and in the early days had mould problems, industrial style mesh shelving and a fan on a short timer worked wonders.
I would probs replace the sub as well and possibly cut back on the misting if you can.
Good luck with it.
Ryan
 
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I don't know much about keeping snails, but I've kept a wide range of animals including various invertebrates. You can sterilise leaves, wood etc all you like, but mould spores are all around us, your body is covered with them right now, they're in the air, you're breathing some in as you read this. Wet leaves have nutrients in them and sterilising them means there are no other microbes on them, so mould lands on wet, sterile leaves and says 'hooray, easy food, no one to compete or share with, here I go, yay'. I actually found that sterilising sticks for my Chondros made them grow mould more quickly than not sterilising them.

Coco peat is amazingly mould resistant, it works as an excellent substrate for various insects, spiders, scorpions, etc, and mould just can't grow on it. If you put some on something mouldy, any mould it touches dies. Not sure if it would work for snails but I'd guess it would, either as a complete substrate or mixed in with whatever else you're using.

If you do use it I'd love to hear how it goes.
 
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