Snails?

[Ranid]

Hi, excuse me for I thought there was a breeding forum I thought this would better be in, or maybe I'm just blind or there isn't one at all....

Here's the thing, my newts for the first time in their domesticated lives are breeding (yay!!). I separated the eggs into a smaller container for easy viewing to further my experience and ect.

I've noticed the embryos developing, but a couple infertile ones are decomposing. If I put a couple pond snails in to get rid of the dead eggs, would they eat the living ones too? They laid on both living and fake plants, if the living plants would 'distract' the snails.


Please help,

-Ranid

 

[jcb118]

introducing snails or any other garbage disposal type animal seems like a very broad change to handle a specific problem. you'd be much better off using a small dropper, scaled down version of a turkey baster, or something like that.
It's highly unlikely that the snails would come in and immediately eat the dead eggs before fungus could grow while leaving the viable ones undisturbed.

 

[Kaysie]

Some snails are also hermaphroditic, and can reproduce to exponential proportions in your tank.

 

[Jennewt]

I've had tanks with snails and newt eggs many times, and I've never seen any examples of snails eating newt eggs. Then again, I've never seen any snails eating dead newt eggs either! I suspect newt eggs have something bad tasting (or maybe it's the slimy texture) that prevents snails and other critters from eating them. So I don't think adding snails will matter one way or the other.

What kind of newts laid the eggs? Depending on the species, the adult's setup, and the number of eggs you get, it might be a good idea to leave some of the eggs in the tank.

 

[Ranid]

Both my palmate and my alpine newts laid them. The first two day's eggs I put in two separate containers (by species of course). After that I just decided to leave the eggs in with the adults.

Both species laid 1-4 eggs on a leaf of a real plant or fake then folded the leaf over, if that's what Jenn means by the adult's setup.

I've done snails in anuran and fish tanks, I was just wondering if that would help for the egg's benefit.