(Pomacea bridgesii, Mystery Snails)
There are good snails and there are bad snails, and the bad ones have given the good ones a horrible reputation.
Briggs snails come in a wide array of colors - from ivory to black, soft blue to pearl pink, with exotic markings around their faces made up of colors such as the bright red-orange in the Blue-Footed Jade snail to the right - and don't take over your tank like all of those snails you were warned about. Unlike regular snails, Briggs are not hermaphrodites and require a male and female pair in order to reproduce. When they breed, they will come out of the water and lay a clutch of pink eggs above the water's surface. In order for those eggs to hatch, your water level has to be 3-4" below the line. If you don't want more snails, simply keep the water level at the normal line and pluck off any egg cases you find. If you do want eggs, after a water change keep the level down for a few days to give the snails time to lay their eggs. Once they do you can leave them there or carefully scrape them off and put them in a humid container to hatch so that you can bring your tank's level to normal again.
Briggs also don't eat live plants unless they can't find any other food in the tank. They will eat decaying plant matter and will spend time pruning the plants to remove the detrius, which will help keep your nitrite levels down and improve your overall water quality.
If you have oscars (or most types of cichlids), loaches, crayfish, or other carnivorous tank dwellers, baby snails provide a balanced diet of live food without you breaking the bank. Simply keep two to four adult snails in your tank, lower your water level, and let your pets dine on anything that hatches out. Briggs grow and reproduce rapidly when allowed, giving you a healthy, free food for your fish (whose stomach at times seem to be a bottomless pit that always needs filling).
For anyone who raises waterfowl or poultry, snails are an excellent source of protein and calcium - vital for growing birds and laying hens. Chickens and turkeys will happily snatch up any scattered snails or eggs, and ducks will spend hours dabbling in tubs to root out every last treat. And since these are an aquatic tropical snail, there is no risk to the environment by dumping a few in a bucket and letting your birds have fun. Even chicks and ducklings will appreciate the meal.
If you breed fish or any aquatic animal that produces tiny (or even larval) offspring, having one or more Briggs in the tank almost becomes critical. These snails produce infusoria, which fry mainly eat, balancing out their diet while providing a safe, free, natural food for your offspring. They are key to exotic species, as well as the typical Platies, Mollies, and Swordtails people will keep in their tank. This is vital for backyard or hobby fish farms and gives your fry a fantastic headstart when Briggs are kept in the baby tanks, as explained in an excerpt from an article Rob Torrens wrote on the subject years ago:
"People who have tried to raise small fry have probably come across the term infusoria, used to describe some sort of mix of microscopic creatures that the fry will feed on. Not so many people know that Apple snails are also called Infusorial snails.
They have gained this 'Infusorial Snail' name due to their gluttonous ways. Apple snails are very good at eating but not so hot on the digestion side of things. This means that the snail poop, having some nutrition left (and being semi-digested) encourages the growth of infusoria.
Now onto the use of these infusorial snails in the fry tank. One of the major problems that people trying to raise fry have is water pollution due to uneaten food (perhaps a thin layer of LiquiFry on the bottom of the tank that we can barely see) and decaying fry corpses (as there often seems to be a few that just aren't as robust as the other fry and end up succumbing). If you have an apple/infusorial snail in the tank they efficiently clean up the uneaten food and dead fry while leaving the live fry alone.
So not only are the snails keeping the tank clean for you but they are also encouraging the growth of infusoria on which the fry will feed.
I put down my success raising pygmy corydoras fry to my use of apple snails. Other members of our local club have had these diminutive cory's spawn and the eggs hatch, but then the fry have died a few days after absorbing their yolk sac - leading to the believe that they starved due to a lack of approriate (sized?) food. It should be noted that these people have rather clean breeding tanks, without apple snails. The only significant difference I can spot between their unsuccessful setups and my successful setup is that I had a couple of apple snails present that had caused the buildup of about half an inch of snail sediment (full of infusoria) - with all of this microscopic food available they were able to get past the critical phase and begin taking larger fry foods such as microworms."
Feeling experimental? Briggs snails will grow up to the size of a golf ball in a short amount of time. They are considered a delicacy and have a very mild flavor. Briggs are a type of mollusk and taste similar to mussels, clams, and oysters (with some people saying they taste a bit like scallops). They can be served in garlic butter, baked in a cheese sauce, fried, or used to make a rich clam chowder. They can be harvested at 12 weeks of age and are very inexpensive to raise. It sounds bizzare, but if you are a fan of New England Clam Chowder. fried clam strips, or baked oysters, then it's well worth trying at least once.
I raise a variety of bright colors to liven up any tank. Right now I have Ivories and Orange-Eyed, Blue-Footed Jades available (the latter depicted in the picture to the above right). Later on I will have Blues, Purples, and Magentas.
Care and Housing
These snails need a harder water that is more alkaline (not acidic) to help keep their shells strong; a pH of 6-7 or higher is recommended. They are fine in colder water, but will grow faster and be more active in temperatures around 80-85 F. Not only do Briggs grow faster in warm water - they age faster, becoming breeding age sooner and dying younger. Snails kept in warm waters can be expected to live 1.5-2 years, while snails kept in cooler waters reach a ripe old age of 2.5-3+.
Other fish will pick on snails and some, like loaches, will crack shells open and eat the contents when able. However, most fish aren't able to do any real damage and the snails will quickly adapt to their tank mates by keeping their antennae in around nippers or coming out at different times to avoid confrontation.
Since Briggs grow so large, allow them 2-2.5 gallons of space in a tank. Two snails will fit in a five gallon, and up to four will fit in a 10 gallon. They eat a lot, and what goes in will come out quickly in partially digested food (the sort of thing that baby fish find so vital), so be sure to keep up with regular water changes. This partially digested waste is fantastic for plants, adding even more nutrients to any water used for your garden or houseplants.
Snails will eat any wasted feed found buried in the gravel, and will happily munch on boiled carrots, lettuce, or cucumbers. Make sure that the vegetables have been boiled or somehow softened first since the snails will avoid the meal until it deteriorates enough to become palatable. This trait is why Briggs are safe around aquarium plants: unless the plants are soft due to decaying, they are too tough for the snails to bother. Any leaves or plants that are in the process of dying will have the dead, softer edges trimmed off by Briggs. If you see any plants chewed on then your snails either need more feed, or you are being alerted early that something is wrong with the plants.
When treating your tank, stay away from anything with copper in it. Most medications will tell you if it is safe for Inverts; which includes snails. Salt can be added to your tank, but do so in smaller doses to allow your snails to build up a tolerance. Most freshwater tanks don't require any salt at all unless being treated for certain diseases.
Breeding
As long as the water temperature is above 65-70 F, breeding will occur naturally (provided you have at least one male and one female in the tank). The male will mount the female and insert a sperm packet inside her shell. After that takes place she will go above the water surface and lay a clutch of pink eggs that quickly harden. In order to convince her that her eggs will hatch, the water level in the tank must be lowered by at least three inches to give her the space needed to lay.
These eggs are poisonous, so if you don't want them to hatch, scrape them off and dispose of them. If you do want them to hatch, you can leave them there and they will emerge on their own. To increase the hatch rate, you can carefully scrape the eggs free from the glass using a razor and place them in a dish above the water that floats. This will provide them with the humidity needed to grow without them overheating or drying out.
Once the eggs hatch the babies will go directly down into the tank, where they will find places to hide. At this age they are smaller than a pea and are edible to practically anything around. They make a great live food source, but if that is not what you are after, gather up what you can and put them in a breeder net or baby cage (the ones that are sold for livebearers), or move them into another tank. As long as they have food they will remain inside the enclosure without trying to crawl out to explore the rest of the world.
Keeping them in this smaller enclosure until they are at least pea sized is a good way to make sure that the babies are getting enough food. A larger snail is able to make it across a large tank with relative ease, but to a baby, traveling back and forth through the tank to collect fallen food takes a lot of time and energy. A smaller pen limits the distance to something more reasonable and guarantees that they are getting enough to eat without exhausting themselves.
The best way to judge whether the babies are ready to be moved into the main tank is to determine whether they are small enough to fit in anyone's mouth. If so, leave them in for another week or two. If they look too large to be swallowed in a bite by any of your fish then move them into the tank.