Helen snail

Predatory snails of Helena (Anentome Helena), which live only in fresh water,brought from Indonesia, where they come from. These mollusks are not very large - only 5-10 mm in length, but their bright striped shells are very clearly visible. Thin alternating amber and black strips will definitely draw your attention. Yes, and the body of the Helena snail is a bit unusual: an elongated shape of the leg and a head in the form of a proboscis.

What is so interesting about the snail helen? The fact is that this mollusk, unlike its other relatives, Do not eat vegetable food, but only protein. Of course, a slow snail can not catch upfish, but another snail - quite. Do not think that Helen can destroy large mollusks. Such extraction of a small helena is too tough. But here are small shell snails that multiply at high speed and eat holes in the leaves of tender algae, an excellent feed for helen. But also the snail helen will hunt melanias - ground snails, which do no harm, but only loosen the soil and remove the remnants of food from the stones.

A predatory snail helen can eat only smallshellfish, which can accidentally get into your aquarium with the plants. Some of them, such as fizzy, can no longer be deduced. In addition, the production of helen will also be acroleus - harmless small snails, which develop well with a plentiful amount of food residues in the aquarium. If you have an aquarium Theodoxes, Neretins, Ampularia and other large cochlea, you do not have to worry about them. Such a large prey, the snail helen will not touch. And in large snails, the shell shell is very tight, so Helen can not reach them. But the small specimens of the above-mentioned snails can suffer, therefore it is better to grow them separately from helen.

Aquarium snail Helena can also be fed by any other protein food. If you do not have other shellfish in the aquarium,Helen should be fed with frozen live food: moth, daphnia. You can also use ordinary chicken minced meat - its snails are also eagerly eaten. Live fish, like shrimp, helen does not touch, because it can not keep up with them. But the dead fish will definitely become a snail's prey. Caviar and fry can also be food for helen, so do not spawn in a common aquarium.

Helen snails are unisexual, but to distinguish where the female, and where the male, it is impossible. Only during breeding can you understand who is who. By the way, before the breeding starts a couple of helen will crawl along the aquarium together. During reproduction, the female snail lays only one egg at a time. Single eggs are enclosed in shells of a square shape, so they will be easily distinguished from anything else. Hatching snails burrow into the ground, where they eat the remains of food, until they grow to a length of 2-3 mm. Only then they come to the surface and begin to hunt other mollusks. Young snails become sexually mature only when they reach six months of age.

For the reproduction of snails do not need to create any optimal conditions. The main thing is the presence of normal temperature andprotein food. By the way, at a water temperature below 20 ° C, snails can stop their reproduction. In general, a couple of snails of Helen per year can give offspring of 300 individuals. But this is only under good conditions. Also, a quiet environment contributes to good breeding. The aggressive behavior of labyrinthine fishes, bots, barbs and cichlids can affect the reproduction of snails. Therefore, it is better to save them from such annoying neighbors.

As soon as you get some helen, You will not see immediately striking changes. In a week they will not be able to destroy allunwanted mollusks in the aquarium. Therefore, you will either have to wait, or initially start breeding helen. Only after a while you will notice that the unwanted snails in your aquarium will become much smaller, and soon they will disappear altogether.