Gold Mystery Snails

Question
See I am going to start a fish tank. I am thinking about getting gold mystery snails and platies. Will those fish get along. Do the snails need new shells if they out grow the shells? and if the snails have babies will it need a new shell? If there is anymore information you can give me about starting a fish please tell me. Thank You

Answer
Hi Renee;

Gold mystery snails and platies will get along just fine. Don't worry about the snails' shells. Their shell is the same one from birth. It grows as they grow. Snail shells grow from the edges where the snails soft body sticks out, and continues in a spiral fashion. The older the snail, the more spirals or "curls" the shell has. Kind of like the rings in a tree.

I would suggest starting with at least a 20 gallon tank. Small tanks are harder to maintain than larger ones because space is so limited and most new fish keepers want too many for a smaller tank to be suitable. If there is a problem with the water you have to act very fast in a smaller tank. Being new at fish you might not know there is a problem until it's too late. A larger tank simply gives you more time to act. Platies have live babies and they can have a lot of them at a time, 10 to 50 per litter. Baby platies are born about every six weeks from each "mommy platy". Keep at least 2 female platies for every male platy in your tank. Male platies are interested in breeding all the time and will really make those poor gals tired. It can stress them enough that they get sick or even die.

You will also need to know about "New Tank Syndrome". Here is my web page about it to help you get your future new pets through it safely;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

Here are some web pages about snails, platies, and about selecting a fish tanks, etc....

http://www.applesnail.net/

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/aquariumstartup/a/newtankmistakes.htm

http://www.firsttankguide.net/steps.php

http://www.firsttankguide.net/capacity.php

http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Platy.htm

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin.html

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/fishcalc.htm

Good luck and have fun!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins