Pomacea bridgesii (spike-topped apple snail, Brazilian apple snail, golden mystery snail and ivory snail) prefers dead and rotting plants above fresh green ones. Occasionally they eat the softer vegetation. Pomacea bridgesii snails are thus a good choice for an aquarium equipped with a nice collection of water-plants. What is even more: they tend to starve to dead in the middle of the vegetation if you don't provide them with enough food.

The Pomacea bridgesii apple snails do very well on all kind of fish food and it could be useful to try some soft vegetables for those cases they would like some green food. Very handy types of fish-food are those tablets sold for algae-eaters, but other types of fish-food will do as well. If you like to keep the expenses low, just buy pond-fish food. This comes in a big quantity for a relatively low price and has a big advantage: it keeps floating, so it won't make a mess on the bottom of your aquarium and the left-over can be removed easily.

Although floating food might seems a bit strange for snails, apple snails know very well how to handle it: they go to the surface and form a funnel with their foot in which they let the water from the surface flow through. The food at the surface then floats towards the snail and gets stuck in this funnel after which the snail eats the catch.

Apple snails that are found in the aquarium trade don't make high demands when it comes to water quality: they can live very well in clear, streaming, oxygen-rich water as well in still water, with rotting organic waste, containing almost no oxygen.

In general one should apply the same rules for water quality as with fish (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc) and the water should not be too soft.

Like most snails, apple snails prefer calcium rich water. If the calcium concentration in the water isn't high enough (soft water), they aren't able to build a strong shell and become susceptible to shell damage, but even in good conditions, some snails still get little holes in the shell surface, especially in the older parts of their shell. This is a naturally occurring process and as long it's only at the surface, you shouldn't worry too much about it. Young and healthy snails are somewhat protected against this as the outer layer of the shell consist of a protein layer that prevents a breakdown of the shell, but damaged shells and shells of older snails are quite vulnerable to shell detoriation.

Warning! If the tap-water in your area contains copper and/or other metals, use one of these water preparation products that catch away those metals bofore putting the snail in the water. Apple snails are very sensitive for these compounds (especially copper). You won't be the first one loosing a snail due to this snail-toxic substances in the water. If you see that the snails become completely inactive or if the snails, especially the little ones, try to leave the water after a water change: get a product to treat the water (like aquasafe or for those with access to a lab: use EDTA or something similar).

When there are many apple snails in a tank, the water tends to become cloudy because apple snails have a large amount of microorganisms in their intestine, which help to digest the food, and which are expelled with the faeces. These micro-organisms (amoebocytes) should not cause any harm to the fish and can even serve as a food source for young fish. Fresh food (lettuce etc.) are more likely to induce this micro-organism based clouding of the water. If the snails are fed with dry fish food, the water will stay cleaner. It is a good idea to do regular water changes if you have many creatures in one tank, just like one would advise with fish, to maintain good water quality and to avoid accumulation of toxic substances and waste.>p>By the way, apple snails are good indicators for the oxygen-level in your tank. When there isn't much oxygen in the water, the snails will regularly come to the surface to inhale fresh air through the breathing siphon. Only when there is enough oxygen for them in the water, they don't need their lung and solely depend on their gill.

The amount of water needed for each snail depends on the size of the snail, the filtration capacity and the temperature. As a general rule of thumb one should provide at least 10-liters/2.5 gallon for each mid-sized snail (�5cm/2inch. diameter). Or another way: count each apple snail as a fish of the same length as the snail's shell diameter. Be cautious not to overcrowd your snail tank. While it hasn't been proven that apple snails actually 'sense' that they are in large numbers in a small space, the water quality quickly detoriates and substances that inhibit the snail growth are increasing quiker. Regular refreshment of a part of the water is highly recommended. The water doesn't have to be deep (2 or more times the shell height). Remember that most apple snail species inhabit swamps in which the water level is quite low.

Be sure to have a coverplate on your aquarium or at least make sure that they can't get out of it or otherwise: don't be surprised to find a snail on the ground in the morning. Don't worry, they can easily survive out of the water for more then a week, but they risk damaging their shell when hitting the ground.

An important thing, often forgotten, is to provide an air space above the water to allow the snail to leave the water to deposit her eggs. This air space should be at least the same height as the size of the shell. If the snail does not have access to sufficient air space, the animal will have to deposit the eggs below the water, where they will drown.

Obvious, this does not count for those species that deposit the eggs below the surface like the giant ramshorn (Marisa cornuarietis), Asolene spixi, Lanistes species and others.

Note!: Some species are more likely to creep out of the water than other species do.

As apple snails prefer to hide themselves in darker places during daytime, some stones, a trunk or some plants are well appreciated. They also have the habit of burying in the substrate in search for food and when they aestivate in the winter periods. If the soil on the bottom is thick and soft the snails can be hard to locate.

Apple snails are most active during the night, which already indicates their preference for the darker places of their environment. During the day, they remain mostly in the shadow of plants and creep away in the bottom and/or mud. When the dark comes in, the apple snail becomes more active and crawls around in search for food, a mating partner or a good place to deposit eggs.

Keep in mind that there is a large variation in activity levels amongst the different apple snail species. For example Pomacea canaliculata, the common channeled apple snail or better known as the Golden apple snail (incorrect! 'Golden' should only be used for yellow Pomacea bridgesii snails), is relatively active during the day and often risides close to the water surface. Pomacea flagellata, the Mexican or Maya apple snail, hides in the bottom during the day. The well known Pomacea bridgesii (mystery snail, spiketopped apple snail, golden apple snail) fits in between of these two activity levels.

Apple snails don't need artificial illumination like TL-tubes, but as you probably want to observe them, a standard aquarium light-lid would suffice. If you keep the snails in sunlight, like happens with an outside pond, the shell of the snails become covered with algae, giving them a green and hairy look. This might look scary, but it's harmless for the snails.

Suggestion: If you would like to raise baby apple snails, it would be a good idea to provide enough light, so that some algae can grow in the aquarium. Little apple snails have a better chance to survive the delicate first weeks after hatching if they have access to algae as food source.

Light dependent growth has been observed by Pomacea glauca. If the snails were kept in a completely dark environment, their growth decreased, compared with animals that were kept in a 12 hour/day light environment.

The optimal water temperature for apple snails lays between 18 to 28�C (65-82�F). As with many cold-blooded animals, apple snails are more active at higher temperatures. At higher temperatures, they eat faster, creep faster and they grow faster. Also higher temperatures mainly induce the reproduction of the apple snail. At lower temperatures (18�C/65�F) the apple snail enters a dormancy state in which they creep away in the mud and become very inactive. Temperatures below 18�C/65�F should be avoided as the mortality rate quickly increases.