What do river snails eat? A detailed guide to the feeding habits of river snails

River snails broadly refer to mollusks of the family Viviparidae, belonging to the phylum Mollusca, class Gastropoda, subclass Prosobranchia, family Viviparidae. They are distributed across most regions of China, have relatively high requirements for water quality, and yield little. They can be caught in summer and autumn. Common freshwater species include the Chinese round river snail (Cipangopaludina chinensis). Let's take a look below at what river snails eat!

What do river snails eat?

River snails prefer habitats in water environments where the bottom sediment is rich in humus, such as lakes, ponds, marshy fields or slow-flowing river ditches with lush aquatic plants. They often feed on microorganisms and humus in the mud as well as phytoplankton, tender aquatic plants, and moss in the water. They also readily eat artificial feed such as vegetables and fruits, vegetable leaves, rice bran, wheat bran, soybean powder (cake), and various animal scraps.

Growth habits of river snails

1. Feeding habits: River snails are gastropod mollusks that like to live in waters that are warm in winter and cool in summer, with soft substrate, abundant food, and fresh water quality. They especially like to gather in places with slight water flow. They are omnivorous, mainly eating tender stems and leaves of aquatic plants, organic debris, and so on, and they like to be active and feed at night.

2. Temperature: River snails begin activity and feeding at a water temperature of about 15°C. The suitable growth temperature is 20°C-27°C. Above 30°C, they retract their bodies into the shell and stop feeding, gathering in shady places or burrowing into the mud to escape the heat. Water temperatures above 40°C will kill them, and below 8°C they burrow into mud holes to hibernate. They do not re-emerge to be active and feed until the water temperature rises back to about 15°C in early spring the following year.

3. Reproduction: River snails are dioecious and viviparous. Eggs are fertilized and develop in the brood pouch of the mother, and are only released after growing into young. Each time they can produce 20-30 young. In the south, April to May and September to November each year are the breeding periods for river snails.

Feeding management for river snails

1. Newborn snails: Two weeks after birth, newborn snails should begin to be fed. At first, egg yolk is suitable. After 1-2 days, they can be allowed to feed on natural food. When feeding, they lick the food with their radula, so when feeding solid food, it must be soaked soft to be suitable for ingestion.

2. Young snails: After river snails are placed in the pond, start feeding them green vegetables, rice bran, fish viscera, or tea cake, soybean cake, etc. Green vegetables and fish viscera should be chopped and mixed evenly with feed such as rice bran before feeding. Rapeseed cake, soybean cake, etc. should be soaked until soft so that river snails can feed on them.

3. Adult snails: The feed requirements of adult snails can be divided into 4 periods over the course of a year.

① March to May is the preparatory period before mating, when they begin to feed.

② From May to mid-August is the spawning and fattening period. Appetite increases sharply in the early stage, while in the later stage, due to spawning and high temperatures, appetite is sometimes poor.

③ From August to mid-October is preparation before hibernation. In the early stage, appetite gradually increases to store nutrients in preparation for hibernation. Before entering hibernation, their food intake decreases.

④ When spring arrives and river snails begin to wake after hibernation, start feeding organic fertilizer one week before.

⑤ Both the pre-spawning period and the pre-hibernation period require feeding. It is suitable to feed 2 times per week, and the feeding amount can be flexibly controlled according to the feeding conditions of the river snails and the water quality.

⑥ River snails grow best within the range of 20-26°C. When the water temperature is below 15°C or above 30°C, no feeding is needed.