also apple/mystery snails are often sold at the end of their lifespan when they are largest. they might be dying of old age. try buying smaller snails with a little more millage left in them. if you are only buying snails for the algae and clean-up. you might consider ramshorn snails. they are smaller and lay eggs to replace themselves, but have never overpopulated in my tank. i can usually only find about 8-10 fingernail sized snails at any given time. they have done better in my tanks than mystery snails. i have both but like you the mystery snails seem to fade. if you are worried about over population of any snail, add a loach. they will eat any baby snail they find and keep the poulation pretty constant.

What will happen if you try to save and propagate propriatary seeds is the seed police will show up and arrest you, the seed police are related to the mattress tag police who are all related to Yahootie... You know him, he's the little guy that lives in your fridge and turns on the lite when you open the door. In all seriousness do save your seeds and try the ones you get with dried peppers I've found a lot of the peppers that I get from the Mexican markets up here are air dried and sprout just fine. I save seeds by air drying them on paper plates. I like to use the closet our water heater is in as it's warmish but not hot and there's good air flow in there due to the venting so I never get mold on the seeds. I'll leave them in there for several weeks so they get good and dry. To store them go and find some paper coin envelopes, they are about 2"x 4" and put your seeds in them, plastic will work but if there's any moisture in the seeds you'll get mold and it will kill them, paper mo betta bro. :) What works great is a good size Mason jar with the wire top and rubber seal, use silaca gel in the bottom and put your clearly marked and dated envelopes in the jar and have Yahootie store them in the bottom back of the fridge right next to that freeze dried something in the tupperware where it's cool and dark. If you can't get the silica gel pour 2 inches of fresh rice in the bottom as it will also absorb the moisture. I've kept seeds this way for years, I had some pepper seeds that were at least ten years old kept this way and had better than 60% germination from them.

Kelley, the hardest part to all the grafts - that one included - was cutting pieces that fit. It’s like creating a little jigsaw puzzle with pieces of wood in a hurry. I only used that one on one because it was the only seedling that was actively growing. It was not more difficult than the others I think. In a way, once I got it to fit in, it was easier to tape up. The Teflon tape worked, but was hard to keep from wrinkling up. I’m interested to feel the difference between that and the grafting tape. Once I get it, I may graft a branch of my ST that is alive, but has been broken and is dangling. When I take the tree out, I’m sure it will snap off, so why not try to I graft it onto another lemon seedling.... I’m on a roll...;)

That was my initial misunderstanding, when Mt. said "vegetarian" then I thought "lacto-ovo vegetarian." But I see that in some cultures, the language might not be so finely tuned as we tend to be in individualistic America! I can certainly see not eating dairy products for a whole host of reasons, but among my dozen or so life-long meatless friends, the ones who don't eat cheese don't drink milk either and call themselves vegan. The rest eat cheese, although many of us are having to watch our intake as we age due to the saturated fat and lactose in some products. But that is the last thing I would want to discuss at a social gathering! We are just called "old farts" for that and many other reasons. If you want a store-bought vegan-product stuffed mushroom, I would mix spinach artichoke or red pepper hummus with something that had a little bite to it like nuts, water chestnuts, celery or the aforementioned canned fried onion rings unless they are fried in animal fat. You could also top them with some fake bacon bits unless you are horrified by the words fake and bacon and bits. Perhaps in some markets you can get a product called "small crunchy red-colored baked tvp pieces with smoke flavoring added." Yesterday I saw a meatless, flat narrow piece of something or other called "Benevolent Bacon." Or maybe it was "Benign Bacon." Bottom line: IT'S ALL GOOD, LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!