poefox

I'm thinking of buying a snail as a tank cleaner. I'd like to know about how to introduce snails to a tank, what to look for when buying them, what to feed them, that sort of thing. Since it is not a school tank I wanted to know as well if I will need to feed a snail regularly since the betta is being fed carefully pellet by pellet and rarely loses one.

Butterfly

A mystery snail will do very well in your tank. 1/2 veggie round about every three days will keep it happily cleaning your tank.
Carol

Joep606

What's a good vegetable to feed a snail? Lettuce?

And how do you feed it? Just put a lettuce leaf on the bottom and let the little snail eat it?

Thanks.

chickadee

Canned spinach according to what I read before I got my Mystery snails. But I feed mine Omega One Veggie Rounds or Hikari Algae Wafers. They like the Veggie Rounds better. I feed them to my Otos and the Snails like them too. Soon our garden will be up though and they will start to get some fresh food (spinach and zucchini and maybe other veggies)

Hope that helped.

Rose

Joep606

Hmmm...alright, thanks.

There's some algae around my tank, so whenever I get my snail he/she will be busy eating it for a while.

poefox

Thank you, but what I'd really like to know are some things about how people who successfully keep them introduce them to the tank, whether they need to be quarantined, how to introduce them in a relatively stress free way, that kind of thing.

cory dawg

apple snails or mystery snails will eat tons of veggies. The one main thing that is important is that they get enough calcium in there diets. If not there shell will become brittle and fall apart and they will die.

Butterfly

I just put mine in the tank.
as for for making sure they get enough calcium, you can also feed the crab bites with calcium(their pellets)
Carol

poefox

Thanks very much Carol

Butterfly

Welcome

chickadee

Where do you get the crab pellets from Carol? I can order them if need be, but do you think I would need them with water hardness GH and KH of over 300 on each scale?

Rose

Butterfly

Most of the pet stores here have them. Don't think you would need them Rose but might be a good treat (If you can keep their tanks mates from sharing them )
Carol

chickadee

I wouldn't mind the Otos having a little extra food but the other little gluttons .... :P ..... they really do not need anything else. LOL

Thanks, Carol.

Rose

poefox

I knew I forgot something...so these crab pellets are the best, huh? I'll pick some up tomorrow...will the snail also eat the algae wafers?

Joep606

So I went and picked up a blue mystery snail. For the first few days the little guy was shy, but now he is happily crawling around the tank.

I picked up a veggi clip as well, and I attatch some romaine (sp?) lettuce to it every couple days. The snail will climb right up onto the lettuce and start eating it from the top down and the fish nibble at it as well.

poefox

Carol: are shrimp pellets a good equivalent? I realized I might be being too literal but I got those for my corydoras, will they work equally well for the snail?

Butterfly

My Mystery snails are in with the skunk loaches(no the SL don't bother them) so they get a big variety of foods. Veggie wafers, shrimp pellets, flakes that the danios don't get, fresh veggies. Dark green veggies have calcium in them so unless you see problems with their shells you probably don't need to worry about pellets with calcium. I was just mentioning that their out there if you need them.
so to answer your question I think the shrimp pellets will work just as well as long as you feel fresh veggies of some kind about once a week.
Carol

atmmachine816

Sorry to intrude but I found this topic very interesting, do you think a mystery snail would get along ok with a betta in a 2.5 galon tank?