Stradius011

I have 2 tiny mystery snails in my aquarium with my guppy frys. I don't think they're getting a chance to eat. One of them seems fine, but the other one isn't moving. What's wrong? What should I feed them?

chickadee

Well for one thing they can stay still during the day and most of them eat at night so you won't see them move during the day so nothiing has to be wrong. They will eat the excess food from the tank bottom and algae from the glass of the aquarium and so I wouldn't worry about feeding them just yet. If they were really big you may have to give them some wafer food or Crab Cuisine pellets but if they are babies they will get enough food just from the tank unless it is a brand new tank and just been cycled. If you would feel better feeding them get them some food for crabs or crustaceans - I use Hikari Crab Cuisine and give them 1 pellet a day. They are too small to have more than that and they need to be eating the algae and tank leftovers first.

You are also going to want to find another home for one of them before they grow up or you will have not two but 200 little snails. you can really only have one in a tank unless you want to breed them and I will tell you that having snails being bred in a tank is very irritating to some of the fish.

Rose

Stradius011

I was going to buy just 1 snail, but the they must have put in 2 snails! When i came home, I was pretty surprised to find 2 snails.

chickadee

If you have a nice bowl with some gravel and a nice plant in it you can keep one of them in there. I really suggest that you remove one of them from your tank as you cannot imagine what it is like to have all those snails in a tank when they reproduce.

Otherwise, please enjoy them. They are marvelous and so much fun to watch and see grow. I love my little ones (not so little anymore - about the size of golf balls) and they grow up so fast!!

Rose

Stradius011

Actually, snails don't have a gender. They are females and males at the same time. Only Apple Snails have separate genders. Mine is a Apple Snail or a Mystery Snail. Does anybody know the difference?

chickadee

I do not know the difference - I think they are just different names for the same thing. Beautiful whatever you call them.

Rose

Stradius011

They're doing great right now.

chickadee

Good luck with them. I love mine and just make sure the tank is covered because they will get out and "walk on the wild side" Mine almost made it to the door about 20 feet away. Then the next day he/she was trying to get under my entertainment center but he was too big to get under there, thank goodness or I would never have found him (at least not for a long time) as it is too heavy to move and I have to wait for someone to do it for me.

Rose

0morrokh

As far as I know, all Mystery Snails are Apple Snails but not all Apple Snails are Mystery Snails. In other words, Mysteries are a type of Apple Snail. The ones that are just Apple Snails, not Mysteries, get a lot bigger--like baseball size I think, while Mysteries stay around golfball size (I think). Hope that made some sense...