Feeding A Mystery Snail

Mystery snail experts, I need your assistance. I have made some Snail Jello as per the recipe on this site. How often should I feed this to the snail.

Thus far he has been doing a good job of eating dead leaves and algae in the tank but I want to make sure he has the calcium he needs. I mostly feed live foods to my tank so there isn't much waste food that gets down to the bottom.

Advice would be greatly appreciated I want Big Blue (as he is now called) to be happy.

 

I put snello in my tanks every other day. The fish love it too though lol. I place it in a shallow glass dish so it doesn't make too much mess.

 

That's a great tip! Thanks. So far my fish haven't discovered it yet. We shall see!

 

They need to be eating meat like 5 days a week. It’s not only calcium it’s protein. You should get sinking meat based wafers and feed that 5x a week and give them jello the other 2 days per week

 

Thanks. I'll pick some up tonight. I added fish flakes to the snello so he has had some protein but probably not enough.

 

Hmm, mystery snail has not touched the sinking pellets or algae wafers. Seems to enjoy roaming through the tank eating the dead matter off plants. I am guessing that when s/he gets hungry s/he will eat the bottom feeder pellets (they are meat based)?

 

Mystery snails prefer vegetable matter

 

Cuttle Bone can be a good addition, then the rest of your snails food can easily come from algae wafers and naturally occurring bio-film etc

 

Yeah, I am getting that impression. I've also put some blanched spinach leaves in the tank and snello today. It will probably be trial and error until I find the favourite foods. S/he is gowing pretty fast so can't be starving.

 

I’ve read that you can add crushed fish food flakes to the snello. I plan to crush some of Fluval’s shrimp granules in next time. Those are a hit with the shrimp AND the snails. You could crush up the meat based wafers and add them.

I have been trying to buy organic baby food. I found a zucchini, spinach and pea one, mixed with berry tums, and they seem to like it. That’s my first one (made them in the fish shaped ice cube tray from Ikea LOL).

I have 6 mysteries and the magentas seem to be the hungriest and most active but they also are the pickiest. My blues and purples will devour a zucchini slice almost overnight. Usually with the magentas I have to remove the outer ring (even though I peel them for fear of pesticides). I got mine from @Ryan1824 and he said he uses beets to enhance color (on ones that need it) too, so I’ll be trying that.

 

Yeah, courgette (zucchini) is my next step. I did add fish food to the snello, but Big Blue wasn't too keen on it. Might try a different recipe. He's a picky eater! I'll get there with him (I think its a him) but it might be some trial and error. I have some cuttle bone arriving tomorrow.

 

The 1000s I’ve had and the 200 i have currently definitely do not prefer vegetable matter, even if they did, they need to be eating meat daily. What pellets did you get? Calcium powder is significantly more effective than cuttlebone. Can you post a picture of your snail so we can see big blue’s shell?

Also tums are a huge no!! They’re not safe for snails and aquatic life. And even if you haven’t noticed a negative reaction, doesn’t mean it is safe or good for them. Use calcium powder or (for eating only) you can bake empty egg shells at 325 for 20 ish minutes, grind them into a powder and add them to home made snail food. I wouldn’t put more than 4 crushed egg shells in a weeks worth of food

 

@Pringlethesnail , here are some pictures. I've tried snello (recipe from this site), blanched spinach, blanched courgette/zucchini, catfish pellets (photo attached- first ingredient fishmeal), algae pellets. The only thing I have seen the snail eat is dead plant leaves and blanched cauliflour greens.

I did wonder whether you had ever notice mystery snails eating left over live foods. Sometimes my fish don't eat all the gridal worms and there might be a dead worm or two in the tank that the snail may be eating. Any advice welcome.

Apologies for the terrible quality of the photoes.

IMG_20180419_183714 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM

IMG_20180419_183710 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM

IMG_20180419_183536 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM

IMG_20180419_183517 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM

IMG_20180419_183456 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM

IMG_20180419_183810 by Mazeus posted Apr 19, 2018 at 6:57 PM

 

At the time I had read several recipes with people using them but also couldn’t find any calcium supplements without D3 which I was told is a no. I found calcium citrate tablets without D3 - is it safe to use and crush those? Or calcium carbonate powder?

 

Update: It turns out Blue just has refined taste, no cheap pellets for him. He is now eating repashy gel food (meat based) 5 days a week and a new batch of snello (blached broccoli, courgette, cavolo nero and spinach with 2 tbsp of calcium carbonate powder and gelatin) the other 2. The snello is a huge hit with all the snails MTS, ramshorn and the pond snails go crazy for it, Blue needs to move a bit quicker to get his share.

 

Which Repashy did you get?

I made a new snello with summer squash, apples and blueberries baby food for color, Fluval shrimp granules, and food grade calcium carbonate powder.

 

I had some spawn and grow (because I had some fry) and grub pie. Both are a hit.