I'm thinking of buying a snail as a tank cleaner

From everything I have watched and read and experienced with my own, the Zebra Nerita snails are multiplying like crazy but the Mystery Snails, who are one to a tank, do not multiply without a partner. Neither do the Zebras but I have 2 of them in the girls tank.

The Mystery Snails come in all kinds of colors and are very beautiful and will grow to a good size if fed as well as allowing them to clean the algae in the tanks. I feed them the HikarI Crab Cuisine pellets besides letting them eat the algae.

Rose

 

My mystery snails have had huge numbers of babies and they are mostly in tanks by themselves.

 

Here is the information from the vendors who I am guessing have had much more experience than any of us with them.  Perhaps you can get a thorough answer from their information.  I do not seem to be able to say anything right these days.  ???

If I can be of any further help please let me know.

Rose

 

I apologize, Rose, it was not my intent to be contrary. I was just posting before work and didn't have a lot of time so I was just sort of short and to the point.

I just wanted to say that my mileage varied, so to speak. I have single mysery snails in some of my tanks and they have laid eggs and babies have appeared. I also have nerites that don't reproduce, but I'm told that they require brackish in order for the eggs to hatch and I have no brackish tanks. The mystery snail in my dwarf puffer tank, for example, has had about a hundred babies so far (although that was before I moved the DPs into it so they could start snacking). But there's only one big snail in it. Same with snails in some of my other tanks. I haven't specifically set out to breed them so I don't know if certain conditions are more condusive to egg laying and hatching, but just wanted to give an alternate experience.

As for that website, it says "Mystery snails also lay clusters of eggs above the waters surface making removal of unwanted offspring relatively simple." That is also what I was told and what my experience has been. Leave an inch or two of space above the waterline and they'll lay the eggs up there.

 

So if I buy a single mystery snail than I could end up with tons of them if I'm not careful huh? Well are there any aquarium snails that won't be quite such a pain. I realize that information is quite often contradictory online which is why I ask you guys on here, personal experiencce is better. ;D

 

Regarding the "law" preventing pet shops from selling snails: I know that there is a permit they can get, and that many are reluctant to go through the hassel of getting this permit. Funny, then, that I found Gold Mystery Snails at Walmart! I want to ask my LFS how Walmart got around this "law" and they (LFS) can't.
(and why do they have to have a permit to sell snails, but not puppies? I really hate to see the puppies crammed into those little cages 24 hours a day, walking and sleeping in their own feces.)

S.

 

I've been told that nerites only reproduce in brackish water. My nerites so far have not had any babies in any of my three freshwater tanks I have them in.

 

Re: snail permits - its because idiots are releasing snails, particularly apple snails, into the wild where they have become a huge nuisance. I saw a picture of one today that was bigger than a man's hand!

 

Thanks boxermom.
It's sad to hear about the permits for snails, some stupid people can ruin something for everyone.

 

Walmart got a corporate permit to market them anywhere in the USA. It gives them a tremendous advantage over the smaller LFS or the corporations that cannot decently compete. It takes a fine big corporation to compete with them.

Rose

 

Hm. Haven't even heard about that here. But Canada has had strict laws about animal release for a while. Alberta is even rat free.

I found an interesting thing to do with my snail btw; I stuck the new lettuce leaf on a plant, and of course after munching a bit the leaf drifted away. However because it was in the part of my tank where there are a fair number of plants and my filter tube not far from that the leaf keeps getting attached to something. So the snail in a sense has to 'chase' the lettuce leaf. It's interesting to watch.