Nerite Snail Being Bullied!

I have a nerite snail and a pleco who have been living together for 2 months now. Have had no problems before however recently I have been finding my nerite snail on its back. We thought she had just been falling over although on closer inspection we have found the pleco sucking onto the snails belly.
I have been keeping an eye on them and have seen the pleco harrasing the snail and flicking it with its tail to try and tip it over!

Is the nerite snail in danger? Will the pleco eat it? Should I separate them? Can I introduce anything into the tank to protect the snail?

Thank you

 

Hello and Welcome to the forum,
What kind of pleco do you have? How big?

I have a very young small clown pleco living with my Nerite snail. I've never seen it bother the Nerite. But my Nerite sometimes seems to like to turn itself upside down.

 

It is a small brittlenose pleco only about 5-7cm

 

Welcome to fishlore!
I have a 6.5cm bristlenose with 4 nerite snails and have never had an issue.
What are you feeding your bristlenose? He might be doing that if he is very hungry.

 

We feed half an algae wafer a day, algae wafers are about 1cm big and then some guppy flakes for our 5 guppies.

Our algae feeders are the pleco, the snail and 2 sunkist shrimp

 

Try feeding vegetables and some meatier foods like shrimp pellets and see if his behaviour improves

 

I have 2 Nerites now and have never seen either of them on their backs. Nerites have a hard time turning back over because they can't extend their bodies out of the shell very far like Mysteries can.

 

I have 2 Nerites now and have never seen either of them on their backs. Nerites have a hard time turning back over because they can't extend their bodies out of the shell very far like Mysteries can.

My Nerite must be an oddball lol. Last week I found him upside down, turned him over and awhile later he was upside down again in the same spot. Repeated this 2 more times before giving up and left him upside down. Awhile later he was gone, up on the glass near the water line. Pleco was nowhere in sight during all this. Sorry but I don't have an explanation for this lol.

 

Thank you for all the help! I have purchased a piece of wood and am going to try some vegetables to distract the pleco