Nerite snail refuses to stay in water, eat

Hey everyone.

I got two nerite snails a couple of weeks ago for my 10 gallon tank. Other than a rubberlip pleco (I know, 10 gallons is on the too small side; we're still trying to figure out what to do about that), they're the only creatures in the tank. The tank also has 3 pieces of driftwood, a fair amount of plants, a decorative cave, heater, thermometer, and filter.

We got both snails from Petsmart. They both appear to be full grown. The first two days, one of the snails stayed exclusively on the heater. If moved off the heater, he went right back on. Then he climbed up the wall and now spends all of his time out of the water. The other snail does this too, but if both are moved back into the water, the other one will hang out for a while, while the one I'm concerned about will immediately beeline for the wall and move out of the water.

His shell began to crack last week and has consistently been getting worse. (The second snail's shell is fine.) Since noticing the first crack, we've been treating the water with liquid calcium and eggshells in a mesh bag behind the filter, but since the snail is never in the water, it doesn't seem to be helping.

I'm also thinking that he might not be eating. There's never any algae on/in the tank, which makes sense with 3 algae eaters. However, algae wafers and blanched zucchinI go untouched (completely untouched; I don't know how the other snail and pleco are eating either). I tried rubbing garlic against one piece of zucchini, since I've seen that mentioned here and there, but they ignored that too. I've tried feeding at daytime, nighttime, placing the snails on top of the food, placing the food beside the snails, and placing the food randomly no where near the snails. I don't think the pleco is harassing the snails; I've seen him come out from behind a particular plant exactly twice.

We test the water parameters every other day at least and have been doing 20% water changes weekly. If anything goes out of bounds, we also use Prime. The water should be fine.

I don't know what else to do. I'd rather not watch him slowly crack apart and die. If anyone has ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you!

 

How do you test the water parameters and what are the readings? Often, when invertebrates won't stay in the water, it's because of an elevation in ammonia/nitrites/nitrates.

 

Have you checked if they voluntarily go back in the water at night? Mine are mostly active at night.

 

How do you test the water parameters and what are the readings? Often, when invertebrates won't stay in the water, it's because of an elevation in ammonia/nitrites/nitrates.

We have the API Freshwater Master Test Kit and use that. The ammonia is normally 0.25, and if the nitrite (above 0 once) or nitrate (above 0 occasionally) are above 0, we treat the water.

 

Have you checked if they voluntarily go back in the water at night? Mine are mostly active at night.

I've checked occasionally at night, and he still always seems to still be above the water. The other one is occasionally in it.

 

HI there,

Well, I have Nerite snails and they go above the water line and hang out for a while, but mine always goes back in.

But it appears with your tank, the water parameters are not to their liking and/or they're looking for food elsewhere. You're def. on the right track by adding the calcium and eggshells. But what is your pH? Do you know your KH?

You could try increasing the amount of lighting hours to grow more algae in your 10gal tank. Or, I think what Aquarist does to grow algae is to put stones in a container with water under bright sunlight.

 

I'd leave them be for awhile. They do get spooked if disturbed too often. They either get out of the water or hide inside some decoration. They will start to come out once they are comfortable.

 

HI there,

Well, I have Nerite snails and they go above the water line and hang out for a while, but mine always goes back in.

But it appears with your tank, the water parameters are not to their liking and/or they're looking for food elsewhere. You're def. on the right track by adding the calcium and eggshells. But what is your pH? Do you know your KH?

You could try increasing the amount of lighting hours to grow more algae in your 10gal tank. Or, I think what Aquarist does to grow algae is to put stones in a container with water under bright sunlight.

Thanks for the reply. The pH is 7.2. I'm afraid I don't know our KH, though I can get something to test that if that could be the problem. I had been led to believe that the KH wasn't that important as long as there was calcium present, but I've definitely heard some wrong info.

Are there specific stones that should be used to grow algae on? The tank currently has 10 hours of light. We use sand as a bottom, so there's no gravel. I'm assuming I shouldn't grab rocks out of the garden though.

 

The pH is good, I estimate your KH to be around 3. That should be fine.

But why is there ammonia in your tank? Have you tested you tap water? You may need to add an additional filter to deal with the bioload if your tank has been established for a while.

You could try increasing the light hours to 12.

The large pet store chains carry smooth river rocks that you can use. Use the tank water and try to inoculate it with algae from your 10gal.

 

I have tested our tap water, and there's no ammonia in it. The tank isn't particularly well established - cycled for one week before adding the snails and pleco, been two weeks as of tomorrow with them, so it's been going for a grand total of 3 weeks. The ammonia was consistently zero before we added them, so I think their bioloads might just be too high. We've also been using Prime, which to my understand will make ammonia test positive for 24 hours after? even though it's no longer actually present.

My primary concern with leaving the light on longer is stressing the pleco out.

I'll be sure to get some river rocks. I literally haven't seen any algae in the tank since getting the three, so I'm afraid inoculating it won't be possible, but I'll use tank water and leave it in an area that's always sunlit.

 

Just keep an eye on the ammonia level and if it goes above 0.5ppm, do a water change.

Yeah, if your tank is that 'fresh' it won't have too much algae yet. I don't have any suggestions as to what to feed your Nerites for the time being tho. I tried Ken's calcium based vege sticks and my Goldfish gobbled them up but my Nerites wouldn't touch them.

I guess keep trying diff. veges. Kale? Nori?

 

The best thing to give a pleco is driftwood that he can hang upside down underneath away from the light.

Try some actinic lighting to induce diatoms that nerites love to eat.