Tip for those keeping snails with Bettas

I know a few people here have Mystery snails with their Bettas. I recently bought a Gold Mystery snail for Aenara's tank because of an algae problem and because my females are too aggressive to consider Otos.  Anywho... The first snail was DOA so I returned him and got another. The second one just lay on his back and never moved or ate anything. I thought he was dead too but I saw him slowly moving and he was covered in white cottony fungus. I removed him and put him in my 1 gallon quarantine tank.  I didn't know what to treat him with as most fish meds are toxic to snails. I researched and found that some people treated sick snails with Pimafix while others claim it was toxic to snails. The label says it is safe so I decided to try since he was going to die soon anyways if I did nothing. I put 1/2ml into the 1 gallon tank and then checked on him about 10 minutes later. To my surprise he was zooming around the tank and the coat of cottony fungus had dropped off him. He hadn't moved AT ALL in the week I had him!  He seemed hungry since he hadn't eaten in a week at least so I gave him a spinach leaf for vitamins and calcium and he jumped all over it and ate like a piggie. He is still doing well and moving around the tank. I'll continue treatment for a week and if all looks well he can go back to Aenara's tank and do his job of cleaning algae. 
So, for those of you who have a sick or lethargic snail and don't know how to treat it, use PimaFix. It works and very quickly too! Those people on other sites who've said it killed their snails probably had snails that were too far gone to save or used too much PimaFix. It worked very well for mine.
I'll post this in the snail forum too but thought I'd post it here as well since many Betta owners have Mystery Snails.

 

That's good to know. I don't have any mystery snails yet, but do plan on getting some. Thanks for the tip.

CherryRose

 

That really is great, i've got two mystery snails... and another little pond snail popped up.... but I couldn't catch it, so it's in the gravel again! And when I went to move Helios' anenome decor, it was like a bunch of eggs spurted out. I'm not sure if that's really what they were, but that certainly is what they look like. Little, round white dots. >

 

Best thing to do is wipe off the eggs before they hatch and you are overrun with snails. One or two mystery snails are cute. Dozens of them is a big poopy nightmare!
Pond snails should be destroyed immediately. They are fish killers and pests!

 

Thanks for the tip on mystery snails - we're considering 1 for Angel's tank if we try Otos & they don't work.

on the pond snails, wipe them out as fast as you can before they force you to completely start over. they're a menace and phloxface is right - they will kill your fish, your plants and your fish budget.

 

Huh, that's interesting. My mystery snail started getting a faint whitish film floating over it. I wasn't sure what it was, so I just took him out and scrubbed his shell with an old toothbrush and he was good as new.

 

Huh, that's interesting. My mystery snail started getting a faint whitish film floating over it. I wasn't sure what it was, so I just took him out and scrubbed his shell with an old toothbrush and he was good as new.

Ah, the old toothbrush cure. Innovative and cool idea.