What do you feed snails?

I just got two blue nerites. They are in a 2.5 gallon tank with no other animals in it. There will be rcs at some point. What do I feed them? Do they eat algae tablets or cucumbers or potatoes or anything? (My fish love potatoes)

 

not sure about potatoes but I feed my snail: cucumber and zucchini.

 

not sure about potatoes but I feed my snail: cucumber and zucchini.

Ok thanks! What about algae wafers?

 

those are great for snails too.

 

Snails can eat lots of things. Mine go nuts over Algae wafers, but they also need lots of calcium. I love feeding lettuce, broccoli, and spinach. All snails enjoy different things, figure out what yours like.

 

My snail doesn't appear to like algae wafers, but loves the sinking pellets I feed to my cories. She also likes zuchinnI and cucumber. I haven't yet made snail jello but I understand most snails love it and it provides calcium.

 

Mine love fresh veggies ( raw ) such as zucchini, broccoli, squash including minI pumpkins ( not the gourds ) carrots, shrimp pellets, algae wafers... Anything they can get their greedy mouths on - NOT picky whatsoever!

 

Mine single nerite loves zucchini, and I recently found out that my inverts will power through the STEM faster than they do anything else. I grew organic zukes this year and froze slices of them for the inverts. We pull out a slice every several days and thaw it in hot water until it sinks (usually boil the water in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and the zuke sinks after several minutes). Once it goes in the tank the 3 shrimp and snail go after it. The last piece I put in was mostly stem. There was a LARGE chunk of it (I mean, large for 4 little inverts...probably the size of a gallon jug's lid) left after day 1. I expected to be removing what was left after day 2, but when I woke up that morning the huge chunk was completely gone. The last critter I saw on it was the snail. I was floored and went looking for it everywhere in the tank. Sure enough, they finished it.

ETA: I can't get any of mine to touch algae wafers. Maybe I bought a type they don't like, but none of them eat it. I have to vacuum the whole mess out.

 

Mine single nerite loves zucchini, and I recently found out that my inverts will power through the STEM faster than they do anything else. I grew organic zukes this year and froze slices of them for the inverts. We pull out a slice every several days and thaw it in hot water until it sinks (usually boil the water in the microwave for 30-60 seconds and the zuke sinks after several minutes). Once it goes in the tank the 3 shrimp and snail go after it. The last piece I put in was mostly stem. There was a LARGE chunk of it (I mean, large for 4 little inverts...probably the size of a gallon jug's lid) left after day 1. I expected to be removing what was left after day 2, but when I woke up that morning the huge chunk was completely gone. The last critter I saw on it was the snail. I was floored and went looking for it everywhere in the tank. Sure enough, they finished it.

ETA: I can't get any of mine to touch algae wafers. Maybe I bought a type they don't like, but none of them eat it. I have to vacuum the whole mess out.

Good to know about the stems! I feed my RCS and apple snail zucchinI but never thought to include the stem. I will try it next time.

 

I believe it's @ up there who has an adorable picture of snails eating a minI cut out pumpkin. I"m growing pumpkins and I'm hoping I can do that this year.

As others have said they like algae wafers, and different kinds of raw veggis. Veggis high in calcium are great for them. I also do feed mine snail jello.

 

I believe it's @ up there who has an adorable picture of snails eating a minI cut out pumpkin. I"m growing pumpkins and I'm hoping I can do that this year.

I changed computers last year and can't find the picture of ALL of the snails eating it ( there was at least 25 of them on it ) but I found these - the pumpkins are a hit every year and they go for 1/2 the price right after Halloween so I load up on them. If left uncut, they last at least 4-5 months stored in a cool place in the pantry.

 

I changed computers last year and can't find the picture of ALL of the snails eating it ( there was at least 25 of them on it ) but I found these - the pumpkins are a hit every year and they go for 1/2 the price right after Halloween so I load up on them. If left uncut, they last at least 4-5 months stored in a cool place in the pantry.

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Adorable! So you just carve it and scoop up all the seeds? I'll definitely have to try this with my snails and after I get my new bn pleco.

 

Adorable! So you just carve it and scoop up all the seeds? I'll definitely have to try this with my snails and after I get my new bn pleco.

Exactly. Make sure you get the minI pumpkins and NOT the gourds. The gourds are hard to cut open if not impossible.

I have a picture somewhere where they ate so much of it ( the entire orange peel ) that the pumpkin was actually "white" and looked chewed up. This was after about 8 days! LOL