How many snails should i get

However, if you are a beginner, the species you will probably confuse them with are the Mystery snails. Moreover, they change gender over time, while the nerites are just one gender from the time they hatch.

As we have described above, there four big categories of Nerite Snails: the Zebras, the Tigers, the Olive, and the Horned, and they have quite distinct visual characteristics.

Nerite Snails have no idea what aggression is. They could even teach Nelson Mandela about peace. They like to munch on their algae all day and would appreciate the company of other peaceful fish, shrimp, or other snails. Any being that is small and does not want to turn the poor snails into dinner is a perfect tank mate. Aggressive big fish might bite their antennas off or seek to bite out as much as they can from the poor shelled-things and thus gravely hurt them.

Fish like the Botia Loaches are real snail hunters. They will hunt them down, pull them out of their shells, and eat them. So keep them out of the tank. Tetras, guppies, and barbs are good choices for tank mates.

Ghost shrimp communities and even other Nerite species are also well-welcomed. A mixture of fish and shrimp is maybe the most satisfying mix for you to see so many different appearances and behaviors, and they get along well together. If you want a tank full only with Nerite Snails, you can do that. Most Nerites can be kept together with no issues.

Well, there is one issue — overstocking. Make sure you keep the ratio of 2 snails per 10 gallons of water. Nerite Snails can easily adapt to a wide range of water conditions. The proper pH is 8. In their natural habitat, they live in mangroves and estuaries with a lot of rocks and other surfaces where they gather their algae. Live rock would be a good idea.

Calcium substrate will be like shooting two birds with one stone: it is soft and will also provide the much-needed supply of calcium that the snails need for a strong, healthy shell. You can also keep them in freshwater habitats. The conditions are mostly the same. Add some rocks and driftwood.

Make sure you create plenty of hiding spots for the snails and also provide them with a fine-grained substrate. Java fern is a good idea, for it grows at a slow rate. The Nerite snails living in natural freshwater habitats will climb above the surface of the water at night, once the water levels change with the tide.

You might want to recreate these conditions by lowering the levels of the water in the tank and leaving them the possibility to get out of the water for a brief moment.

Knowing how many nerite snails per gallon really helps with maintaining the ideal tank conditions. Snails can suffer from a variety of health problems.

You can avoid some of them through proper care. Homemade recipes work too. Just like all living things, snails can experience a variety of health problems. Some are easy to avoid through proper care, others are harder to control. This will usually discolor it because the extra energy from the food causes the shell to grow at a faster rate. Snails need calcium to keep their shells strong, so a lack of calcium can cause the shell to weaken and crack. If you notice this then try adding calcium supplements, such as calcium sulfate, or use a calcium substrate.

You also need to look out for white spots on shells, as these are usually parasites that have latched on. Finally, you need to remember that copper is toxic to most invertebrates so keep the water in your tank free from it. Watch out for medications that contain copper, even a slight trace can be fatal. This is not necessarily true. When this happens you can try to remove the snail eggs by scraping them off or, if you want to continue the breeding process, remove them to appropriate water conditions.

You can either let your snails reproduce in freshwater and move the eggs, or just start the process with snails that are already acclimatized to living in saltwater. Most snails reproduce asexually, but nerite snails are an exception. The female will produce eggs for the male to fertilize, like fish. The eggs will then be spread throughout the tank and develop into larvae if provided brackish water conditions. Once hatched, the young are very small, to the point where they might get sucked into the filter inlet.

A sponge filter would make this virtually impossible. If breeding snails is your aim, moving them to a brackish water setup will give you the best chance of success this is their natural habitat. If you are moving the snails from a freshwater setup you should gradually acclimate them first; there are many ways to do this. One way is to remove the snails with some of their old tank water, then slowly add water from the new environment over the next couple of hours until the water level has tripled.

An ideal breeding tank will contain as many snails as possible with a fairly even ratio of males to females. The size of the group depends on the size of the tank you have, but a small group of five should be fine. The main things to consider before buying some are whether your tank is a peaceful community aquarium, and whether the water parameters are in a suitable range.

They can be kept with other freshwater fish but will become prey if these fish are big and aggressive. I originally bought only three or four snails to keep my 55 gallon fresh water aquarium clean. My one concern is the snails seem to reproduce rather rapidly.

Is this a controllable thing. Will the snail population get out of hand? Anyone have some advice? You will not control it. However, you will have to learn to love them as family now. Any advice? Hi Leah, how long has he been like that? Snails tend to have short and frequent sleep cycles. Thanks, Robert. We have baby snails in a freshwater tank that came from ONE Zebra snail that has been in our tank for months.

How is that possible??? Do snails need to be quarantined before you put them in your aquarium, like fish? Also, I have gravel in my tank. Will they be ok on that? Hi Susanna, yes I would quarantine all animals and plants before adding them to your established setup. So we have a small fish tank for my son that is home to 2 blue mystery snails, 1 golden mystery snail, 1 nerite snail and around 7 fish. And I am pretty sure our nerite snail mated with the blue mystery snails and now we have a few babies.

While snail watching a few weeks ago I noticed a new addition to the tank, a barely visible baby snail with a dark shell similar to the nerite. There have been other babies but all have been blue or clear looking like the mystery snails. Now the only ones I have seen laying eggs are the Blues. We have had our tank for a few months and not added anything recently, so there is no way the baby snail could have hitchhiked its way in.

The baby is now about the size of a pinky nail and until recently had been the only one with a dark shell but yesterday we noticed a new tiny barely visible dark shelled baby snail riding one of the adults. How small of a fish tank? Because that sounds like it could be overstocked. Aquatic critters tend to need more water than most people expect, to safely dilute their waste to non-toxic levels between water changes.

Could it be a pond or ramshorn snail? They also breed asexually, so if you have one in there it can make many more. I bought tank vegetation online and put it in a spare tank for quarantine. It turned out to be full of eggs because now I have a large amount of snails of various sizes and shapes. Suggestions are appreciated, Thanks! Fish will have a feeding frenzy for this fresh protein and calcium. I have a 30 gallon tank of Guppies and they go absolutely bonkers for their treats.

I have a newly set up 5. Starting to get brown algae or diatoms. Will a Nerite eat this? Is the substrate I have too sharp for it? You could place a half inch layer of sand on the top. I have a 25 gallon tank with 2 goldfish, and am interested in adding 2 or 3 nerite snails. Mexican Turbo Turbo fluctuosa — Algae, particularly hair algae. Trochus Trochus sp. Nerite Nerita sp. Nassarius Nassarius sp.

Conch Strombus sp. Bumblebee Engina sp. Cerith Cerithium sp. Cowrie Cypraea sp. NOTE: Snails and invertebrates are particularly sensitive to medications containing copper and to high nitrate levels. They certainly are! Snails do a good job keeping algae at bay, clearing up leftover food and cleaning up after the fish themselves fish poo. Different snails prefer different types of algae so if you have an abundance of a particular algae in your saltwater tank then it may be worth choosing the right snail to help reduce it.

Some snails end up falling over and are left vulnerable to certain fish, such as wrasse, and hermit crabs. Hermit crabs are well known for killing snails in order to take their shells.