Question For Aquarium Experts About Snails!!!

[EllenD]

I'm frustrated beyond belief, so I'm finally breaking down and asking for help. I've had fresh-water aquariums since I was a kid, and I've had the two same aquariums set-up in my house now since 2011, with a few of the same fish and a lot of the same plants. One is a 30-gallon bow-front "community" tank and the other is a 75-gallon long "rock" tank for sharks. The 75-gallon long tank uses a Fluval Canister Filter and has white sand, is planted pretty nicely, and has rock caverns/tunnels for a mix of Red-Fin/Rainbow Sharks (blue/black and albino), along with 2 black Lace-Catfish, a Black and White Striped Raphael Catfish, and a huge Bumblebee Pleco...The "community" tank has a mix of natural stones and is also planted pretty well, and has a mix of Fantail, Lyretail, and Balloon Mollies, a Pictus Catfish, and 2 African Dwarf Frogs...Both tanks have been doing well throughout the years, I do regular water testing with a reagent-testing kit (no test "strips") and have only had one issue with the community tank's pH going whacky, but that was a few years ago and was corrected and has been fine since...No issues otherwise with either tank, nothing fancy but just cool tanks that are fun to watch, especially the shark tank (it's my pride and joy)...

Now onto my problem....For the life of me I cannot keep a damn snail alive!!!

This has been an epic struggle for years, and it's in both tanks!!! At first I just tried with your basic "Mystery" Snails, i had a mix of black, gold, blue, and purple Mystery Snails in both tanks, not many, just a few..I was actually worried about ending-up with hundreds of them because they tend to breed in captivity really easily...Well the jokes on me because they all died within a couple of months...and so did their replacements...and their replacements...Then I moved onto Nerite Snails, some Tiger Nerites and some Leopard Nerites...They last a bit longer than any of the Mystery Snails ever did, maybe 6 months to a year...Then they all died...as did their replacements...My local Petco got in some very cool snails last month, some type of "Japanese ????" snails, I can't remember their full name, "Japanese" something snails...I bought 2 of them...dead in a month.

I stopped adding them to the 75-gallon shark tank because it's got a mix of catfish and a huge pleco, and I don't need any larger of a clean-up crew in that tank...But my community tank only has one Pictus Catfish, that's it, so I'd like to have at least a few snails in that tank...but for the life of me I can't keep them alive. Most people have the opposite problem, their fish all die but their clean-up crew snails, shrimp, loaches, etc. are the only things that live...So what the hell am I doing wrong?

Any tips about keeping freshwater snails alive would be much appreciated. I don't know if I should be adding some type of special food for them, or the temp is wrong for them (both tanks stay right around 78 degrees F), or if there is some basic snail thing that I just don't know...HELP! This snail issue is sucking my will to live...

 

[ChristaNL]

Just of the top of my head:

LOL, almost anyone I know in the aquatic community would offer up an arm and a leg if only they could get rid of the bloody snails ...
(and algea of course, the other pet-peeve)

Do you want the decorative ones or the usefull ones?

(I am having some issues because you use the local petnames, so I am guessing species and their specifics.)

The most common problems:
* too 'soft' water (not enough calcium will leach their shells and leave them vulnerable to...)
* hungry fish.
Botia's etc are great snaileaters f.e. and most pleco's (L-numbers) are omnivorous, so not just algae and fishpoop for them (though they are sold and bought as "cleaners"), they want/need real food and a part of that should be animalbased... (depends on the species but the true vegetarians are very very rare!, usually it's around 60% meat 40% plant)

your P. Pictus: In the wild they will be found eating insects (dragonfly larvae), snails, small fish and algae...
-> so if you put snails in there with him you are basicly just feeding your fish...

but since you are an experienced keeper, you know your waterperimeters and (if I read you right) you know the exact dietary need as well as daily intake from each and everyone of your fish...
will think some more about it.


Sometimes the fish will only snack on the 'antennae'/'eyestalks' which completely stresses out the snails and of course leaves them not only hurt but also unable to feed themselves (being under attack by curious/ hungry fish all the time).
You could do a little experiment: get a breederbox for guppies (if you do not already have one somewhere, most fishpeople do), float it in the tank, plunk a few snails in the box ... if they are still okay in a few months...it is not the temperature or the water quality... depending what type of snail you want you put the appropriate food in there with them of course.
If they remain doing just fine... it's probably the fish!

 

[bill_e]

I haven't done fish in years and no freshwater in decades but I have a question or two.

What is your substrate?
Do you test for Nitrate?
Do you feed your snails?

I used to keep lots of snails in my deep sand bed reef tank but not to clean it up, I used them, especially nassarius, to turn over the top layer of the sand bed to keep gas pockets from forming. I would feed them once a week with sinking food pellets.