I really want to add a black mystery snail to my tank. I have a few questions before I actually comit to one. Are they known to eat plants, I don't want my new plants to get eaten? I have an opening in the back of my tank (about 12inches by 1.5 inches) will it escape? And what would they eat?
Black mystery snail question
- Thread starter Talon242
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William
Aquarium Advice Addict
They will eat dead and dying plants.
if you have healthy plants you have nothing to worry about, if they are dead or dying you really don't want them in there anyways.
If your water quality is not good, then they may try to escape, however, I doubt they would escape. If nothing else, they are able to seal themselves real tight, so all you have to do is drop him back in the tank should you happen to find he had escaped.
They eat algae, So algae waffers would be a good food. Also boiled cukes and zuccini.
If I may make a suggestion, however, I would suggest you go with a Gold Inca snail [ THey are sold quite often as gold mysteries ], IMHO these are a far more beautiful specimen then black mysteries, and everything I said above still applies.
if you have healthy plants you have nothing to worry about, if they are dead or dying you really don't want them in there anyways.
If your water quality is not good, then they may try to escape, however, I doubt they would escape. If nothing else, they are able to seal themselves real tight, so all you have to do is drop him back in the tank should you happen to find he had escaped.
They eat algae, So algae waffers would be a good food. Also boiled cukes and zuccini.
If I may make a suggestion, however, I would suggest you go with a Gold Inca snail [ THey are sold quite often as gold mysteries ], IMHO these are a far more beautiful specimen then black mysteries, and everything I said above still applies.
Devilishturtles
Aquarium Advice Addict
IME, snails will eat perfectly healthy plants, not just the dead and dying ones. Also, there is a chance that they would escape, but I doubt it... As william said, if you notice that it got out, plopping it back in the water should be ok... Snails will eat algae, as well as food and stuff off the bottom of your tanks.
I, personally, think that they black is prettier than the gold, but I all depends on your personal preference.
And, not sure about the QT thing, I didn't QT mine when I got it, and it was fine..but I may have just been lucky! HTH
I, personally, think that they black is prettier than the gold, but I all depends on your personal preference.
And, not sure about the QT thing, I didn't QT mine when I got it, and it was fine..but I may have just been lucky! HTH
William
Aquarium Advice Addict
I never QT snails, i just scoop them out of their LFS water and place them into my water.
and I feed mine when I feed the rest of my fish, every other day or so.
Each snail has its own personality I suppose, since it appears that my experiance is totally opposite of Devilish, I have snails in every one of my planted tanks and they never touch healthy plants.
They do keep the dead and dying trimmed off, tho. Saves me the trouble of doing it.
and I feed mine when I feed the rest of my fish, every other day or so.
Each snail has its own personality I suppose, since it appears that my experiance is totally opposite of Devilish, I have snails in every one of my planted tanks and they never touch healthy plants.
They do keep the dead and dying trimmed off, tho. Saves me the trouble of doing it.
Christmasfish
Aquarium Advice Addict
The only thing my mystery (apple) snails do to my plants to damage them is crawl their big butts on the smaller leaves and bend the plant. Now the trumpet snails that popped in my daughter betta tank try to munch dowe her plant selection..l
Devilishturtles
Aquarium Advice Addict
Talon, chances are that you just have a baby snail attached to your larger one...
And to smilla, thanks for the site info, that is a great place.... And I guess it all depends on the exact species of snail that one has. I know mine devoured my little plant in one night, and at Wally world where I work, I will occasionally pick a few leaves off of some plants to give to the snails, or just plop some withering-away plant in the tank for them to eat. It last about 1 day then, bam, completely gone.. Good luck with what you got Talon!
And to smilla, thanks for the site info, that is a great place.... And I guess it all depends on the exact species of snail that one has. I know mine devoured my little plant in one night, and at Wally world where I work, I will occasionally pick a few leaves off of some plants to give to the snails, or just plop some withering-away plant in the tank for them to eat. It last about 1 day then, bam, completely gone.. Good luck with what you got Talon!
Hehe, the baby one stays near the surface. The other one doesn't seem to bother the plants too much. It just nibbles a little bit at one makes its way to another and so on, lots of plants for it to choose from. So far it looks like everything will be okay.
