Mystery snails are getting HUGE!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Monzie

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Apr 30, 2013
Messages
57
A few weeks ago, we bought some snails to deal with a brown algae problem we had been fighting for months. I went to the LFS with the intention of getting a couple of nerites. We have a 27 gallon cube and when I discussed it with the guy at the store, he told me he had a dozen in his 25 gallon tank. I figured we would start with half of that and see whether we needed more. I also fell in love with the Mystery Snails in the adjacent tank. Purple shells and white bodies (with neon orange eyes!)...they were so beautiful that I bought two of them as well.

Our new invert buddies seem to be doing well so far. The nerites cleaned up the algae in three days and our tank looks sparkling clean now. And the Mystery Snails? Well, let's just say that they are starting to freak me out. I'd estimate that they have doubled in size in the short time we have had them in our tank. The small one's shell is about an inch in diameter and the big one is twice that size. I measured it's foot as it was scooting across the glass the other day and it was 2.5" long! I've been supplementing their diet with algae wafers, since we don't seem to have any naturally occurring algae in the tank anymore. Our water is super hard (natural pH well over 8), so I haven't put cuttlebone or anything in the tank. Their shells look just a bit ragged on the surface in the new growth area but they seem pretty solid. The "ragged" bits look like a thin film peeling off the surface in patches

My concern is whether we have too much snail for our tank right now. Are these guys hungry?? Or is their crazy growth spurt a sign that they're happy? We don't have very many fish right now (just one Dwarf Blue Gourami with possible iridovirus and a small school of Harlequin Rasboras), so we don't have very much waste at the bottom of the tank. Are the snails going to get desperate and start snacking on their tankmates? I caught the bigger Mystery Snail attached to the smaller one a few days ago. Not sure whether they were copulating or cannibalizing but I pulled them apart, just in case.

So, anyone care to give me some suggestions? Anything I should watch for? Should I be thinking about re-homing one of these slimy beauties before it gets munched?
 
I also have a Mystery Snail that has gotten bigger. I've had him for about 6 months now. I originally had him in my 20g with the platies, but now he is in the 10g with a betta and some nerites. I don't think the snail will harm your fish if he is hungry, nor would he eat smaller snails. I frequently see nerites on top of Gary shell, but they are eating algae from his shell. That might be what your big guy was doing with the smaller guy. I drop in a couple of algae wafers every other day. They also like blanched zucchini.
 
A few weeks ago, we bought some snails to deal with a brown algae problem we had been fighting for months. I went to the LFS with the intention of getting a couple of nerites. We have a 27 gallon cube and when I discussed it with the guy at the store, he told me he had a dozen in his 25 gallon tank. I figured we would start with half of that and see whether we needed more. I also fell in love with the Mystery Snails in the adjacent tank. Purple shells and white bodies (with neon orange eyes!)...they were so beautiful that I bought two of them as well.

Our new invert buddies seem to be doing well so far. The nerites cleaned up the algae in three days and our tank looks sparkling clean now. And the Mystery Snails? Well, let's just say that they are starting to freak me out. I'd estimate that they have doubled in size in the short time we have had them in our tank. The small one's shell is about an inch in diameter and the big one is twice that size. I measured it's foot as it was scooting across the glass the other day and it was 2.5" long! I've been supplementing their diet with algae wafers, since we don't seem to have any naturally occurring algae in the tank anymore. Our water is super hard (natural pH well over 8), so I haven't put cuttlebone or anything in the tank. Their shells look just a bit ragged on the surface in the new growth area but they seem pretty solid. The "ragged" bits look like a thin film peeling off the surface in patches

My concern is whether we have too much snail for our tank right now. Are these guys hungry?? Or is their crazy growth spurt a sign that they're happy? We don't have very many fish right now (just one Dwarf Blue Gourami with possible iridovirus and a small school of Harlequin Rasboras), so we don't have very much waste at the bottom of the tank. Are the snails going to get desperate and start snacking on their tankmates? I caught the bigger Mystery Snail attached to the smaller one a few days ago. Not sure whether they were copulating or cannibalizing but I pulled them apart, just in case.

So, anyone care to give me some suggestions? Anything I should watch for? Should I be thinking about re-homing one of these slimy beauties before it gets munched?

I've been meaning to post a thread as well on these concerns. I bought 3 golden mystery snails (white bodies, flourescent orange spots, pink eyes) about a month ago and they have grown VERY quickly. Just like you said, you can easily see the new shell growth as there is a texture difference compared to the remainder of the shell.

Will this eventually smooth out and look consistant? And also, when the snail reaches maximum size, does the lip harden and stop growing? Can you visually tell when they are done growing?
 
New growth will not match old growth if conditions are different, which is often the case. Mystery snails grow all their lives but the rate slows down quite a bit when they get close to maturity. Mature size is around golf ball size, I've seen a few a bit bigger, but not many.

Shell damage can occur from acidic water, lack of enough calcium, or injury. Small injuries usually heal by themselves, but it can take awhile, and injury to the growing edge may never heal completely, leaving a shell deformity of some kind. Try not to drop snails on hard surfaces to avoid this, and don't buy them if they have damage like this, because they're very vulnerable, as their doors won't close tightly with a defect in the growing edge.

Also avoid buying snails with malformed doors.. I've seen some where the door, or operculum, is so small it only covers a part of the foot, not all of it as it should. This is vital protection for the snail's body, so it needs to be full size.

If a mystery snails should get substantially larger than a golf ball, chances are they're not mystery snails. Instead, they might be the Giant apple snail, though I've never seen those in ivory, just browns, dull gold or wild stripe on their shells with either a brown or black/brown foot.

You can make a good diet for them, recipes can be found by searching, Snail-O, using either gelatine or agar agar, which is plant based. They are scavengers that in the wild eat what they find. Dead plants, dead animals of almost any kind, algaes, etc. If they are very hungry they will eat live plants, but typically do not unless they are really, really hungry.

Some fish do eat snails.. loaches are famous for it, as are puffers and some gouramis, but typically they eat smaller snails. So long as the fish can't get the snail into it's jaws, or grab the foot to suck it out of the shell, the snail is safe enough.

Nerite snails do seem to either stop growing or slow down drastically when they get near full size, though each species has it's own size. Thorny ones are smaller than zebra types. They're scavengers too, but prefer algae if they can get it. A snail food with plenty of spirulina in it will suit them if algae runs short. Or you can toss rocks in a jar, leave it in the sun or under bright lights, with a bit of aquatic plant ferts and when the rocks turn green, toss them in the tank. Snails will clean them very fast, and then toss them back in the jar. I use tank water for the jar, btw.

Edit. for some reason, marble chips seem to grow algae better than most other rocks.. not sure why, but of all the rock types I've tried, marble chips are always greenest. Polished stone won't work, some stones won't grow algae at all, again, not at all sure why. So I stick with marble chips mostly.
 
I like the idea of purposely growing algae on rocks for the snails. Hadn't even thought of doing that but it makes good sense! I supplement my fish's normal flake food with spirulina flakes, so hopefully the snails are getting some of that too. Not sure how much of the flake is making it to the bottom of the tank, though. Should I overfeed a bit, to ensure some food makes it down to the substrate? Right now, the only thing I'm feeding the snails on purpose is algae wafers. They seem to enjoy those but that's another thing where I'm unsure how much I should be feeding. At the moment, I just drop in another wafer whenever I see that the previous one is gone.

The Mystery Snails' shells aren't looking damaged...just a little bit ragged on the surface. They seem otherwise healthy, busily cruising around the tank all day. The larger one is the size of a golfball. The smaller one is closer to ping pong ball size right now. Hopefully, their growth will start to taper off soon. At the moment, though, they are the most entertaining thing in the tank. The rasboras are pretty mellow and our poor Dwarf Gourami is still alive but spending most of his time resting on the bottom of the tank. The snails are the only thing doing anything in there lately. Who knew snails could be so interesting? ;)
 
That's why I always have them.. I find them quite entertaining creatures... I have MTS as well, if I drop an alage rock in for the Otos, which is why I grow them, the first bite always goes to the MTS. I've seen six or more within a minute of dropping in a marble chip of algae, and they're very quick to clean it off despite their tiny size. Mystery snails rarely get much algae off the rocks, poor guys.. they're too slow to arrive at the feast.
 
I drop in algae wafers and sinking pellets for my snails, but my pleco gets a share too. My 2 mollies will take little bites of the wafers, but the other fish prefer flake.

I put a slice of apple in the tank once and thought the snails would tear that up, but it went untouched :/
 
You'd think they'd eat apple, right ? Ah well so much for common names. They will eat boiled spinach and some other types of veg though. It should be cooked, you don't want them eating live plants after all.
 
My snails go CRAZY over boiled squash. They cant even keep their balance when they are eating it. Its really cute to watch. They usually end up rolled over with the piece of squash sticking straight up. Two of my snails eat it until their is nothing left, even the outer layer(the word for it has escaped me).

I buy a big squash, cut it into pieces and freeze it. When I want to use some, just put it into a cup with water and microwave it for a minute. This will soften it and also allow it to sink. Veggies are water based, so they can stay frozen for a while.
 
The white, flaky lines you are seeing are growth lines. If they have a lot of calcium in the water they get a growth spurt and make new shell really fast. It will go away as the shell ages. It is recommended to have one apple mystery snail per 5 gallons of water. They produce a lot of waste. Keep a close eye on your water because the filter may not be able to keep up with the demand. You should probably do several water changes each week. There are 8 different varieties of apple snails. One, cannaculas, or canna apple snail, gets huge and eats live plants. They are illegal to sale but have been passed off as mystery snails (Diffusia) to many unsuspecting people. They get huge. I am talking baseball size. Keep a check on your tank rim for egg casings. They can lay eggs several times from one mating. They mate by the male climbing on top of the female. The male will ride around on the female for some time. Each egg sack can contain as many as a hundred babies so if you don't want a ton of snails you need to remove the egg sack and crush it then dispose of it in the trash. Be sure to crush it so the eggs do not hatch in the trash and get into the environment. Mystery snails will eat blanched zucchini, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, dandelion greens, and many other veggies. They will also eat fish food of all kinds. They can climb to the top of the tank and form a funnel with their foot and suck food off of the surface of the water. If they do not get enough to eat they will resort to eating your plants so keep them well fed. You can use eggshell, calcium supplements, and antacid tablets to ensure they get enough calcium. Mine love the fruit flavored antacid tablets.
Okay that's enough from me. I think I just about wrote a book. LOL
 
Back
Top Bottom