Any one interested in nerite snails in the SE PA region?

[7Enigma]

Hey everyone,

After trying in vain to find some FW nerite snails in the area I've come to the conclusion that the only way this is going to work is if I acclimate salt water/brackish myself. I've done some reading and it seems like a prolonged drip acclimation will work without loss. My friend will be visiting me from Lancaster in the next week or two and will pick up a batch of salt water nerites from That Pet Place which apparently is a great fish store (never been there myself). I plan to get between 5 and 10 for myself and will be housing them temporarily in my 10 gallon QT/hospital tank that has a fair bit of algae in it.

For those that don't know, nerites are considered THE snail that will eat algae like a champ but stay off our live plants. They are also native to brackish/marine conditions and so will not successfully breed in a FW setup (they will lay eggs but they are not viable).

They do not specify the exact species on their site (they have some really cool shapes and patterns, most notably the tiger nerite and the staghorn nerite), and I would only be purchasing the normal size unless someone specifies the large, but to be honest I consider a larger snail to have a shorter overall lifespan and so would prefer the small ones myself ($2 each), but shoot me an email if you want to do a mini group buy. Pickup of the snails in person would be appreciated, but I guess I could ship them locally as well. I'm located in Havertown, about 20min west of Philadelphia.

Here's the link from the store:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/17785/product.web

Here's a couple others:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=1076

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...003/invert.htm

Let me know.

P.S. If all goes well with the acclimation, my barbs don't try to eat/kill the snails, and they actually lay eggs in the water I very well might try to breed these guys in a semi-saltwater system. From my limited research, in SW/brackish conditions they are prolific breeders which should make my job easier. Heck I could farm them for our local LFS' that don't carry nerite snails! But I digress; I have no experience with SW or brackish, and have no idea the time frame from when the juveniles can be transitioned from SW to FW. It will be an experiment to say the least.

[dapellegrini]

I have heard that it takes weeks to months of slow acclimation to successfully move them from salt to freshwater... If you plan on doing a day or two drip they will most likely all die.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...esh-water.html

I have had a couple hundred of them and generally like them - but not sure that they are worthy of the praise they receive... I think you can order them online.

[theotheragentm]

http://www.azgardens.com/aquarium_snails.php

They look interesting.

[7Enigma]

Originally Posted by dapellegrini

I have heard that it takes weeks to months of slow acclimation to successfully move them from salt to freshwater... If you plan on doing a day or two drip they will most likely all die.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...esh-water.html

I have had a couple hundred of them and generally like them - but not sure that they are worthy of the praise they receive... I think you can order them online.

Yeah I could get them online, but most places with live critters require a minimum purchase price that is about 20 more snails then I need!

The couple experiences I read had some people just throwing them right into their FW aquarium with few problems, and others that did the drip acclimation with no problems. I would obviously try to do the conversion very slowly (over the course of an entire day), and hope for the best.

I'll have to do some more research...thanks for the links.

[fish 'n' fries]

All Oddball Aquatics (in Pittsburgh--I know, wrong end of state) has had them every time I've been in. They used to sell some things through aquabid but recently changed ownership so I don't know if they still do or not. They might be worth looking into.

BTW, I don't think you have angels, but if so, I wouldn't bother with the nerites. Mine just said thanks for the expensive snack.

[7Enigma]

Originally Posted by fish 'n' fries

All Oddball Aquatics (in Pittsburgh--I know, wrong end of state) has had them every time I've been in. They used to sell some things through aquabid but recently changed ownership so I don't know if they still do or not. They might be worth looking into.

BTW, I don't think you have angels, but if so, I wouldn't bother with the nerites. Mine just said thanks for the expensive snack.

I have some tiger barbs that might cause some problems.....I've read they don't leave much exposed from their shell so hopefully they will protect themselves. I will be putting 1/2 in my QT tank (no fish in there right now) and so even if the ones in the planted tank get eaten I'll still have some others.

I'm really starting to think about breeding these guys. Since no one carries them in an hours drive from me (that I've found), seems like it could help to pay for the tank.

[7Enigma]

My friend couldn't visit me this week so this coming weekend I'll hopefully get a small group. I went to Petsmart to pick up some aquarium salt so I could do a slower acclimation (say over 4-5 days instead of just an afternoon) and I was SHOCKED at how expensive a SW setup would cost for the salt alone. To prep 25gallons of salt water they wanted ~$13, while for 250 gallons it was about $45. I couldn't imagine the cost even on a 20 gallon if I did my weekly 50% PWC's!

I'm sure you can find it cheaper elsewhere, but it just blew my mind on the cost. I assume a brackish tank would require less salt and thus allow for more gallons of water to be made up, but it was quite the eye opener.

I'm still doing research and coming up with a lot of conflicting data, some people say they didn't do any acclimation, while others say they did this over the course of weeks. Some say they just turtle up in their shell for a couple days, others say after a couple minutes they start to cruising.

What stinks is I'm going on a week vacation in 2 weeks (so 1 week after I get the snails) and would hate to acclimate them, everything look fine, and then come home to a snail soup that could seriously hurt the fish. It is a medium light moderately planted tank, but I'm sure a group of these guys rotting in the tank would tax any biological filter....

[Purrbox]

Generally you don't change as much water in a SW setup as you do a FW planted, which does help to minimize the cost of the salt.

[7Enigma]

Originally Posted by Purrbox

Generally you don't change as much water in a SW setup as you do a FW planted, which does help to minimize the cost of the salt.

Well that certainly makes sense! I couldn't see dropping 50bucks a month on salt for a moderately-sized tank on top of all the other equipment specific to SW.

[7Enigma]

Well crap! My friend bailed on me at the last minute, and thus the nerites she was going to pick up on the way. Now I have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks to get them again because I'm going on vacation next weekend. In the meantime I got an 8 quart container to house them during their slow acclimation, turned on the tank lights for an extra 3 hours per day (now on for about 18 hours) in the QT tank to stimulate some more algae growth, and am twiddling my thumbs waiting for the SNAILS!