Snails eating HC?

[dskidmore]

I received some HC in my recent trades. Quite a bit of it had suffered in shipment, but I picked out the healthy parts for planting. Not long after planting, my snail pack was swarming over it, ignoring the other new plants in the aquarium. I though perhaps I had not cleaned off all the dying matter, so didn't worry too much, but now I have significantly less HC than I did when I planted it on Thursday. Some of it just floated away and I replanted, but there were some significant chunks that are just plain gone.

There are no inhabitants in the tank besides snails and nematodes. The tank is 2.5 gallons, unpowered with medium-high light. The tank has been cycled for a few weeks now.

 

[Glenc]

I have lots of HC in my 10 gallon, quite a few snails as well. They are ramshorns, they hang out in the HC but I've never had a problem with them eating it. Maybe your snails were snacking on the deteriorating parts of the HC. Hopefully when it greens up a bit your snails will leave it alone for you.