mystery snail

[fish 'n' fries]

Hi all,

I just bought a blue mystery snail (pseudo-impulse buy...I'd been reading a bit about them but had never seen them and then they had them at PetSmart today--the blue was too nice to pass up).

My understanding is that it'll eat pretty much what the bottom feeders do (I've corys and a pleco...they get tabs and spirulina discs plus fresh veggies/fruit for the pleco). What else will he eat?

Also, do I need to do anything special for a healthy shell? My water is soft but I have CC in the filter to buffer.

Thanks.

 

[joannde]

Hi - I LOVE mystery snails and you probably will also. They're interesting.
Your understanding on their feeding habits is correct - they'll eat the sinking pellets that you feed to your cories and pleco. They also appreciate fresh veggies - I give mine slices of zucchini or yellow squash which I've microwaved for 1 minute to soften. Just be sure to remove the veggies within 12 to 24 hrs so that you don't pollute your tank.
You can add a small piece of cuttlebone (sold in the bird dept) for some extra calcium for his/her shell. Just break off a piece about the size of a dime and put it into the tank.
And make sure that the top of your tank is enclosed - I've lost many mystery snails via skydiving without a parachute (they climb out of the tank, hit the tile floor underneath and shatter their shells). That reminds me - I need to put some towels behind the tank where they generally escape to stop them from breaking themselves !
Enjoy your snail

 

[hc8719]

if your water is pretty soft, (i dunno how well cc works) you may want to supplement some 7 or 14 day feeders (calcium blocks). i had a nice blue mystery snail from petsmart, and while the black mystery snail did fine, the blue's shell started to flake off, leaving this green under shell (which looks very ugly).

he's an ugly snail now, but the calcium blocks seems to have haulted further flaking.

i should note, flaking cannot be reversed, from what i understand

EDIT: joande, i take it you restocked your snail population? last i heard, some didnt make it?

 

[shayfish]

So do they prefer harder water then?

I picked up 3 mystery snails yesterday (one black, one blue, one gold). They are the neatest little critters and they move a lot faster than I expected! I really enjoy watching them. But they didn't give a hoot about the zucchini that I put in there. In fact, the black one cruised right over top of it without stopping!

They've done a pretty good job on some of my algae spots though...

Enjoy your new addition. They are cool.

 

[joannde]

yes, they do better in harder water which has more calcium, but its easy to supplement calcium so no worries.
They DO move fast, don't they !?
And they'll eat the zucchini in time - did you nuke it a bit first ? they seem to like it better if its soft. I make 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices and put it in a cup of water for 60 seconds on high then attach it to the tank with one of those suction cup clips. Usually the entire slice is covered with mystery snails (I had 12 at one point !) within 30 minutes.

 

[fish 'n' fries]

Thanks all. So if I supplement with the feeders...I would assume I'd be in danger of getting into trouble with overfeeding? Would the cuttlebone perhaps be better from that standpoint? And do you just leave the cuttlebone in until it dissolves? Does it matter how much depending on how big the tank is? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks.

 

[hc8719]

actually the snails wont eat the feeder blocks

its really hard to over feed tropical fish, let alone snails

 

[joannde]

I'd go with the cuttlebone - just leave the small piece in there - the snail will find it and munch on it. They only need a very small piece.

hc - haven't restocked the snail population yet. I really need to figure out a way to encase the entire top before I get more. I'm a bit weary from the jumpers LOL. I saw a post somewhere where someone used window screening to close in all the small openings in the back of their tank - I need to look into that. I can't believe I've gone from 12 snails down to 2 I was hoping that some of the babies might survive but it seems that none of them made it (but it was my first attempt). I do have two other eggsacks that may hatch so who knows.

 

[scalesojustice]

i don't feed my snails anything special. some sinking pellets and i've been overfeeding my tank because i'm trying to cycle a second filter as well. i've only had them a couple (2 - 3) weeks, but i already notice a great deal of growth. my gold mystery snail is huge.

on a side note, the corner of my gold snail's shell was chipped when i got him. now that he is growing, he's growing out of that part of his shell. will he be ok?

 

[onah]

actually the snails wont eat the feeder blocks

i dont know what kinda blocks u have been putting in but mine will literally sit there till the thing is gone! all of them, i like to watch them when it starts to get small they have fun knocking each other off the little peice that is left.

 

[onah]

messexd up sorry!

 

[onah]

scales he will be ok, if is at the end of his shell it should grow back replaceing the chip eventually. some feeders should help speed things up a bit too...

 

[EXM]

Mystery snails, also called Apple snails, are oppertunistic feeders feeding on anything from algae to dead plant matter to fallen food to even carcasses. So enjoy, but remember they can reach massive sizes for snails and prefer a large tank like a minimum of 30 gallons to upto several hundred gallon ponds.

 

[Jarred Darque]

dead plant matter? MY apples just ate 100 buckls worth of live plants!!! Then again...that is why I put the plants in there....I have 3 large apple snails, and somewhere between 100 and 200 babies. with another 200 on the way. I do not feed them specifically, I simply overfeed the fish on everything. Flake, pellets, algae wafers, frozen foods, The snails eat it all, and they eat it quickly. I do have large pond and MTS populations as well, which arebeenfiting from the large surplus of food, but the apples easily outcompete them for food

The main concern is shell deterioration. Adding calcium will alleviate this. I have feeder blocks in one filter, limestone in another, and crushed coral in a third. I upped the amount of calcium in the tank largely because of the babies that are hatching this week.

Another concern is predation, but I find that most snail eating fish, like the GBR that is in the 75 with the apples, doesnt mess with them, he only goes after the pond snails, my guppies only go after the MTSs for some reason

 

[shayfish]

My mysteries haven't hurt my plants. I even busted the big sitting right on an anubias leaf last night (stems must be stronger than I thought). It seems to have come out completely unscathed, which is great since I hate to say, but the snails probably would have been going back if they trashed the plants

 

[joannde]

My mystery snails don't bother the plants at all, except to eat the algae off of them.

 

[Toirtis]

dead plant matter? MY apples just ate 100 buckls worth of live plants!!!

It all depends on the species you have. P. canaculata (and several other similar looking species will eat plants, whereas P. bridgesii do not. The terms 'apple snail' and 'mystery snail' are regularly applied to about 6 species regularly found in the aquarium trade.

 

[joannde]

Torits - that explains tons ! I have P. bridgesii, which have never bothered my live plants.

 

[Jarred Darque]

Obviously, teh big one I have...is a plant eater good thng I dont actualyl plan on keeping live plants in tehre...and he would be sadly disappointed if he went after teh plastic plants.

BTW. snails have a balast in them, they can cause themselves to float from teh substrate to the surface at will, and can rest on anything since htey can make themselves neutral...bah cant think of the word...they basically make themselves weght the same or close to the density of water, so any surface an support them.

You wil lalso see them use this ability to 'skydive' from the top of the glass to the substrate

 

[Mosaic]

i had a nice blue mystery snail from petsmart, and while the black mystery snail did fine, the blue's shell started to flake off, leaving this green under shell (which looks very ugly).

There is some speculation that some snails you buy in bigger stores have been painted to make them more attractive, especially the blues and ivories. After a while, the paint flakes off. I got one from a lfs that is quite clearly coated with something. It's a very thin filmy-looking layer over the old growth. So that may be something else that's going on, especially if the black one did fine and the blue didn't. If you had a deficiency, then both shells should be flaking.

I just added some cuttlefish bone to my miserably soft water, and all my snails came out. Even the guy I hadn't seen in 2 months and presumed dead is out cruising around! I think they just feel perkier with calcium.