Snails in a 3 gallon...?

[rachelives]

Hello! I currently have a 3 gallon tank for my two mystery snails. I was just wondering if 3 gallons was too small for them? Or if it's not, could I maybe get one more? And do mystery snails get along with other snails, like Nerites etc.? Here is a picture of them in their tank.

 

[rachelives]

Still waiting for a reply on this But I have a new question, would I be able to have a few shrimp in this tank?

 

[Laeris]

I can't tell you how many is too many. I drop algae sticks for my shrimp and whatever they don't scarf down the snails eat, so having enough general tank gunk for them to eat is a non-issue for me. I have kept all sorts of snails together, the only unfriendly ones are assassins.

You can def put a handful of dwarf shrimp or a few Amanos in the 3 gal. Give them a calcium fortified algae stick every few days and they'll be happy. Keep an eye on their numbers if you get dwarf shrimp. They'll breed like it's their job.

 

[Exigenn]

I would guess a 3 gallon would be fine for them as long as there is ample food. The only other snail that would be a problem would be assassin snails. But i would not recommend adding others due to the low amount of algae growth in such a small tank.

My parents had a 30 gallon that had a bad case of brown algae, i bought 4 nerites (planned on putting them in my 60g) Put put them in the 30 before moving. Had the tank virtually spotless inside of a week. So even 1 nerite in that tank would need to be supplemented.

As for shrimp i would say sure. Personally i would avoid ghost shrimp as there are plenty of horror stories of people getting some type of prawn that eats fish/snails and other shrimp. Something like RCS(Red Cherry shrimp) would probably be fine but i would maybe put 4-6 in tops. Again most likely having to supplement some type of food, flake/pellets would work for shrimp or even veggies/small piece of algae wafers. RCS breed pretty readily though so within 6 months they could easily need a new tank/outgrow yours.

 

[rachelives]

I supplement my snails already with vegetables and algae wafers, so that wouldn't be a problem. I'll look into the care of shrimp, thank you both!

 

[rachelives]

What could I do to prevent breeding? Would it be possible to ask to get all one gender?

 

[Laeris]

Female mystery snails' spiral is darker where males are a general uniform color. I say general because there are usually variations in color all over

 

[rachelives]

Oh I was talking about shrimp but thank you! I never knew that, I'm going to go check out my snail's shells. I assumed they were the same gender because they haven't made any moves on each other ?

 

[Laeris]

Ooh! If you don't want breeding, you can ask for all one gender. It's a little hard to tell when they're juvies, which is the age most places ship them.

If you want to wait for weather to warm, Bpophoto has a load of cherry red males. Apparently, 75df results in a lot of males.

Amano shrimp require brackish water to hatch their eggs, so they won't be able to reproduce if you decide to go with those instead.

 

[rachelives]

Okay, perfect! I will be waiting a long time to get them because I'm low on funds and have another tank to worry about at the moment but I will look into that, thank you so much!

 

[rachelives]

I took a picture of both snails side by side, one with flash and one without. I tried to tell if they were male or female but I don't think I'm that good. Can anyone help me out?

 

[Laeris]

The one in front is def male. Can't really see the other one's spiral.

 

[rachelives]

Is this better? (I have them in another small tank right now because I'm changing around their current tank)

 

[Laeris]

Looks about the same color to me, def not darker. Male it is!

 

[rachelives]

Heck yeah! No breeding worries for me then. Thank you so much!