2 New Sea Snails from Sea Food Market...How do I keep them Alive?

[Doudou]

I just got two new sea snails from the foody market. Clearly, I wasn't thinking. I have a 10 gallon tank with a filter, conditioning, and 6 baby comet goldfish, but it's freshwater. Currently, I give them lettuce and keep them on a damp piece of paper.

Any help? I need to keep them alive until I get aquarium salt.

[Doudou]

Ok, so I added tap water, conditioning, and ground sea salt, mixed it all up, and put the snails in. They don't seem to like it..? Am I missing something?

Please help!

[Dallascowboys16]

Originally Posted by Doudou

I just got two new sea snails from the foody market. Clearly, I wasn't thinking. I have a 10 gallon tank with a filter, conditioning, and 6 baby comet goldfish, but it's freshwater. Currently, I give them lettuce and keep them on a damp piece of paper.

Any help? I need to keep them alive until I get aquarium salt.

Were these snails for sale for eating at a food market? Do you have any idea what type of snail they were labeled as? If you could snap a picture that would help us figure out what is the next best action for your snails. It sounds like you're not sure if these snails are fully aquatic either. Were they in a tank of water when you purchased them? If so I would recommend making sure they can fully submerge themselves. An aquatic snail will die just being on a damp paper towel.

[Autumnsky]

Knowing which kind of snail you have would be ideal. If these snails don't live, you could always try again with snails from the lfs, salt or fresh. They usually cost around 1-2.99 per snail. Some tiny ones cost around $.50.

They are not hard to keep when you know which type and have the right water for them. A 5G would be a good size tank to start with.

If they are saltwater snails, you need special Sea water salt water. Aquarium salt mixed with water is not correct.

You can get the sea water from fish stores that sell saltwater supply at around 1.25 per gallon.

If you take in an empty gallon water container or 2 to the Saltwater fish supply store they will fill them and you can use that for the water. With an air bubbler and a chunk of live rock I would recommend.

To be honest, the food snails in some stores might not survive anyway, even if they got the proper treatment.

Some of the SW snails are meat eaters and some are more algae and some only really eat algae from rocks and glass. Knowing which one's you get dietary needs is also important.