Excited! First Snail!

[Skai]

So, I've always been a bit less than impressed with snails as a general species. I never found them particularly attractive and my aunt had this one tank that was choked full of pest snails until it was pretty much ruined so that probably made me go Gah! Snails bad! But as I was searching for new plants to order for my Aquarium that I'm upgrading I came across this absolutely beautiful snail. It's called a Tiger Nerite Snail. I'm sure you snail enthusiasts have seen them. I went, wow, that's actually really bright and pretty looking but I still don't want to be overrun by snails.

Still, curiosity got the best of me and I started researching and found that they don't bred in Freshwater. (or maybe they just don't bred successfully idk). So, being the entirely sane and not impulsive person I am I thought about it (for about an hour) and then ordered one. And I'm actually super excited about it (my mother probably won't be since she doesn't know about this yet lol... hmm lucky it's my tank).

Anyhow, it's not here yet as I pretty much just ordered it and I do have a tank to put it in for quarantine when it does arrive. But I would like any tips on integrating snails into tanks and any common missteps for first time snail keepers. I have two tanks currently that it could go into. One is a ten gallon with tetras and no other algae eater types in it. The other is a 35 gallon with some angels that I'm working on moving into a 125 gallon in the near future and a pleco in it. I'm not sure how big this snail is going to end up being when I actually open the box so I'm leaning towards putting it in the 10 gallon if it's smaller to keep it in a tank that's a little more peaceful. (at least until the upgrading procedure is complete). Thoughts on this would also be very much appreciated.

 

[Aliray]

I would put it in the 10 with the neons. They are easy snails and kind of do their thing. Do you have live plants in your tank? They will eat algea and may eat decaying plant material but do not eat live plants. They can have a hard time tuning themselves over if they land upside down so if I see one of mine I just flip it back over. I also feed some veggies to them such as zucchini squash, cukes, Alison

 

[Skai]

I would put it in the 10 with the neons. They are easy snails and kind of do their thing. Do you have live plants in your tank? They will eat algea and may eat decaying plant material but do not eat live plants. They can have a hard time tuning themselves over if they land upside down so if I see one of mine I just flip it back over. I also feed some veggies to them such as zucchini squash, cukes, Alison

I have live plants in the larger tank and am going to plant the new much larger tank that I might eventually move him to. But I'm glad to hear they're easy snails to keep and I didn't end up getting that one really finicky kind, lol, that would have been bad. Do they eat veggie wafers too? I have those that I toss in for my pleco every once and while since he does a good job keeping all the algae pretty much cleaned up. If they don't eat wafers though that's not a problem veggies aren't hard to come by.

 

[TheresaM]

I have a variety of nerites, at least 1 in all of my tanks. I never specifically feed them though.

 

[Skai]

I have a variety of nerites, at least 1 in all of my tanks. I never specifically feed them though.

I'm not sure if I'll have to or not. The tank I'm thinking of putting this little beauty in doesn't have that much algae growth. So I'm going to play it by ear for a while probably.

 

[absolutangel04]

They will eat biolfilm on the tank, algae, and fallen food. I have never specifically fed one either and never had any issue keeping them alive for years.

 

[Skai]

They will eat biolfilm on the tank, algae, and fallen food. I have never specifically fed one either and never had any issue keeping them alive for years.

Ahh, I was not aware they ate fallen food too. That's a handy little detail. We've been struggling a bit with keeping from overfeeding in the ten gallon anyway so that might be really helpful if the snail eats what the tetras don't get to.

 

[absolutangel04]

Most flakes will disintegrate before they get to them, but if it falls around them, they will eat it. Also, mine eat spare shrimp pellets and algae wafers.