Snail

[Bubblewrap]

Hi! I’m thinking of getting a snail for my bettas tank. But I need to know if he or she can survive a 5 to 7 hour car drives and if so any tips to keep him/her alive. I work at a camp over the summer. So my betta has made the trip fine but I’m not sure if a snail could do that.

 

[Colin_T]

If the Betta can do it, the snail should be fine. Just put it in a bag with some aquarium water. Seal the bag up and put it in an esky (cooler) and away you go.

 

[Ed Pursell]

Yes Betta is more fragile than the snail.. snails are pretty hardy, fish not so much. Betta’s are sometimes pretty fragile. Bag it, and wrap with a towel to try to stop the shaking around as much as you can, should be fine.

 

[Bubblewrap]

Do you have any tips for keeping a snail? I’m currently doing research , im thinking nerite snail. Any do or donts

 

[m.j.gomez]

Do you have any tips for keeping a snail? I’m currently doing research , im thinking nerite snail. Any do or donts

Hello, not bashing nerite snails. They are great at controlling algae, good looking shells & normally very active. But you can't tell male from female till female starts laying eggs.
Here's what makes them a deal breaker for me. She will lay eggs everywhere all over tank that will only hatch in brackish water. Not only are they unsightly they are almost impossible to remove & when removed they leave marks. So if you care how your tank looks nerites are a no go. 1st Pic is of eggs on some drift wood. You may want to consider a mystery snail or 2. Min tank sz is 3gal. for 1.
You'll probably need to add calcium for shell growth & health. I use cuttlebone for birds(pic 2). Break off a piece about the sz of a quarter & stick in filter. This will dissolve slowly into water column. You can also feed snail sm pieces of veggies that have calcium(3rd pic list). Hopefully this helps!!!!!

 

[Bubblewrap]

What kind of snail would you recommend? I'm not an egg person.

 

[Bubblewrap]

I didn't realize food had calcium for snails. I know it did for us so I guess that makes sense. How often would you feed them the food? And do I need to do anything to prep it?

 

[m.j.gomez]

I didn't realize food had calcium for snails. I know it did for us so I guess that makes sense. How often would you feed them the food? And do I need to do anything to prep it?

All can be fed raw. Biggest problem is most will float & move with water flow of tank. To remedy this you can buy a veggie clip that attaches to tank wall. Run about 4-18$. Some people like to par boil or just boil so veggie will sink to bottom. I like to use a fork to sink. I attached a length of fishing line to end for easier retrieval(big tanks).
This is how I feed. I only par boil the zucchini. This makes for easier consumption. Cut 1-2in piece split in half & sunk w/fork(same w/ raw cucumber). I like to boil broccoli, carrots, peas & green beans. The rest are raw.
When feeding veggies don't leave in tank for more than a couple days. Depending on how prepared can break down fast & cause an ammonia spike.

 

[ADsnail]

Hi Bibblewrap!

When you buy your snail, tell the store it'll be some hours before it goes into the tank. They'll put extra pressurized air into the bag. I've travelled snails like this for up to 8 hours (not by choice, got into a major traffic snarl so good thing I asked for the extra air) and they arrived home fine. Put the bag on the floor of your car -you can't fall off the floor - with towels, jacket, whatever to keep it from rolling around. Your snail didn't sign up for a roller coaster ride.

Nerite or mystery? Nerites clean up the tank, mysteries don't but they're entertaining with their explorations and sense of fun. One of each would be fine if your tank is 5g or more.

Get a good basic food like Crab Cuisine and put a pinch down every few days or whenever you see that the old stuff has been eaten and a day has elapsed since then. It does contain calcium. I personally have never used a cuttlebone but many, many people here do. The veggies are great - I give a bit once a week as a supplement. The packaged food is a basic nutritional building block and good for when you don't have the time to do veggies.

Vegetables need to be blanched in order to break down the fibrous exterior and become fully available for crustaceans. Blanching is quick and easy: slice the vegetable thin (or break off a piece of leafy green), boil it for 1 minute, let it cool. They'll need a chopstick or something to stay down where the snail travels most, otherwise it'll float on the water and have less chance of being eaten. Blanching is for leafy greens too, even lettuce. I personally avoid broccoli and cabbage; they break down sooner than the snail wants it, and become stinky in the tank.

Eggs: if you get one mystery snail, lots of fun. Two or more, you're almost guaranteed to get egg sacks. Don't ask. Not being into eggs, this would be a whole lot of dealing with egg ickiness for you. Nerites do produce the little dot eggs and they are hard to remove. I personally have found that by doing nothing (officially The Lazy Approach) they dissolve eventually. It does take awhile, but, as mentioned, they're impossible to try to remove.

Snails are very active at night. Don't be surprised if your food sits there all day and then the next morning it's gone and your snail is curled up for a nice long 12-24 hr snooze. Ah, to live the snail's life...

 

[Bubblewrap]

I will get the snail in March. Ill move to the Camp in May. How do i travel with him?

 

[ADsnail]

I've done two things, depending on which I felt comfortable with at the time.

For just a snail, I bagged it (saving the bag it came in is your guarantee that the plastic withstands snail + travel, though a heavy ziplock will work too) with some tank water, and took it to my local fish store to ask them to put some pressurized air in there. They were happy to do so.

When I travelled with a betta and snail I used a little 1 gallon tank as their travel accommodations. No substrate, no accessories, no air stone. It will get movement no matter how well you surround it with towels etc. on the floor of your vehicle, so you don't want anything in there that will become a weapon. Put some of their tank water in, about 2/3 filling the travel tank.

On the day you travel, don't feed. In fact, not feeding for 12+ hours beforehand will cut down on the poop floating around in there. They may be literally scared sh*tless. Believe it or don't but I think talking to them and leaning down to say hello during stops helps them be calm. Definitely wouldn't put them next to a speaker blasting Megadeath.

What will they go in when they arrive? Do you have a camp home for them, or will you be bringing their home tank with reduced water?

 

[Bubblewrap]

I will be bringing their 5 gallon tank. The water will be about 1/2 taken. Normally i do just enough to cover the sponge filter. Ill acclimate everyone for an hour after getting the tank set up again. My betta fish traveks in a mason jar. I can do the bag for the snail. I`ll ask my petco if i can have another bag to bring the snail back to them for them to put air in. Do you need to always boil vegetebales? I know carrots because they need to soften. But boiling stuff at the camp and the dorm is not an option. Are there any vegetables that do not need to be boiled?

 

[Aiken Drum]

My apple snail eats lettuce and cabbage just fine without boiling. The only thing it doesnt eat is carrot. It will eat cucumber without boiling, but i do tend to boil because it helps to sink it, but stick a fork through a slice of cucumber and drop it in, and it will eat the cucumber.

No boiling water? How do you cook? No tea? To an english person, no tea would abhorrent.

 

[Bubblewrap]

I do not have access to the kitchen on camp. We do have a full industrial Kitchen. The camp houses kids over the summer for a week for each session. I could bring my keurig if that gets hot enough? Would it?

 

[Colin_T]

No boiling water? How do you cook? No tea? To an english person, no tea would abhorrent.

You can live without boiling water or electricity. I did it when I was living on the street. You can actually live without a lot of things, not just hot water and power.

 

[ADsnail]

I don't have a Keurig. Anyone? Has anyone here boiled water with it for other uses? Oh, well, if you can't, you can't. I'm sure others as well as Aiken feed veggies without blanching. It's what I was taught and I've found that the one time I didn't do it, no one ate the cucumber or zucchini. So I figured that was Law. Obviously there are many laws! Although I blanch lettuce, clearly it's eaten without doing that, for others. No one here eats carrot in any way, shape, or form.

FYI, if you want to have easy boiling water, there's a nifty thing called the Sunbeam HotShot. It's smaller than an electric kettle, makes up to 2 cups of boiling water in about a minute or two. I've used mine every day for 25 years, even lugging it along to backstage jobs and on-site gigs in tents, for soup, coffee, etc. I think the new ones even come with a free coffee cup