Snail Questions

[Random Fishy]

Is it ok to "hand feed"a mystery snail? My snail unfortunately doesn't get a lot of food because my goldfish and other fish steal most of his food and shove him out of the way. So one day, my snail was so desperate for food he decided to go to the surface (just above the waterline) and and try to get floating fish flakes. the first time he did this he didn't get much success. Until I had an idea. While he he was trying to get flakes I grabbed one flake and pushed it under his foot partially. He immediately shoved his head under his foot. XD then he started eating the flake. Been doing this for about 3 days with nothing going wrong. So around feeding time or when he is very hungry he waits up near the surface and when he smells food he crawls up and I feed him separately. Today I tried with algae wafers got him to eat a little of that. So when I "hand feed" him no contact is made between my finger and his skin. (Not counting his shell) and my hand is wet. (The only thing I do touch is his slime trail.) my other question is is it ok for my snail to stick his head out of the water to get flakes? I get the feeling it is though because I had an incident where my snail crawled out of the water during the middle of the night and his entire body was out of water for several hours. He lived with no problems and it happened fairly recently too. I will get a divider for my goldfish though because he is a bit of a bully during feeding time. Thanks in advance!

 

[Jev12]

He should be fine

 

[TechnoFish]

I have 14 snails with a frog and some crayfish in a 2.5 gallon. I don't need to feed them. They will eat any algae. Or plants. Or poop.

 

[BLUElobster99]

I have 14 snails with a frog and some crayfish in a 2.5 gallon. I don't need to feed them. They will eat any algae. Or plants. Or poop.

Is that a joke? In a 2.5gal?

 

[Oohitsae]

I hope that's a joke, or that they are MTS or baby Rams. But even an ADF needs 5 gallons minimum.


Anyways, hand feeding is perfectly fine. You should be feeding him a veggie/algae based diet though so try to get some blanched cucumber/zucchini and algae wafers rather than flakes for him. And it's perfectly fine for them to be out of water. They should stay in high humidity so they don't dry up too much, but they breathe air from the surface so they have to go out occasionally. They also lay their eggs above the water line so be prepared for that if you have a male and female.
Mine have plenty of algae to eat, but once or twice a week I'll pull all 13 into their own critter keeper for a few hours with a few slices of blanched cucumber and they go crazy for it

 

[TechnoFish]

I hope that's a joke, or that they are MTS or baby Rams. But even an ADF needs 5 gallons minimum. Anyways, hand feeding is perfectly fine. You should be feeding him a veggie/algae based diet though so try to get some blanched cucumber/zucchini and algae wafers rather than flakes for him. And it's perfectly fine for them to be out of water. They should stay in high humidity so they don't dry up too much, but they breathe air from the surface so they have to go out occasionally. They also lay their eggs above the water line so be prepared for that if you have a male and female. Mine have plenty of algae to eat, but once or twice a week I'll pull all 13 into their own critter keeper for a few hours with a few slices of blanched cucumber and they go crazy for it

They are. Both MTS and Ramshorns yes. My frog seems fine.

 

[Random Fishy]

Thanks all. I just wanted to make sure. I didn't want to make a mistake as its my first snail.

 

[Autumnsky]

They also stick their heads out and come about the water line to lay eggs which are a pinkish to yellow cream colored clump of little circle/ball things-eggs, kinda like a big long blackberry only not black, lol