# A few unrelated questions about snails



## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Well, here come two questions that are completely unrelated to each other: 

1) I have had live plants in my 5 gallon tank for a while now, and about 2 months in I found one snail that I HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE!! I promptly took him out. A month later, an ALMOST IDENTICAL SNAIL APPEARED! This repeated at about monthly intervals. It's shell was flat, very flat. It actually looked like a flattened assassin snail shell... Anyone know what it might be?

2) I just got a tire-track nerite snail (yay! finally!) and I love him! He is amazing, barely three days in he had cleared out most of the algae in my 5 gallon tank. I got him about 10 days ago, and a few days ago I noticed him running around in the tank, kinda looking for algae. So I put him in the 2.5 gallon with a HUGE algae problem; he gorged himself, and became very sluggish and pretty much stopped moving around the tank, preferring to sit underneath the filter and sleep. 
I guess my real question is, will he starve when there's no more algae? Because so far, he's doing an awesome job at getting rid of it all.  Good boy!


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Please answer, someone?


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## elitesrock (May 4, 2011)

1) The snails were probably in the plants babies and just now came out.

2) It might be wise to buy algae wafers.


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

Yes, he will die if he runs out of algae. I've had a few snails die on me for this same issue.

Like elitesrock said, try algae wafers. If not, get rid of em..


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Hikari brand algae wafers!


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

send him to my tank lol!


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## Egrance (Apr 29, 2011)

Green marine Aglae my snails love it!!! Does any body know how long it takes for snail eggs to hatch? My gold mystery snail laid eggs again. (the first eggs, lets the just say didnt make it)


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

I do believe that the flat ones are called limpets, however dont quote me on that.

yeah your best bet is to suppliment his diet occasionaly with algae wafers.


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Okay, thanks! And just for the record, these new snails REALLY SCARE ME. The little babies aren't even shelled, kind of. Frightening.


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## Egrance (Apr 29, 2011)

how long do the eggs take to hatch?


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

I actualy wanted to get limpets for my tanks but they are hard to find in my area, so I havent had a chance to nab any as of yet


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

I don't know, the eggs are really tiny. Oh, wait! So... I put a plant from my five gallon into the cycling ten gallon and was pretty sure they would appear, and yesterday evening I saw a bunch, so... ten day? Maybe two weeks.... Yeah, probably.


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## Fishy Freak (Jun 1, 2011)

I have heard snails really love blanched spinich, just weigh down with a rock


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## Egrance (Apr 29, 2011)

I have a bunch of baby snails now


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Congratulations egrance 
Updates: 
I am no longer frightened by the bad snails, they just anger me. I will probably do a small copper treatment. Fingers crossed that too much doesn't remain. And it seems that my Cory catfish eats them, so yay!
Also, my Nerite snail died.  I may have forgotten to put an algae wafer in.... :chair:

Next problem: hydra


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## Trout (Mar 16, 2011)

I've never heard of limpets in a fishtank before... As a matter of fact, I've only ever seen them on the beach. Never heard of freshwater ones.  Sorry to hear your Nerite died. I need to get one for my tank. It's a planted tank and it's difficult to get rid of the algae. It comes back after only a few days. Where did you find your Nerite?


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

sorry to hear about your nerite. Its really too bad because I found that my nerites ate the hydras i had in one of my tanks.


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

They eat hydra?! OMG that's amazing!!! I got mine at Coral Reef Pet Center, my local LFS. They are awesome, they don't carry much, but it seems they have everything that I want and need. And if they don't have it, they order it. You live too far away, though.  Unless you don't mind road trips! 

I've seen olive nerites and corona nerites on Aquabid.com, but the olives are dull and drab, and the coronas are a little pricey when you figure in shipping...


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

Trout said:


> Sorry to hear your Nerite died. I need to get one for my tank. It's a planted tank and it's difficult to get rid of the algae. It comes back after only a few days. Where did you find your Nerite?


Trout, I'm getting ready to breed red spotted nerite snails right now.  I've got a peice of driftwood waiting to be filled with eggs, then I'm moving it to a brackish tank for them to hatch into. Then I have to very slowly acclimate them back to freshwater. So it might be a little while... but I'll let you know when they are ready!


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## iheartfish:) (Jan 19, 2011)

Oh wow! Sorry, I'm getting excited about your project, but for some reason I really want to try breeding them. Too bad my mom is already complaining about the THREE tanks I have  lol


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

I cant guarentee they eat hydras but I know that my hydra problem resolved itself shortly after I added nerites to the tank


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