# I made a snail mistake. Sigh.



## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

So last week, I got a mystery snail to add to the tank of the betta fish. It's a 10 gallon tank. It's almost done cycling, and I'm thinking I should have probably waited.

I think the betta kept bothering the snail on the downlow, and it would spend several hours at a time in it's shell. A couple times, I thought it was dead. The betta didn't "seem" to bother it after the first day. (He did flare up at it a bit at first, but never actually touched it.) 

I did two 50% water changes in two days to make sure the ammonia level was ok in the tank for the snail. (it seemed slightly elevated when I tested it, but not too much.) and when that didn't make a difference to making the snail perk up, I watched for a bit and noticed that the betta was sitting right next to the snail, eyeballing it. I decided maybe Stringy wasn't been so nice to the snail after all, and i took him out and put him in a small container of water with the zuchinni slice I had in there for him. He finally came out when he realized the coast was clear, and spent quite a while on the zuchinni.

I had two old 1 gallon bowls outside growing algae that I was hoping to catch mosquito larvae in. I took on of those bowls, and carefully dumped out the old water while trying not to disturb the algae growing on the sides, and added dechlorinator to it and fresh water, and put the snail and his zuchinni in there. He spent the rest of the night on his zuchinni, and now he is very gradually coasting up the sides of the bowl. and pooping.

I'm not sure what to do now, I probably shouldn't have gotten this snail. I have another 10 gallon tank with another betta, maybe I should put him in there instead? Maybe they will get along better? I don't know.


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## peacock (Jan 30, 2014)

here ya go 
http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/snails/75710-how-do-i-get-my-betta-stop-bothering-my-snail.html


hope it helps. kinda lengthy, tho


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

Thanks, I read all of it. It just seems to confirm what a bad idea it was to get a mystery snail. It's so difficult to decipher the good info from the bad info on the web. So many places say that a snail is a great idea. The snail moves so slowely, and the tank is so big, I felt like Stringy probably wouldn't even notice it. I was wrong.

Sometimes I wish I could maybe get a tank of pygmy corydoras, snails, shrimp, for one 10 gallon, and put the bettas together with a divider in the other 10 gallon.


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## 2boys2fish (Jun 13, 2014)

Also, I changed the water in the snail's bowl a little while ago to make sure the ammonia stays in check, and I realized that there was lots and lots and lots of snail poop in the bottom of it. He's only been in there for 24 hours.


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## givemethatfish (Feb 10, 2014)

Mystery snails are poop machines.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

20 points to givemethatfish for accurate information and earthy wording.

You might want to take back the mystery snail and get a nerite. They're better protected and don't poop quite so much.


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## Pandanke (Jun 16, 2014)

Some bettas just wont tolerate anything in their home. It looks like your boy is one of them. I have one like that. Conversely, I have six others which will tolerate a whole lot, and several who really seem to enjoy their 'minions' and ruling their 'kingdom' and go and check up on everyone, or lay on the snails when they're on the wall.

If you want to stick with snails, Nerites are much better protected and eat algae moreso than Mystery/Apple snails do. Their feelers also tend to be longer and less likely to be nipped at than Apple snails.

Otherwise, you could try ghost shrimp if you give them some coverage, subwassertang and other liverworts & mosses are great for this, as well as rock caves and wood bridges, or cholla wood. They're pretty cheap, so even if he does snack on them once in awhile, you can often get replacements at LFS for under 30c each as they are typically feeders. They clean up great and are surprisingly entertaining.

Almost all of my fish tolerate them. This does not mean yours will.


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## Bettacrab (Jun 30, 2013)

My bettas don't care. My male sees some guppy fry swim in front of him and he doesn't even care.


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## Pandanke (Jun 16, 2014)

Mine do the same thing with guppy fry... I've seen Hart in my bedroom play tug-o-war over a flake with one and lose. And swim away. And today, Grumpy swam alongside a ghost shrimp for about 2 minutes before it jumping off of his head. Some of them really don't care.


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## BettaStarter24 (Mar 24, 2014)

Cas and Jasper don't really care as much as flaring goes, Jasper will (as I've found out) bite his tail if his tank is divided and Oliver flares like crazy if he isn't the only one in his tank


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## farmgirl82 (Jul 30, 2014)

Does anyone have experience with ramshorn snails with male bettas? Do they eat plants?


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## Pandanke (Jun 16, 2014)

Ramshorn I have heard will eat plants if there is not enough food to be gotten elsewhere, otherwise they usually leave them alone.


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