# nerite?



## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

Now that my 2.5g has finished cycling, is it possible to get 1 nerite snail?
My betta has already been in the tank for 2 months now.

Parameters are:
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
20ppm nitrates
7.8 pH
80F temp

I also have a bit of a brownish algae.


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## VJM (Feb 7, 2013)

Yes! They are great, and really make a dent in algae. Just be sure to acclimate them properly. They are sturdy, but still do better with acclimation.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

anyone else?

Also, does anyone know where to get one in Ontario, Canada??


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## fiky95 (Feb 24, 2013)

Hello 
I just got one last Wednesday and so far so good!  Mine acclimated ridiculously quickly and is freakishly fast for a snail, which makes me slightly worried, because they are known for occasional escaping from the tank.xD I have a 7g tank and have been fighting with a bit of brown algae as well. I wish I could provide more info.


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

Big Al's has ALOT. I got 2 tracked nerites there. I love mine but BOY they poop ALOT


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

Yeah... They say nerotes poop the least but I have a few and..... Be prepared to clean. That is all I can say. You might want to do that for like a five gallon cause a 2.5 might be a mess.


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

seriously. First I put 2 in a 5.5 and I had to clean it every day because there was too much poop! I ended up taking one out and putting it in another 5 gallon. I have to clean every other day still! These are cycled and filtered so that just shows you how much waste these snails produce.


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## isochronism (Nov 24, 2012)

I have had four Nerites for a few months. My tanks are fully planted in gravel and are on a southern exposure windowsill. My larger tank does get some algae on the window side, which I manually remove during water changes if needed. I enjoy watching them scoot around


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## AyalaCookiejar (Nov 20, 2012)

Tankmates aren't recommended for tanks under five gallons and are limited to shrimp and snails. Shrimp have a smaller bioload. I suck out poo with a turkey bastor almost daily in my 5.5 with a Nerite snail between weekly water changes. She is a poop factory, literally. It is also not really recommended that you put too many nerites in a tank because they compete for food.

I'd say that your cycle right now only supports your Betta and adding a snail will case a spike until more BB grow to support both the fish and the snail. I had to add tetra safestart to my tank after adding a snail. Personally I wouldn't put a snail in that small of a tank BUT if you add some more filter sponge to the tank and add safestart your cycle may be able to handle both.

Be prepared for poo EVERYWHERE. If you don't have enough algae, the snail won't have enough food and you'll have to supplement. They mostly eat algae off the tank walls. If you don't want to look at poo all day long you'll also have to suck it out of the tank with a bastor daily.

I've also heard stories of Nerites climbing out of tanks so you will want to cover the holes in the hood and also provide a lot of hiding places for the snail. Nerites are great algae cleaners, though.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

Jexx said:


> Big Al's has ALOT. I got 2 tracked nerites there. I love mine but BOY they poop ALOT


I just got back from the Mississauga Big Al's and got a small red tracked nerite.
The store near me has no snails....they didn't even know what a nerite snail was??


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

*Feeding?*

?
I don't have much algae...don't think it's enough for him to be satisfied with.
I have the Hikari algae wafers....should i put one in? or maybe half a wafer?
He's a small snail (1/3 inch maybe)
How often do you feed them?


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

AyalaCookiejar said:


> Tankmates aren't recommended for tanks under five gallons and are limited to shrimp and snails. Shrimp have a smaller bioload. I suck out poo with a turkey bastor almost daily in my 5.5 with a Nerite snail between weekly water changes. She is a poop factory, literally. It is also not really recommended that you put too many nerites in a tank because they compete for food.
> 
> I'd say that your cycle right now only supports your Betta and adding a snail will case a spike until more BB grow to support both the fish and the snail. I had to add tetra safestart to my tank after adding a snail. Personally I wouldn't put a snail in that small of a tank BUT if you add some more filter sponge to the tank and add safestart your cycle may be able to handle both.
> 
> ...


I have a Fluval pre-filter sponge on the intake for the filter. Would this be enough along with the filter media?


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

slug61 said:


> I just got back from the Mississauga Big Al's and got a small red tracked nerite.
> The store near me has no snails....they didn't even know what a nerite snail was??


You are not alone. Most people I ask just stare at me for a while while they try to decide if they have ever heard of a nerite snail and if they carry them. I actually went on vacation recently and searched through three different states on my way before I found some. A vendor in Santa Ana told me that nerites are hard to find any time other than January, which I find interesting be cause I was under the impression that snails laid eggs all the time regardless of season.


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## bniebetta (Feb 26, 2013)

I dunno about everyone else's but my snails poop sinks. Fish poop seems much more likely to be cleaned up by a filter. Even if you have filteration and all that you will still be doing a reasonable amount of cleaning up unless :/ one thing you can do is the the smallest nerite you can find that is still big enough that your betta won't snack on it so he produces a lot less. Depending on the personality of your betta, a shrimp is a good place to start for a tank mate. It's how I found out that one of my bettas can never ever have a tank mate.


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## AyalaCookiejar (Nov 20, 2012)

The filter will not clean up the poop. A Nerite will leave piles everywhere, mostly by the sides of the tank because they like the hard surface of the tank walls. A filter just keeps down the ammonia since snails have such a large bioload. With some extra sponge it should be okay.

I know that nerites pretty much eat constantly. I actually dose ferts in my unplanted tank to try to grow more algae. I'm not sure how fast one would eat an algae wafer but you'll want to stick it to the side of the tank somehow. They do not like gravel and wont probably eat algae off plants because they don't like crawling on the flimsy surface. Also, they are nocturnal so if your snail doesn't seem to be moving once, try checking on him in the morning before the tank lights come on. I always see my snail eating and moving in the morning when the lights are still off and was worried beforehand because I didn't see her moving around much at all when the lights were on.

I got mine from a member here but there is an LFS about an hour away from here that sells them. Keep in mind that they can live in freshwater and saltwater BUT they can only breed in brackish water. They lay eggs but they don't hatch in freshwater (this is good IMO because they won't overpopulated like ramshorns or pond snails). For this reason, you'd need a special set up to breed them which might be why they are not widely available.

I am getting a red cherry shrimp as well for my blind boys tank to clean up fallen food. That was why I initially had an issue with algae. But RCS, unlike nerites, will breed rapidly in freshwater. But they have a smaller bioload and will clean algae on more places than just the tank walls and hard surfaces.

Edit: I'll also mention that the snail also leaves poo stuck to the glass. It REALLY does not bother me but it requires a lot of turkey bastoring (lol). It doesn't take a whole lot of time and I quite enjoy watching my fish while I do it, but it does take quite a bit of maintenance. In a planted tank you don't need to worry about cleaning really well but it still might be an eyesore. ALSO, I'd keep in mind that if you do get a smaller sized snail, it will grow and still have a relatively big bio-load for its size, but cleaning out the poo is easy.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

*Update*

I have taken out the snail and will be giving it to a friend who has a 50 gallon.
My betta kept trying to eat the algae wafer and was head butting the snail. 
I checked back after about 15 minutes and the fish has a small scrape above his eye.
I'm very disappointed, and confused as to why he would keep eating and algae wafer??


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## AyalaCookiejar (Nov 20, 2012)

Bettas a curious and think they are always starving. It was probably a combination of the two, curiousity and hunger. Probably mostly curiousity. He was likely also curious about the snail and maybe a little territorial. Given a little more time he probably would have got used to it but I agree that some bettas are too aggressive for tankmates. My Nerite is in my blind boys tank and my blind boy never tries to attack her because, well, he can't see her, lol.

Some bettas actually will eat off the snails antennas but if he hurt himself trying to attack the snail then it was probably a good decision to remove him.


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

I got my red tracked nerites from Big Al's in Mississauga too!  Its a shame you won't be able to keep him  I have to take my snails out and put them in a cup to feed them because my female attacks them for their food. That the only time she bothers with them.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

Jexx said:


> I got my red tracked nerites from Big Al's in Mississauga too!  Its a shame you won't be able to keep him  I have to take my snails out and put them in a cup to feed them because my female attacks them for their food. That the only time she bothers with them.


Yes, i know. I'd already named him too.
Today i checked my water and have .25 ammonia.
So, i did a 50% water change and gravel vac.
I'm hoping the cycle wasn't disturbed, and it was just from the snail being in there with the algae wafer for 5 hours.


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

your cycle will be fine. don't worry.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

*Oh My*

Latest update.
He now has a large tear in his tail fin!!??


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## Jexx (Feb 2, 2013)

That's odd! I doubt it has anything to do with the snail though.. I think its just a bad coincidence. Well best that you had to remove the snail anyway. You should treat him with aq salt and frequent water changes. Snails don't like the salt.


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## AyalaCookiejar (Nov 20, 2012)

AQ salt isn't necessary. My girls get fin nips a lot and they heal on their own in clean water. Also, if its a straight tear down the middle (not a chunk missing or very jagged) it will probably healin a day or two without you doing anything.

Those straight tears are often caused by excess flaring.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

AyalaCookiejar said:


> AQ salt isn't necessary. My girls get fin nips a lot and they heal on their own in clean water. Also, if its a straight tear down the middle (not a chunk missing or very jagged) it will probably healin a day or two without you doing anything.
> 
> Those straight tears are often caused by excess flaring.


Yes it is straight tears. It's been a few days and i have done 2 50% water changes. I added StressCoat+ this morning. The tears are still there.
I also have had a few days of very slight ammonia (just under .25) due to the snail i think.
I will probably do another 50% change tomorrow. If i have screwed up my cycle when will I know for sure? Or, how long will the slight ammonia spike last before it drops back down?


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## AyalaCookiejar (Nov 20, 2012)

If you are seeing any ammonia then the cycle either crashed or was shocked by adding the Nerite snail and now needs to catch up.

You need to keep up water changes to keep down the ammonia or what I did when I added my snail was bought a bottle of tetra safestart and dumped the whole thing in. It will cloud the water. Retest in a day and see if there is ammonia. The safestart worked like a charm for me.

I still wouldn't use AQ salt. Just stews coat and clean warm water. My snail perked up tremendously after adding safestart.


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## slug61 (Feb 26, 2013)

AyalaCookiejar said:


> If you are seeing any ammonia then the cycle either crashed or was shocked by adding the Nerite snail and now needs to catch up.
> 
> You need to keep up water changes to keep down the ammonia or what I did when I added my snail was bought a bottle of tetra safestart and dumped the whole thing in. It will cloud the water. Retest in a day and see if there is ammonia. The safestart worked like a charm for me.
> 
> I still wouldn't use AQ salt. Just stews coat and clean warm water. My snail perked up tremendously after adding safestart.


Yes, I plan on doing 50% every other day for awhile, and adding StressCoat+
I cycled using SafeStart...it does work very well.


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