# Snails...?



## nicolejayne (Jan 20, 2014)

I'm not sure if this is the right category, but is it possible to keep snails in a tank without fish if you feed them appropriate food? I have been considering getting some nerite snails and was wondering if they multiply/reproduce much when there are two together in the tank?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Of course it is! Nerites do not breed in freshwater, they may lay eggs though but he chances of them actually hatching are slim to none. 

I'll see if I can get it moved to the "other fish" section


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

Nerites are pretty cool. I have one that I got 2 years ago from Ebay of all places. He's chillin in a 5 gallon tank with a betta. I do drop in 1/2 of a small algae waffer for him to nibble on. I tried cucumber but he dosent seem to be interested in it though. 

Every now and then I do a 100% water change though even though its a cycled tank. Nerites may be small but they are still poop machines and I feel that vaccuming dosen't really get much of the poop out.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

best introduced to well established aquariums with a good supply of biofilm.biofilm and algae are preferred natural foods.they will only eat supplemental foods when they are near to starving.algae wafers and blanched zucchini medallions are good supplemental foods.i do not feed mine,they have more than enough natural foods to take care of them. if ph is under 7.5 you will need a calcium supplement to stop shell erosion.egg shells or cuttle bone are good examples.


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## 2muttz (Aug 16, 2013)

I think an snail only tank would be such fun and fascinating to watch!

Depending on tank size you could have a couple of tiny nerites and a mystery snail for variety/diversity. Mystery snails are easy - they are scavengers and you could just drop in some veggie wafers and fish food now and then.

Nerites are more picky eaters, but will keep your tank free of algae. I "grow" algae rocks for mine in a tub and just rotate the rocks around so they always have at least one fresh source of algae. You can also leave the lights on a bit longer than usual to help spur algae growth. ** You could start growing the rocks before getting the snails I suppose if you wanted to have food prepared in advance.

And yes, they will need some calcium. And regular cleaning just like fish.

You could really have fun and add some shrimp. They'll feel safe without fish around and you'll see them all the time! But I think shrimp are more delicate so you'll need to watch your parameters more closely if you do...


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## Kumo (Oct 26, 2013)

I love snails. They're good edition to any fresh water tank (I'm not knowledgeable on salt water tanks, so they might be good there as well). They're good at cleaning algae off things in your tank :3 Sometimes my snails would get on the air tube or some other odd place in the tank which left me wondering "how the heck did they get there?" haha.

The way to check if they're dead, if you suspect they're dead, is to pick them up and they'll have a very particular, bad odor about them. If they somehow get turned upside down, I always recommend "helping" them and turning them right-side up.


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