# Tiny Snail/Invert Tank?



## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

Hey! I haven't been on this forum forever as my betta passed away sometime last year. I don't have plans to set up the tank again soon, mainly because I don't currently have a convenient place to put something so heavy. However, I recently thought it would be cute to have a very small, simple, aquatic tank/bowl in my room. I'm obviously not willing to harm an animal by putting it in a small tank just because it would be cute, and I know that there's no fish that can be kept in anything smaller than 2.5g, so I'm turning my curiosity to inverts, which sadly are a lot harder for me to find information on.
I love the look of this "tank" (more of a a bowl lol) http://a.co/e0orVbR and I like the idea of the water-change reservoir mechanism. Is there anything that could be kept in something so small (.7g) without daily 100% changes? Maybe changing the reservoir once or twice a day? My idea was a single nerite or mystery snail (possibly two nerites if the tank would allow). But if that wouldn't work, I'm open to anything else that could.

I am very sorry if this sounds like a naive question, I've only kept snails once before (2 mysteries with my betta in a fitered/heated 5g), and I couldn't find very solid information on minimum requirements or for keeping them in no-filter tanks. Meeting the animals' needs is my priority and I won't hesitate to drop the idea of this tank if the consensuses is that there's nothing it can possibly accommodate.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Hi! Welcome back.

Personally I'd go with a gallon either bowl, or tank, rather then anything less then a gallon. It'll make your life easier in the long run when it comes to water changes because snails poop a lot.

Yes, you can successfully keep snails in a small container but until you have algae in the tank I'd skip the nerites as that's about the only thing they'll eat, I have 2 and I have not seen them anywhere near the algae wafers I put in the tank for my other snails, or the snello that I've put in. I think Mystery snails may get a bit too big for such a small tank as on average they get to be around 2 inches and some can get larger. I'd go with ramshorns, or bladder snails, and of the 2 I like ramshorns best I may be biased though LOL.

I started out with 3 baby ramshorns and a piece of anacharis in a rubbermaid container that had maybe 1/2 gal of water in it. No heater, no filtration, just a bit of gravel on the bottom. They quickly outgrew the container and I was having to do water changes every other day. I moved them and the anacharis into a gallon aquarium, again no filter and no heater, but a lot more gravel. The tank was by my kitchen window, and the snails and plant thrived. I did water changes maybe every 2 weeks but despite that when I tested the water the tank was cycled with 0 ammonia 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrate. Eventually I moved everyone into a 2 gal tank, I had one i wasn't using, since it was winter and that temp in the tank was getting into the mid 60's at night I finally put a heater in. Fast forward to the beginning of Dec... the snails and plant are in a 3 gallon and are joined by a betta. 

If you try it I'd go with a fast growing plant, to help maintain water quality, like I have in my tank, and do NOT over feed the snails or you'll have a snail populations explosion. I fed mine 2 to 3 times a week, but now feed them only once a week since the betta sometimes misses his food and they can eat that. They eat algae wafers, snello, blanched or wilted vegetables like spinach, zucchini, and cucumber.

1st picture is of one from when I first got them (they were stowaways in a batch of mylasian trumpet snail that I had ordered) 2nd picture is around a month later of them in their rubbermaid container right before I moved them to the 1 gal tank. 3rd and 4th picture is of the one gal tank. 5th picture is of all 3 of them a couple weeks later, they are all grown up and if you look a bit to the left of them you'll see that they've also started a family and have laid eggs.


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## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

Thank you so much for all of the information!

I started checking amazon for 1 gallons, would all of these be fine?
http://a.co/4KqonkJ (this one has a filter, so maybe it would be best?)
http://a.co/5KwmkXA
http://a.co/fAiUTf1 

How quickly do ramshorns breed, and/or is there a way to keep them from doing so? I was interested in nerites since they don't breed in freshwater, because I'm not interested in breeding them or getting more tanks, not sure where I would be able to give babies to, and I'd prefer not to have to kill eggs/babies if possible.


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

Ramshorns.. If they are anything like pond snails, lets just say I had a 5.5G tank overrun with them in a month... Without feeding. It was my previous shrimp tank, so it was established and had lots of natural food for them to graze on, though. One Bladder snail can lay an egg sac (containing 1-50ish? babies) like, almost every other day. I also believe that they don't need two snails of the same gender to breed, but I could be wrong.

*IMO* I would get shrimp if that's an option. Although they need more care in terms of water quality, they come in a huge array of bright colors and produce little to basically no biload, depending on how much you feed them. Also, they don't breed quite as readily as snails, but you can't remove the eggs as you would snail eggs. You can always suck the little shrimp up with a turkey baster and move them to another tank or euthanize them somehow.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

PuppyMintMocha said:


> Thank you so much for all of the information!
> 
> I started checking amazon for 1 gallons, would all of these be fine?
> http://a.co/4KqonkJ (this one has a filter, so maybe it would be best?)
> ...


Mine started breeding around a month after I got them. Since I do not give them a lot of supplemental food, and they mainly eat any dead leaves from the anacharis, algae, and biofilm, most of the babies do not survive and are out competed by the adults. I started with 3 and now have 6, and I've had the original 3 since May 2017. I do cull the eggsacs if I see them on the wall of the tank, but that's about all I do, besides not over feeding them. 

That second tank looks really neat! I have the last one, and it'll work fine. If you go with Ramshorns and want to watch the snails glide across the top of the water eating biofilm then skip the one with the bubbler, it'll make it impossible to do so since the surface of the water will be too agitated.


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## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

Thank you!

I heard of one tip for feeding nerites, of putting several rocks in water by a sunny window to grow algae, and swapping them back and forth with the rocks in the tank as the ones in the tank are stripped. Would this work?
Also do nerites, or ramshorns, eat marimo balls?


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## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

ThatFishThough said:


> Ramshorns.. If they are anything like pond snails, lets just say I had a 5.5G tank overrun with them in a month... Without feeding. It was my previous shrimp tank, so it was established and had lots of natural food for them to graze on, though. One Bladder snail can lay an egg sac (containing 1-50ish? babies) like, almost every other day. I also believe that they don't need two snails of the same gender to breed, but I could be wrong.
> 
> *IMO* I would get shrimp if that's an option. Although they need more care in terms of water quality, they come in a huge array of bright colors and produce little to basically no biload, depending on how much you feed them. Also, they don't breed quite as readily as snails, but you can't remove the eggs as you would snail eggs. You can always suck the little shrimp up with a turkey baster and move them to another tank or euthanize them somehow.


I love shrimp! The only reason I'm weary about trying to keep them in such a small tank is that I've heard it's pretty important for them to be in a cycled tank, and that it's impossible to properly cycle a single gallon. I tried putting some ghost shrimp in my 5g when it was set up, and they all died within a couple weeks...


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

PuppyMintMocha said:


> Thank you!
> 
> I heard of one tip for feeding nerites, of putting several rocks in water by a sunny window to grow algae, and swapping them back and forth with the rocks in the tank as the ones in the tank are stripped. Would this work?
> Also do nerites, or ramshorns, eat marimo balls?


You're welcome!

Nothing that I know eats Marimo, if you do see snails on it they are likely either eating other types of algae off of it, eating a part of it that has died, or eating some other food off of it.

Yep, you can grow algae for nerites that way. I would recommend you having an algae source for them before getting them. If you get a female she most likely will lay eggs, but in a freshwater tank the eggs won't hatch. If you get lucky and get males you won't have any eggs.


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## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

Thanks! How many nerite snails tops would you recommend, and what would be the best water change schedule?


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## sabrinah (Jan 2, 2015)

Another option is assassin snails. Beautiful black and yellow/orange striped guys. You could feed them meaty food or keep a population of Malaysian trumpet snails in the tank. Assassin snails eat other snails so the MTS population would never explode and the assassins reproduce extremely slowly. Their eggs are also very easy to see and could be removed.


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## PuppyMintMocha (Sep 18, 2016)

sabrinah said:


> Another option is assassin snails. Beautiful black and yellow/orange striped guys. You could feed them meaty food or keep a population of Malaysian trumpet snails in the tank. Assassin snails eat other snails so the MTS population would never explode and the assassins reproduce extremely slowly. Their eggs are also very easy to see and could be removed.


Thanks for the suggestion! How much would having all the Malaysian trumpet snails in there as well affect the bioload?


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## Tanyuu (Jul 6, 2015)

Noticed this thread on the recent discussions board when checking my thread- I actually have some experience with this!

There's a ton of different species of shrimp, and they all have different temperaments. I first tried ghost/grass shrimp, and those tend to be pretty brave, even snagging the tail of my poor betta if he got too close. Cherry shrimp (or any type of Neocaridina davidi) are smaller, which is why they're horrible to keep with bettas in most cases. Amano shrimp, which I have, get bigger (especially females) and are a little more shy, except when there's any food (especially algae!!) about. They don't really have claws of any kind, and are very peaceful. One warning: when getting clear nondescript shrimp, watch out for Macrobrachium, which sometimes get mixed up pet stores. They often have long claws, so they're pretty distinctive. I've never had this happen to me, just heard horror stories, as they're very aggressive. Some people love them, though. XD

Snails tend to have high bioloads, so my tank with betta, two snails, and two amano shrimp are cutting it close, but if you add lots of real plants, keep up on cleaning, and make sure the tank is cycled, it gets much easier. You might even find it's a lot easier to keep clean, too! There's some cute 5 gallon tanks out there, and they are able to be cycled.

I will say that nerite snails will not produce eggs if you get two different kinds. I have one zebra and one tiger nerite, and have had no eggs of any sort. Just keep in mind that zebra and tiger nerites get much bigger than, say, olive nerites, which was my mistake. XD This is why my 5.5 tank has two nerites that are 3/4" or so big, which wasn't my intention at all, haha.

If you get shrimp/nerites/etc, make sure to get some cuttlebone (yep, the one in the parrot section) or some other source of calcium for them. If not, especially for snails, they'll start develop holes in their shells.


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## cakes488 (Dec 2, 2015)

PuppyMintMocha said:


> Thank you!
> 
> I heard of one tip for feeding nerites, of putting several rocks in water by a sunny window to grow algae, and swapping them back and forth with the rocks in the tank as the ones in the tank are stripped. Would this work?
> Also do nerites, or ramshorns, eat marimo balls?


Here's a pretty good site for aquatic snail info. I have had the ramshorn and found them to be low maintenance. I'm a one snail to a tank type of gal. My ramshorn just died, he/she was 2 years +.

http://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/freshwater-snails/ramshorn-snail/


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## cakes488 (Dec 2, 2015)

Rainbo said:


> Hi! Welcome back.
> 
> Personally I'd go with a gallon either bowl, or tank, rather then anything less then a gallon. It'll make your life easier in the long run when it comes to water changes because snails poop a lot.
> 
> ...


Do you know I just throw the lettuce or whatever in the tank and the snail eats it. I've never blanched. :wink3:


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

cakes488 said:


> Do you know I just throw the lettuce or whatever in the tank and the snail eats it. I've never blanched. :wink3:


I blanched it because when I just threw it in it floated around until it finally wilted. Blanching wilted it before i put it in the tank, and neither my ramshorns or my mts will bother with fresh produce, picky little beggars! Now I don't bother with the produce and just give them snello and algae wafers, mainly snello since it has a lot more calcium. I used the recipe found here https://steemit.com/snails/@snailshack/for-the-aquatic-snail-keeper-snello-recipe I like the recipe because it calls for actual calcium tablets and not Tums. If you make it gently stir the ingredients if you stir hard then you'll incorporate air into the snello and it'll float in the tank and not sink.


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## cakes488 (Dec 2, 2015)

Rainbo said:


> I blanched it because when I just threw it in it floated around until it finally wilted. Blanching wilted it before i put it in the tank, and neither my ramshorns or my mts will bother with fresh produce, picky little beggars! Now I don't bother with the produce and just give them snello and algae wafers, mainly snello since it has a lot more calcium. I used the recipe found here https://steemit.com/snails/@snailshack/for-the-aquatic-snail-keeper-snello-recipe I like the recipe because it calls for actual calcium tablets and not Tums. If you make it gently stir the ingredients if you stir hard then you'll incorporate air into the snello and it'll float in the tank and not sink.


I didn't even feed the poor snail for the longest time. I was completely ignorant. Thanks goodness I finally read up on it and fed the poor thing. The problem I had is the betta ate the algae wafer (so I never graduated to making snello). The betta would eat the whole thing (how do you stop that??) so I stopped that and went with the fresh produce. It was an experiment to see if the snail would eat it 'raw'. This guy did !! If I saw he wouldn't then I guess I would be forced to blanch. 

I'm snail-less right now but plan on buying one for each tank in March or April when the weather gets warmer. :smile2:


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