# Help! My betta hates my mystery snail



## maggiea218 (May 18, 2013)

My betta always seemed so gentle mannered compared to other betas. I've never seen him flare, not once. He was in a community tank when I bought him and he seemed to get along great with tank mates so when I upgraded to a 10 gallon tank, I decided to start small with a mystery snail. My snail seemed so shy at first so I put an algae wafer in to see if he'd come out. While he was making his way out my betta starting ripping the algae Wafer to pieces and eating it. I took it out after a while because I didn't want him to over eat but that was it, once he thought the snail was food he just continued to torture him. I took the snail out and put him in another tank to eat for a day and he was fine, moving all over but when I put him back in the tank today, my betta started at him again and now he won't come out. I bought a divider for the tank but I'm just annoyed because from what I've heard, betas are fine with snails, am I wrong? I was going to get a few other fish but now I'm hesitant because I feel like he'll just torture them too! Help!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Betta are individuals with, believe it or not, distinct personalities. Not all Bettas can tolerate snails and others ignore them. Yours seems to be the former. I don't know, but it could be the size. Do you have a larger snail you could try in your Betta's tank?


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## Rainbows (Sep 17, 2012)

Truly, my betta had the same issue with my guppies and snail. They will flare, try to attack, ect because they are like us, curious. Give him times to know what it is. Also your snail will be fine


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## maggiea218 (May 18, 2013)

I just bought one from the pet store and that's all I plan on having because I hear they dirty up the tank pretty good. I guess compared to how big mystery snails can get he's small but I don't even know if a bigger snail would help of he just thought they were food too


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## Rainbows (Sep 17, 2012)

maggiea218 said:


> I just bought one from the pet store and that's all I plan on having because I hear they dirty up the tank pretty good. I guess compared to how big mystery snails can get he's small but I don't even know if a bigger snail would help of he just thought they were food too


Give your betta time. They are as curious as we are. Your snail will be fine, sometimes they are a bit lazy just like my mystery snail. They only seem to come out at certain times of the day. I mean, if you got a new dog wouldn't you bug it too?  Hope that helps


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

I got a mystery snail once, and my betta attacked it twice within a couple of minutes, including biting off one of its eyestalks. :-? So I took the snail out. Eventually, he was in a 10 gallon divided tank that developed an algae problem. I was afraid to put a nerite on his side because of the way he acted with the mystery snail, but eventually I put a nerite in with him, and he totally ignores it. Nerites hardly protrude from their shells at all, so the betta basically just sees a gliding "rock" from it's POV, rather than this weird creature emerging from a shell and acting like it owns his tank. haha.


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