# Baby Snails!



## FlyingCuttlefish (Oct 4, 2013)

I went out to the local Petco today and bought two ghost shrimp for my betta tank. I noticed the tank that they were keeping them in also had a few baby snails, when I notified the employee he pretty much just said "Oh, here you go" and just... gave them to me for free. I'd be more than happy to keep them, but I'm afraid of overcrowding my tank. We're planning on setting up a new tank for these three babies, but we're not sure on what type of species they even are. One of them is most likely a zebra snail, and the other two look like acute bladder snails.

Sadly when I try to look up snail care for these guys, 99% of the time it's how to get RID of them. Has anybody ever tried to keep them in their little ecosystems?


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## ZZD (Jan 13, 2013)

I got some plants from my LFS and bladder and pond snails appeared in my tank just after. I had a population explosion so I did trim the herd down a bit, but I do actually keep the little dudes in all my tanks. They clean stuff up and its not hard to remove a few if I get too many. I also have a zebra snail cause I love them. The big key is to make sure you have calcium in the tank if you want the snails to grow healthy. They grow their own shells. I put in a chunk of cuttle bone in all my tanks and occasionally add a bit of calcium as well when I do big water changes.

They eat left over food and dead plant matter and such so if they aren't going to be with fish you'll want to give them a pinch of flakes now and then. One issue is that if you over feed them the bladder snails/pond snails will start popping out babies and you can quickly be over run. If the other is a zebra snail then you won't have to worry about that one breeding as they need a mate and a whole song and dance to reproduce.

Hope that helps! I'm by no means a snail expert, but if you have any questions feel free to ask! I've been managing my snail herd for quite some time and they seem to be doing well as there's always a handful around my tanks and my zebra snails have been a lot of fun to keep in my tank.


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## Siobhan (Nov 11, 2013)

I like snails and I have a tank devoted to them, with a betta for company (mostly I got the betta because I hate seeing them in those cups at the store and I thought the snail tank could support him, too). They do multiply at an alarming rate. I set up the tank as I would have for a betta (this was long before I got the betta) with plants and decorations and a heater and a filter pump and I toss in a couple of algae pellets every couple of days because, with all those snails, there isn't any real algae for them to eat. I gave them a slice of cucumber yesterday and it took them a while to notice it but once they did, they bombarded it and now they're all fighting over it. You can't even see the slice for the snails attached to it. You're going to have to clean the tank more often with snails in it than you would otherwise because they poop a LOT.


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## givemethatfish (Feb 10, 2014)

I had a mild panic attack when I first noticed the pond snails appearing in my 54 gallon tank. I had visions of them taking over the world. But they really haven't taken over, and a lot of their shells are quite pretty. I'd say I have maybe 2 dozen at any given time - once a week I pick out 10 or so and throw them to my dwarf puffer for some live food. But they aren't reproducing nearly as quickly as I had feared. They also help clean up the glass and the sand. I quite like them now.


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## TheAnimaLover (Jun 8, 2014)

No biggie for snails give 'em a piece of lettuce to keep them away from your plants remove the lettuce at the end of the day


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