# Mystery snail?



## Madi92 (Feb 9, 2013)

Hi I was wondering is a mystery snail a good friend to put in a tank with a betta, and if so I was wondering how would you feed them with betas in your tank. And what are the best kinds of foods for them.

Ps what is a good feeding sceduel


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## Buttons000 (Feb 3, 2013)

They eat the algea that grows in your tank, so you don't really need to feed them. However I had one and it filled the tank up with snail poop. There was sooooo much from that little snail.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

Madi92 said:


> Hi I was wondering is a mystery snail a good friend to put in a tank with a betta, and if so I was wondering how would you feed them with betas in your tank. And what are the best kinds of foods for them.
> 
> Ps what is a good feeding sceduel


OK, snails eat a lot IME when they get bigger, so the algae might not sustain its growing appetite. I give him an algae wafer (broken up) once or twice a week. I also have 4 Amanos and they "steal" those wafers from the snail since they swim much faster. So if you have bottom feeders, shrimps, or other livestock, including betta, they all nibble on the algae wafer by Aqueon IME.


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## LadyVictorian (Nov 23, 2011)

How big is your tank? You need at least a 5 gallon for a mystery snail. They get pretty big too, larger than golfballs so honestly I wouldn't do anything under 10 gallons with them.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

LadyVictorian said:


> How big is your tank? You need at least a 5 gallon for a mystery snail. They get pretty big too, larger than golfballs so honestly I wouldn't do anything under 10 gallons with them.


5.6g filled with 5g water, hopefully, he will stop growing, right now about 1.5" diameter, another thought is to get a 10g tank


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

They will eat algae, decomposing plant matter, fish food, cucumbers...algae waffers


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

FYI, neither snail nor shrimp will eat the #2, so you will still need to clean the tank, vacuuming or WC.


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## BulletToothBoris (Jan 8, 2013)

They eat dead ghost shrimp too.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

i'd say they are great tank mates with regards to being uninteresting for a betta to lash out at and they dont lay a crazy amount of eggs without a pair present but they will eat and poo a fair bit attributing to the bioload in the tank.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

Madi92 said:


> Hi I was wondering is a mystery snail a good friend to put in a tank with a betta, and if so I was wondering how would you feed them with betas in your tank. And what are the best kinds of foods for them.
> 
> Ps what is a good feeding sceduel


MS is fine with a betta in a 5g tank, they grow and 2.5g will be way too small IME. Also, they eat and mow through anything in its path, including my stem plants hygrophilia that got uprooted from the substrate and I have to stick it back into the substrate.

Any algae wafers will do IME, i use Aqueon. Like shrimps, MS also eat left over fish food. I have yet to try feeding real veg.

I feed my 4 amano shrimps and MS once every 2 days, at night before my bedtime, or so since they need to work on cleaning the tank :-D


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## LadyVictorian (Nov 23, 2011)

If you plant the tank by the way it will be easier upkeep with the MS. Also a fully cycled tank. My 10 gallon I pick up the gravel twice a week to get some of the poo i can find and let my live plants use the rest as fertilizer. It's been working great so far, my cycle has held and in my experience my pond snail poos more than my mystery snail.


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