Talk to me about snails!

**CrunchyLeaf** · 06-25-2012, 03:53 AM

I have a coiuple of questions about snails. So I'll just lay them out and see what advice there is.

1 - How do you tell the difference between a mystery snail and a nerite snail?

2 - I have a tank that is already on the edge of stocking, but I would like to add a snail. Is their bioload negligible?

3 - I want to buy plants from my LFS, but I have yet to do so because I'm terrified of getting a snail outbreak from their tanks. I don't have a place near me that sells assassin snails to take care of it and I don't care to buy them online and pay for shipping. The only plants I've ever bought are the TopFin brand ones that come packaged outside of water in individual plastic tubes, but the choice is very limited.

4 - Would adding a snail to my tank endanger my tiger shrimp (They are about the size of ghost shrimp) or my ADF?

That's all for now. Thanks!

**Tolite** · 06-25-2012, 04:32 AM

1. Nerite snails are stripy apple / mystery snails are not (brown red yellow blue) they are easy to tell apart

2. You may get a population boom mystery snails are not hermaphrodites so if you only get one yer okay more then that with heat and over feeding and you could have more then you barggened for the actually produce a hugebio load in moderate numbers mystery snails will consume your plants

3. Dipp your plants to avoid any hitchhickers

4. Your ship are in no danger

**CrunchyLeaf** · 06-25-2012, 02:54 PM

Thanks Tolite,

What do I dip them in?

**madagascariensis** · 06-25-2012, 05:41 PM

a weak solution of bleach, alum or potassium permanganate.

**ekfishlover2011** · 06-27-2012, 01:55 PM

I have a striped apple snail, so thats probably not the best way to tell apart... Apple snails (mystery snails) have ridges on their shells. I dont know the proper term. Neither snail is of any harm to your shrimp or other tank inhabitants. Maybe pictures would help show what i mean...

See how defined the egdes of the shell are on this very dirty apple snail? Thats what i mean by ridges. These guys can get quite large, the largest ive had was about the size of a golf ball, and are pretty fast, but not as fast as nerites, but for some reason they never last long in my tanks and seem to die within 3 months everytime. They can breed in freshwater, but dont very often, and are not hermaphrodites, they actually need one male and one female. Some eat plants others dont. Fish stores sell them all together so its hard to know which to pick unless they let you inspect them all out of water (doubt they will).

This is a zebra nerite snail, which has an almost seamless shell with barely noticeable ridges as it goes to the point. Also these guys stay rather small, are very fast, and seem to be much more hardy IME than the apples. They are unable to breed at all in freshwater and need brackish water to do so, so there is no worries at all of a population explosion from these guys. However, the females do lay infertile eggs all over the place constantly, and they are very strong eggs that dont like to come off of things easily. Ive had these guys live about 2 years before a freak accident with dumb snails and a heater. They probably could live much longer. Also, they dont eat plants.