Okesa Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 The school I work at has several aquariums that had been kind of neglected. I am slowly replacing broken equipment and doing upgrades. There are currently two heated tanks, and two that are unheated. In the heated tanks, I added some nerite snails to keep the glass clean. So far they have done a pretty great job. I would like to add nerite snails to the unheated tanks, but I am concerned that the water temperature in the winter (possibly as cold as around 15°C) will be too cold for them, as everything I've seen online says they prefer temperatures in the 20s. Some websites seem to suggest that they will just become less active in colder water, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. Will nerite snails be ok? If not, does anyone have any recommendations for snails who will eat algae on the tank glass and that can tolerate cold water? (Alternatively, should I just try to convince the school to purchase some additional heaters? One tank has a Gnathopogon elongatus that was caught from the local river, 6 amano shrimp, and some snails that came with the river sand someone used as substrate who aren't really doing much to keep the glass clean. The other has the eel that I posted about here). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonske Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Trap door snails, bladder and pond snails should do well and help with the algae, if you don't mind their not-so-flashy appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GardenStateGoldfish Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Nerite snails are one of the more cold tolerant snails so I don’t think it will be an issue having them in an unheated tank as long as it doesnt get much lower than 15C my basement tanks get into the higher 40Fs and my nerites do just fine, but if you worried you can always add rams horn snails 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 For cold water tanks I always have Ramshorn snails their a great algae eater 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Personally I’d go with nerites and/or Malaysian Trumpets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccurtis Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 Nerites should be ok, but if you are concerned, rams horn or bladder snails work great. The only think about the rams horn and bladder snails is they are going to rapidly reproduce so you will end up with a lot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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