Rabbit Snails not eating :(

[Lennie]

Hey guys!

Hope you are all doing well😊.

As the title says, I need some help from experienced snail keepers regarding the rabbit snail diet as my lil guys (4 Poso Orange Rabbits) seem to be not super interested in the many food options I provide.

I have read so many forum posts and articles and watched so many videos about rabbit snail care and snail food requirements in general both prior to getting them and afterwards to make sure I give them the best care. But I really need opinions of you guys at this point.

I have a separate rabbit snail tank for them. My water parameters actually meet their requirements, a ph of 8.2 with hard water. I keep them at 27 Celcius. And the tank is cycled for sure. I don't wanna go into details to make the post even longer to read. But in my main tank, I have 4 nerite snails and so many MTS that all have perfect shells.

I have had them for almost 2 weeks now and overall they seem to be happy and are quite active. As of now, I've tried to feed them blanched collard greens, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, brussel sprouts, green beans, sweet potato and peas. We buy our stuff from the organic farmers market and keep the extra frozen food in our freezer from their original season, so all these foods are ready to be blanced any time!

From all the veggies I've mentioned, they really seemed to be eating green beans and collard greens but not always as if they eat collard greens one day they don't eat it again 2 days later. For others, like pumpkin or carrot, all I can see is really small nibs taken from it over the night. I feed either once or twice a day with different food each meal.

From fish food options, I've tried Hikari Algae wafers, crab cuisine, NLS Algaemax and Omega1 freshwater flakes. NLS has been nibbed a lil bit once, but others were ignored.

I made 2 different snellos with the mix of the abovementioned veggies, fish food with the addition of crushed&powedered eggshell of our own chickens' egg for calcium and agar-agar as a replacement of gelatin. They do not seem interested at all even when left in the tank overnight. I have a couple shrimp with them and they seem to be more interested in the snello but not the snails :(

Btw, I keep a small piece of natural cuttlebone in their tank just in case they wanna nib.

I see people have their snails swarming all over the food directly so I feel worried that mine are not:(

 

• Could you guys help me or give me any suggestions regarding their diet? Am I doing anything wrong?

• Considering they are active and looking healthy at the end of 2 weeks, maybe the really small amount of random nibs they have on the food I provide is enough? I'm just worried that they rarely nib on blanched veggies I provide and directly ignore any fish food so they lack protein in their diet.

• I feed my other tanks frozen spiriluna bloodworms and brine shrimp and freeze dried tubifex worms once a week. Maybe I should give them a try?

Thanks for the help in advance 🤍 🐌

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations on your new friends. Give them time. If they are active they are doing fine. There is probably some type of yummy in your tank they really are enjoying at the moment. Once that yummy  is gone they will eat more of what you offer. Continue offering and allow the veggies to sit in the tank for 24 hours. My kids who are 🐷 pigs don’t eat them until they are good and gooey. 
Most snails I introduce to a different tank don’t eat the food I offer for the first month. Even though in the tank they hatched and I grew them in they eat the prep foods well.  
 

Also do a night check. My kids eat primarily at night. If you have MTS those may be covering the food at night preventing the rabbit snails from eating. If the MTS are not in the same tank discard this info. 

[Lennie]

@Guppysnail Thank you for your kind response and help! 😊I've just checked the pics you have shared before and your lil friends are adorable! Hope they have a healthy & amazing days ahead of them!

I am used to see  all my pets  going after the food starting from day 1 and be piggies too 😄 When I see these rabbits nibbing fairly small and even ignoring to food at all still after 2 weeks, I was worried that I am not meeting their needs 😶 

Thankfully no MTS in rabbit snail tank, love the fellas, but I cannot imagine how could I control their population considering the amount and the time period of the food I provide to my rabbits haha😄They show me a good sign that my water help their shell growth well!

I have been keeping the blanched veggies/snello  in the tank for 10 hours max until now to make sure not to foul the water. I will try to increase the time period as you've offered by keeping an eye on the parameters. Maybe more often small water changes until they are used to eating.

I've noticed them being more active at night too! Usually the veggies I put in the tank seems to be nibbed on in the morning but in really small amounts for now. 

Thanks again!🐌

Cheers,

 

P.S: I am fairly new here, I hope tagging people while responding is okay. Wouldn't like to cause any unnecessary notification or disturbance :')

 

 

 

 

 

[Guppysnail]

Tagging is absolutely a good thing. 
I leave my veggies in until they are gone or 48 hours. @Torrey tested water every hour for a 24 hour period leaving veggies in. They had no noticeable impact on parameters in an established tank. It’s protein foods that cause issues. 
Welcome to the forum. I’m retired so never hesitate to tag me or ask a question. This forum is my social life 🤣

[Lennie]

Thanks for letting me know! Hoping there wont be any funny smell as I have my tanks in my bedroom. Haha 😄

Also feeling welcomed already thanks to you! Have been following Aquarium coop videos for a long time, will be fun to be a part of the community here. Better late than never 😺

It is always fun to learn more from each other, especially from our previous experiences!

Have a good one,

[Lennie]

@Guppysnail hey again! As an update, I have seen a couple of them randomly munching on the Catappa leaf I've dropped 2 weeks ago for the shrimps. Maybe that's the yummy in the tank😄. I assume it is no harm so I keep in the tank? It is only like 1/3 of a medium sized leaf piece, no difference in Ph readings over the weeks, still hard water with around 8.2 ph. 

The only side effect could be maybe it make them full so they dont eat the offered food much and eagerly? 

Hope you are having a great week!😊

Edited January 10, 2023 by Lennie

[Guppysnail]

On 1/10/2023 at 9:21 AM, Lennie said:

@Guppysnail hey again! As an update, I have seen a couple of them randomly munching on the Catappa leaf I've dropped 2 weeks ago for the shrimps. Maybe that's the yummy in the tank😄. I assume it is no harm so I keep in the tank? It is only like 1/3 of a medium sized leaf piece, no difference in Ph readings over the weeks, still hard water with around 8.2 ph. 

The only side affect could be maybe it make them full so they dont eat the offered food much and eagerly? 

Hope you are having a great week!😊

That’s great. I have hard water high ph/ kh. I was told I could put the whole tree in my tank and it would not affect anything. I did a semi black water tank once. Turns out even that had no affect on my gh/kh/ph. 
Feel free to feed those generously and they can be left in until they are gone. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Guppysnail

[Lennie]

@Guppysnail many thanks! 🙃 At least I can use my leaves again now. I used to drop them to my main tank but I dont want MTS population to bloom even more, so I have been avoiding it for some time.

As I mentioned, my water is pretty hard like yours as well and even  when I had 2 big driftwoods, alder cones and catappa leaf, I haven't seen any noticable difference on readings before too.

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Lennie

[Lennie]

I kinda wanna update my old topics as much as I can to make sure people who read this gets some info based on my experience.

 

Well, I wasn't doing anything wrong. Ive lost all those snails mentioned in this topic. they were %100 wildcaught. Probably went through poor shipping during winter time both during importing process and shipping to me. Obviously rabbits like warmer temps and cold weather was no good even with heat packs provided.

 

Now I have a different colony with various colors, 16 rabbits in total. All doing well after months, eating anything that has been refused before by that specific group.

 

My advice would be don't order rabbit snails during any weather that is even slightly cold really, or at least make sure they wont go low temp, whether it is heathing pack or so ( which I had in my order but they were still negatively affected) Mine seem to like all veggies and food I provide to my other snails. But they are SOO SLOW at eating.

 

And yes, They LOVE to have catappa leaves in their tanks and to snack on them. 

 

 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Lennie That's good to know. Thanks, and sorry for your losses. For some time, I weighed the various pros and cons of the various snails (knowing that I wanted some, other than the so-called pest snails) mainly comparing mystery, rabbit and nerites. I have settled on the nerites mainly due to the colors, which I really like, and the size (usually around 1" or so)... with my centerpiece fish only being 2-2.5", I didn't want the snails to end up growing to be the giants of the tank! lol

Still, at some point in the future, I would like to try the rabbit and other snails, when... sorry, I meant "if"... I get other tanks! Thanks. 

[Lennie]

On 8/28/2023 at 1:09 AM, JChristophersAdventures said:

@Lennie That's good to know. Thanks, and sorry for your losses. For some time, I weighed the various pros and cons of the various snails (knowing that I wanted some, other than the so-called pest snails) mainly comparing mystery, rabbit and nerites. I have settled on the nerites mainly due to the colors, which I really like, and the size (usually around 1" or so)... with my centerpiece fish only being 2-2.5", I didn't want the snails to end up growing to be the giants of the tank! lol

Still, at some point in the future, I would like to try the rabbit and other snails, when... sorry, I meant "if"... I get other tanks! Thanks. 

When you do, Id be glad to help

I love snails.

I currently have gold/blue/ivory mysteries, rabbits, spixis, ramshorn, mini ramshorn, bladders, japanese trapdoors, assasins, and nerites. Snail are fun 

 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Lennie Yes, they are! Thank you so much!