Mystery snail advice

[cmo1922]

Hi everyone! Long time reader of the forum and just signed up! I've been keeping low tech planted tanks now for about 5 years, generally having good success with most fauna and plants (thanks to this forum and ukaps!). However, one inhabitant I would love to keep but have not had the best success with is mystery snails.

I've had a few in the past. At first they seem to do well, growing rapidly, with non eroded shells. Then after about 6 months they just die. They have been added to established, cycled/seasoned tanks with flourishing plant, fish, and other invert life (neocardina, nerites, and ramshorn snails). My water is hard (GH of 12-15 depending on season) and has a pH of 7.8. My kh is around 4-5. My tanks are kept at room temp, which ranges from 71-75 f depending on time of year. My neocardina and ramshorns breed like crazy, and my nerites are all over 2-3 years old with good looking shells. I feed hikari algae wafers and occasional boiled veggies to my shrimp and snails, and they also get whatever pellets/frozen foods the fish don't eat.

I would love to try mysteries again but want to make sure I'm doing everything right this time. My suspicion is that I wasn't feeding enough and my neocardina and cories were out competing them for food. 

Anyone have any advice if I was to try them again? Are they just that short lived perhaps? Y'all think they need more food?

Thanks for your time and advice!

[Lennie]

Hi!

The average lifespan is usually 1ish years. Depends on the size you buy, 6 months may be normal (like adopting or buying an adult size) or under the ideal. Low 20Cs may make them a bit less active tho. 23-24-25C range is better I believe.

I would enrich their diet better and feed them daily. Especially in terms of calcium and greens. Would def add veggies preferably once every two days at least. I would encourage you to try making your own snello. Believe me, a life saver! I think fish leftovers and hikari one should cover their protein needs. Make sure to feed them daily. Hikari algae wafers dont contain much variety and ratio of algae if Im not mistaken. Might be nice to add some algae wafer which is rich in different algae types. Like Tropical's Hi-Algae for example, which ha 5 different algae types and amounting to more than %52 of the food. You may find stuff like that. Repashy must be a good option too I think. ( @Chick-In-Of-TheSea)

You should also closely observe your fish's behavior towards the snail. I had one in my panda guppy tank, which seemed not active much. Then one time, I saw that even the baby guppies were trying to bite it when it comes out of its shell. You never know. Your fish or other inverts might be bothering them too much. They cant see well and mainly depend on feeling stuff around them. So even shrimps may be bothering for them sometimes. Scared or hurt snail likely won't open and this may even lead to death.

Also make sure they have some space on top of the tank. They like it. They need it. Sometimes I see people fully filling their tank.

 

For a more in depth guide, check this out:

 

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Lennie

[cmo1922]

Thank you Lennie for the great advice and video. I feel silly for not knowing they lived such short lives! I suspect mine were already a few months old when I got them, as they were about the size of a nickel to a quarter. Knowing that they are shorter lived, I think I will try them again and try my hand at breeding, if I get lucky with a male and female. With my old snails, I had removed egg clutches before and didn't let them hatch.

I'll also order some higher quality algae wafers and repashy this time around to feed them better, and do better with the veggie enrichment. I think I'll try 2 in my 10 gallon which has a single oto, a bunch of shrimp and ramshorns, and shoal of emerald dwarf rasboras, which has the water a little lower (about 1.5 inches from the lid). You think that level is adequate for them to lay eggs (if I happen to get both sexes)?

Edited October 19, 2023 by cmo1922

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 10/19/2023 at 6:50 PM, Lennie said:

Repashy must be a good option too I think. ( @Chick-In-Of-TheSea)

Yes, I have a recipe in my signature line (Snello 1)