Best food for snail? (Besides algae)

[Whitecloud09]

Hi everyone, hitting y’all with another question, I am new to snails, and wanted to ask one question,  what do I feed my nerite? I am getting one this weekend, and wanted to know what’s best, I have PLENTY of algae for him to go to work in my 10g, but was wondering for a side food, whenever he cleans up most of my algae (hoping he will). Algae wafers? Some other treat? Suggestions? Just algae? Thanks oh and this is another option I saw ⬇️. I just wanted to see what was best 🙂

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/fish-food/products/nano-banquet-food-blocks

Edited May 22 by Whitecloud09

[johnnyxxl]

Snails like veggies.  So maybe some leafy green stuff that's starting to rot.

[CoryWithAKatana]

They enjoy munching on zucchini and cucumber sometimes, they will eat biofilm on wood and decor. Algae Wafers are good too, lastly they will also nibble on pellet food for the fish if they find leftovers

[TOtrees]

I haven't yet met a snail that didn't do just fine on the leavings from fish and/or shrimps (doesn't mean they aren't out there, but I haven't met them, and I've done nerites, limpets, MTS, ramshorn, rabbits, chopstick, mystery). If you have an overpopulation situation, or you're breeding a particular snail for numbers or quality, they maybe you can go over and above, but for one or a couple of nerites I don't see a need. 

I'd monitor the algae situation, and see if/how it changes. IME nerites aren't great with 3d algaes, but are pretty good with 2d ones. They're scrapers, so they do well with diatoms and the like, and I haven't really seen them take on hair or thread types. In my tanks, I almost always see them on glass or large leaves or rocks. 

[Guupy42]

I always have enough algae for my snail to eat, but I read that they will also eat dead leaves on your plants. They can also go for leftover fish flakes sometimes. I have tried to feed algae wafers to my Nerite, but the guppies always think it's a toy and push it away, eat it all, and do whatever to make sure the snail DOESN'T get to it.😂 Feed the snail at night, because Nerites are nocturnal. You probably won't have to feed it too much other food, though. They will find enough algae themselves to keep themselves happy.

Edited May 22 by Guupy42

[Tony s]

They will basically eat anything organic. Leftover food. Dead plant material. Dead fish. If it’s edible at all. She’ll get it. But slowly. Leave her the algae to eat for a while. Then if you start to run out. Or you want to give a treat. Algae wafers work. Veggies definitely work. But don’t leave any treats too long in the tank or we go back to the ammonia thing again 

[VanDogh]

The others gave you good answers, basically veggies and algae waffers but I wanted to add: make sure they have calcium too they need it for their shells

[Tony s]

On 5/22/2024 at 11:24 AM, VanDogh said:

make sure they have calcium too they need it for their shells

Yes. That’s true. But also depends on the hardness of the water. In good hard snail water , they can get it directly from the water. In neutral water, supplements are a good idea 

[Whitecloud09]

On 5/22/2024 at 8:39 AM, johnnyxxl said:

Snails like veggies.  So maybe some leafy green stuff that's starting to rot.

Got it, thanks. 

 

On 5/22/2024 at 9:09 AM, CoryWithAKatana said:

They enjoy munching on zucchini and cucumber sometimes, they will eat biofilm on wood and decor. Algae Wafers are good too, lastly they will also nibble on pellet food for the fish if they find leftovers

Thanks @CoryWithAKatana

 

On 5/22/2024 at 9:22 AM, TOtrees said:

I haven't yet met a snail that didn't do just fine on the leavings from fish and/or shrimps (doesn't mean they aren't out there, but I haven't met them, and I've done nerites, limpets, MTS, ramshorn, rabbits, chopstick, mystery). If you have an overpopulation situation, or you're breeding a particular snail for numbers or quality, they maybe you can go over and above, but for one or a couple of nerites I don't see a need. 

I'd monitor the algae situation, and see if/how it changes. IME nerites aren't great with 3d algaes, but are pretty good with 2d ones. They're scrapers, so they do well with diatoms and the like, and I haven't really seen them take on hair or thread types. In my tanks, I almost always see them on glass or large leaves or rocks. 

Yeah i have 2d and 3d, i got diatoms and normal green algae. I also have hair alage, and flakey algae, unsure of the name. But i can use a toothbrush to get it out. 

 

On 5/22/2024 at 9:44 AM, Guupy42 said:

I always have enough algae for my snail to eat, but I read that they will also eat dead leaves on your plants. They can also go for leftover fish flakes sometimes. I have tried to feed algae wafers to my Nerite, but the guppies always think it's a toy and push it away, eat it all, and do whatever to make sure the snail DOESN'T get to it.😂 Feed the snail at night, because Nerites are nocturnal. You probably won't have to feed it too much other food, though. They will find enough algae themselves to keep themselves happy.

Thanks, @Guupy42

On 5/22/2024 at 11:24 AM, VanDogh said:

The others gave you good answers, basically veggies and algae waffers but I wanted to add: make sure they have calcium too they need it for their shells

Yes, i am getting some crushed coral as my water is super soft. thanks @VanDogh!

[Whitecloud09]

On 5/22/2024 at 9:44 AM, Guupy42 said:

I always have enough algae for my snail to eat, but I read that they will also eat dead leaves on your plants. They can also go for leftover fish flakes sometimes. I have tried to feed algae wafers to my Nerite, but the guppies always think it's a toy and push it away, eat it all, and do whatever to make sure the snail DOESN'T get to it.😂 Feed the snail at night, because Nerites are nocturnal. You probably won't have to feed it too much other food, though. They will find enough algae themselves to keep themselves happy.

So read this again, maybe I should go with a 2 day feeding calendar per week? Idk. How many days a week shoudl I feed them other food BESIDES algae. I like me a consistent schedule 😅

[EricksonAquatics]

There’s already a lot of great input, but I’ll still share my experience and two cents haha

I tried to supplement my nerites diet with the Hikari mini algae wafers because I was worried that he wasn’t getting enough to eat. But that didn’t work out so well since my Betta decided he wanted to be an herbivore and snatch that algae wafer before the snail could get to it🙈And plus the snail was sitting right next to it but moved on like it wasn’t there.

Honestly I would only feed the snail once your tank “runs out of algae”. If you have a decent amount of diatoms (their main favorite) and other flat algae’s like green dust or green spot algae, you really shouldn’t need to feed them extra. But you can still give other foods a try for sure! 
I saw mine munching on a catappa leaf I threw in there a couple times. 🙂

Edited May 22 by EricksonAquatics

[Guupy42]

On 5/22/2024 at 12:59 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

So read this again, maybe I should go with a 2 day feeding calendar per week? Idk. How many days a week shoudl I feed them other food BESIDES algae. I like me a consistent schedule 😅

If you want a consistent schedule, I would recommend you do research, but a rough estimate is about once every 2-3 days. The PetSmart employee told me when I got my snail that when Nerites are young, they will eat an algae wafer in 2 days, but they will grow, and eventually be able to finish a wafer in a single day.

[Whitecloud09]

On 5/22/2024 at 3:39 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

There’s already a lot of great input, but I’ll still share my experience and two cents haha

I tried to supplement my nerites diet with the Hikari mini algae wafers because I was worried that he wasn’t getting enough to eat. But that didn’t work out so well since my Betta decided he wanted to be an herbivore and snatch that algae wafer before the snail could get to it🙈And plus the snail was sitting right next to it but moved on like it wasn’t there.

Honestly I would only feed the snail once your tank “runs out of algae”. If you have a decent amount of diatoms (their main favorite) and other flat algae’s like green dust or green spot algae, you really shouldn’t need to feed them extra. But you can still give other foods a try for sure! 
I saw mine munching on a catappa leaf I threw in there a couple times. 🙂

Sweet thanks, yes I am going tomorrow, I will try the algae wafers for sure! Thanks again @EricksonAquatics.

On 5/22/2024 at 5:18 PM, Guupy42 said:

If you want a consistent schedule, I would recommend you do research, but a rough estimate is about once every 2-3 days. The PetSmart employee told me when I got my snail that when Nerites are young, they will eat an algae wafer in 2 days, but they will grow, and eventually be able to finish a wafer in a single day.

Thanks! I will ask when I go to petsmart tomorrow. 

[JMC]

Watch any of the “Snello” videos on YouTube to see how to make your own snail food. If you enjoy cooking at all it’s a cheap and fun way to make months worth of food for about what a bag of algae wafers cost.