Impossible Nerite Keeping

[MBStevens]

So I have successfully kept multiple mystery snails in my 20g for over a year now with no issues. My dream though has been to get some Nerite snails to work on some green spot algae and just because I like them. However, I've NEVER been able to keep them alive! They inevitably die a couple days after getting them into the tank, even after acclimating them which seems a bit over the top for snails. No predators in the tank. Have tried getting them from multiple sources, reputable LFS's etc. 

My water is liquid rock, basically. kH of 22 (!!!) and gH of 8. I have softened well water. pH of 8.3 but I have co2 running so it fluctuates down to 7.6ish through the day/night cycle. I don't know much else about my water's chemistry other than that it does have a lot of iron. 

Do you think my extreme carbonate hardness could be the issue? Extremes make for trouble in aquariums as I have learned. I know nerites like harder water though so it is confusing to me. 

[GardenStateGoldfish]

It could be maybe, but Nerites don't really eat food, they really like more of a seasoned tank with algae and micro stuff to eat, I am not sure how clean you tank is but a year old tank should be sufficient for them unless you have no algae or anything at all. 

PS I have the opposite problem, my mystery snails do terrible, but my rabbit, nerite, pond, MTS, Rams and Japanese Trap door snails do fine excellent. not sure why lol

 

[OceanTruth]

1 hour ago, GardenStateGoldfish said:

PS I have the opposite problem, my mystery snails do terrible, but my rabbit, nerite, pond, MTS, Rams and Japanese Trap door snails do fine excellent. not sure why lol

 

Excellent collection of snails! How do you like keeping the rabbits? Do they leave your plants alone for the most part?

[OceanTruth]

Nerites are also found in brackish water, so I don't think carbonate hardness should be a problem for them. That's my thought at least. It's so interesting how a hardy, easy fish/invertebrate for one person, can be extremely difficult for another.

[Kirsten]

Strange! I've never had a problem with nerites in any of my tanks, hard or soft. What kind of nerites are you using? You may want to change up the variety (black racers vs. red racers vs. olives vs. horned). When I buy them 1 or 2 at a time, they've all done well, but in the batch of 5 that I bought, 1 or 2 didn't live long. They may have just been old or sick or got outcompeted for food.

And if you see any on their backs, you'll need to help them flip back over. They can't do it themselves like other snails.

[Nick L]

When the nerites do pass how do their shells look? What kind of scape and substrate do you have. I dont know if this will help or not but when ive had my nerites they liked to bury in the gravel and loved munching on what grows on the driftwood. Ive also alwayse kept the nerites with cherry shrimp. And I would feed bactor ae (a powderized bio film food) almost daily. Maybe try that food? 

[gardenman]

Nerites will sometimes just park themselves in one spot for up to a week (maybe longer) when moved or disturbed. The only way to truly know they died is through the smell test or if their innards fall out. A lot of owners will see that the snail hasn't moved for several days and assume it died and toss it. If you're used to more active snails an immobile, newly moved nerite might seem dead to you, but it may not be dead. If it smells dead, then it's dead. If it doesn't smell dead, it's probably alive and just lying low for whatever reason. They're an interesting snail in that regard.

[L.W. Wetarm]

I have both Mystery and Nerite Snails. On several occasions, I have thought one was was dead...just parked on the bottom. I learned to 1. smell it. If it smells like a dead snail then it probably dead. 2. Put it in a cup of water and watch it. If still alive it will probably stir from the change in environment. 

[Kirsten]

I've only been able to tell when a nerite's died because my mystery snails have picked it clean. Waste not, want not, I guess!

[MBStevens]

Yeah I've tried every different kind of nerite I can get my hands on. When I buy them I make sure to only buy the ones that are actively munching on walls. And I'm always watching when I have them for if they've overturned themselves so I can help them back over. I've done a lot of research on them to ensure I'm pulling out all the stops, but I'm still not successful.

[gardenman]

Nerite Snails are interesting in that they will play dead for no apparent reason. Probably more live nerite snails get discarded by owners thinking they've died than any other animal. Even opossums don't play dead for a week or longer. It's a very interesting behavioral pattern they use. They'll just hunker down and park in one spot for a week or longer on occasion. You don't want to leave a dead snail in the tank, but how do you know it's dead? Smell is the best indicator, but even that's not foolproof if they've recently died. They're the only otherwise mobile animal I know of that does that. Clams don't move a lot, but they're clams. You don't expect them to move. But snails typically move around and sometimes Nerites just don't. It's not the ideal survival strategy in an aquarium.

We probably should add a "Nerite snail life detector" to the list of products we'd like to see developed. Some sort of a snail EKG would be handy for those guys.

[MBStevens]

Nah I'm always smelling my suspected dead snails to be sure they're dead before I throw them out! When they smell like utter death I know they're gone.

[MBStevens]

21 hours ago, Kirsten said:

Strange! I've never had a problem with nerites in any of my tanks, hard or soft. What kind of nerites are you using? You may want to change up the variety (black racers vs. red racers vs. olives vs. horned). When I buy them 1 or 2 at a time, they've all done well, but in the batch of 5 that I bought, 1 or 2 didn't live long. They may have just been old or sick or got outcompeted for food.

And if you see any on their backs, you'll need to help them flip back over. They can't do it themselves like other snails.

I always buy different variations of nerites to see which ones works for me. olive, zebra, red racers, black racers, etc. No dice. I always make sure to buy ones that are munching on the glass at the store too. And I always flip them back over when I see them upside down. ::shrug::

[gardenman]

Snails can be very susceptible to copper. Have you ever tested your water for copper levels? It's possible your water has more copper than a Nerite snail can tolerate. Copper testing is done more commonly in marine tanks than freshwater as saltwater fish and invertebrates have more issues with copper, but Nerite snails start out as marine snails that transition to freshwater, so maybe they're bringing that copper weakness with them? It's another option to check out. It could explain why your other snails do fine, but the Nerites don't. API makes a copper test kit for fresh and salt water for around $7. It might help explain your issue if you've got higher than normal levels of copper. Older homes tend to have copper plumbing that could be leaching copper into your water.

[demicent]

In case anyone reading this has not owned Nerites before, I'll just add my voice here to say that some of my Nerites played dead for up to 2 weeks!  I ordered 30 Nerites: 10 Zebra, 10 Tiger, and 10 Horned.  They were divided between several tanks, and all were drip acclimated for an hour.  In every tank, the Tigers flipped upside down and didn't move. Not even their little antennae.  The first few days I turned them upright, only to find them upside down in the same spot the next morning.   I pulled them out to smell them every few days, and they passed the sniff test.  At about the two week mark, I came down one morning and they were all merrily munching algae on the plants and glass.  I suspected they were still alive because none of them were hanging all out of their shells, just loosely protruding slightly.  

EDITED TO ADD:  When I was gathering them up to sniff them, I put them in a specimen container on a wet paper towel, and they did show signs of life from being moved!

Edited January 18, 2021 by demicent

[Colu]

I have had nerites sit in the same spot up to a week with out moveing 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Colu

[demicent]

I am grateful for my fishy friends.  Who else could I talk to about Snail Sniffing?

[MBStevens]

41 minutes ago, gardenman said:

Snails can be very susceptible to copper. Have you ever tested your water for copper levels? It's possible your water has more copper than a Nerite snail can tolerate. Copper testing is done more commonly in marine tanks than freshwater as saltwater fish and invertebrates have more issues with copper, but Nerite snails start out as marine snails that transition to freshwater, so maybe they're bringing that copper weakness with them? It's another option to check out. It could explain why your other snails do fine, but the Nerites don't. API makes a copper test kit for fresh and salt water for around $7. It might help explain your issue if you've got higher than normal levels of copper. Older homes tend to have copper plumbing that could be leaching copper into your water.

Hey what a great idea! I do have ghost shrimp (going on a year+), amano shrimp (1 yr), ramshorns and mystery snails...Could it be that all of them are that much less sensitive to copper than the nerites? I mean...I don't know what to do if I find out I have higher levels of copper than normal. But it could explain why I got some new cherry shrimp and they all were dead by the next morning....? Perhaps. Haven't been able to figure out that mystery yet either.

[gardenman]

I think sometimes the simple act of pulling nerite snails out and smelling them might reset whatever internal timer they use for lying low and they stay immobile even longer. They're a challenging snail to keep in that it's so hard to tell if they're alive or dead. I'll typically pull them for a sniff at day two or three and if they don't smell dead I just leave them alone after that and assume they're alive.