What does your mystery snail like to eat?

[klfvilla]

I've been experimenting with different foods for my snail this past week and I'm just wondering what other snails like to eat? My guy loves blood worms, he ate half a cherry tomato yesterday, right now he's munching on cantaloupe and he likes to hollow out cucumber. He doesn't seem to like lettuce at all and he's not too hot on blanched zucchini either. He loves the algae wafers but I worry about them messing the water up so I'd rather keep them to a minimum. I keep seeing my three dwarf platies sampling whatever is on the veggie clip too. Oh, and a few days ago I put in an apple slice and he loved that too.

[msjinkzd]

my mystery snail eats ANYTHING i put in the tank! Algae wafers, blood worms, flake, peas, cucumber, brine shrimp, carrots....the list is endless.

[GoldLenny]

If you have hard water or water with high KH, you may not have to worry about the calcium content in the foods you feed your snails but if you have soft water or low KH water, you should consider feeding some of these calcium rich foods as found on the food list on Applesnail.net.

You can also drop a small piece of cuddle bone (used for birds) in the tank as it is pure calcium carbonate and the snails will much on it and it will dissolve in your tank raising the KH of your tank. You should test the GH and KH to know how much you need to raise it.

Here is the list:

This is a list of vegetables and fruits along with the amount of calcium in each 100 gram portion. They are ranked in order from the ones that contain the most calcium to the ones that contain the least. I would caution us all to remember when feeding these foods that the phosphorous can have an ill effect on your water quality and may cause an algae bloom if the levels of phosphorous become too high.

Vegetables Calcium per 100 gram serving:

Dill Weed 208 mg
Turnip Greens 190 mg
Collards 145 mg
Parsley 138 mg
Kale 135 mg
Watercress 120 mg
Beet Greens 119 mg
Chinese Cabbage 105 mg
Mustard Greens 103 mg
Chicory Greens 100 mg
Spinach 99 mg
Okra 81 mg
Leaf Lettuce 68 mg
Cilantro 67 mg
Purslane 65 mg
Endive 52 mg
Swiss Chard 51 mg
Broccoli 48 mg
Cabbage 47 mg
Rutabaga 47 mg
Brussel Sprouts 42 mg
Celery 40 mg
Sweet Potato Leaves 37 mg
Green Beans 37 mg
Romaine Lettuce 36 mg
Parsnips 36 mg
Head Lettuce 32 mg
Alfalfa Sprouts 32 mg
Squash (winter, all varieties) 31 mg
Turnip 30 mg
Carrots 27 mg
Kohlrabi 24 mg
Sweet Potato 22 mg
Cauliflower 22 mg
Asparagus 21 mg
Pumpkin 21 mg
Squash (summer, all varieties) 20 mg
Beets 16 mg
Cucumber (with skin) 14 mg
Red and Green Peppers 9 mg
Tomato 5 mg
White Corn 2 mg
Fruits Calcium per 100 gram Serving:

Seedless Raisins 49 mg
Orange 40 mg
Lime 33 mg
Blackberries 32 mg
Kiwi 26 mg
Lemon (no peel) 26 mg
Papaya 24 mg
Raspberries 22 mg
Sweet Cherries 15 mg
Strawberries 14 mg
Tangerine 14 mg
Apricots 14 mg
Grapefruit, White 12 mg
Grapefruit, Red & Pink 11 mg
Pear 11 mg
Cantaloupe 11 mg
Grapes 11 mg
Mango 10 mg
Watermelon 8 mg
Persimmon, Japanese 8 mg
Pineapple 7 mg
Apple (with skin) 7 mg
Cranberries 7 mg
Banana 6 mg
Honeydew Melon 6 mg
Blueberries 6 mg
Casaba Melon 5 mg
Nectarine 5 mg
Peach 5 mg
Plum 4 mg

[ChuckP]

mine love the hikari algae wafers. Once a week or so, I'll break one up into 4-6 pieces (so everybody gets some - the whole tank loves these things) and toss it in. The snail will find a hunk and completely cover it up to protect its "prize" from the rest of the feeding scrum.

I also occasionally toss a small piece (less than a fingernail, not enough to foul the water)- of one of those "weekend feeder" things in - it's mostly calcium sulfate (good for the shells), the snails rasp it down to nothing in a couple of days. They seem to really like it.

I've no luck at all feeding veggies, though that's probably because the platies are much faster than the snails!