Nerite snails-yay or nay?

[Ponyta]

I saw some zebra nerites at my lfs a while ago. I've been thinking of getting 1 or 2 for my planted 10gal housing 1 male betta. My water has a pH 7.8, kH of 6, temp 80F. Think it could work?
For you invert keepers, how fast are they at eating algae? The front and one side of the tank has a covering of green algae. But it doesn't seem to be growing very fast..I'm hoping they don't eat everything too soon.
Also are they ok w/ room temp? (72F). I have a 1 gal they can go into for QT, but no heater that small. (I would be doing daily water changes of course).

[Lupin]

They'll tolerate 72-80 degrees just fine but make sure when you move the snails to acclimate them to the warmer temperature gradually. It shouldn't take a week for them to eat all of the green algae. Thy work on it constantly.

[msjinkzd]

I would not get more than one. They are very proficient at algae eating. How long has the tank been set up?

[Hollygirl]

One of my 29 gallon tanks is near a window and keeping it free of algae was next to impossible. With 3 Nerites in the tank (a zebra, bumble bee, and an olive) the algae is no longer an issue. I supplement their diet with pea flavored snail jello.

[pik01]

I would not get more than one. They are very proficient at algae eating. How long has the tank been set up?

I feel I should second this caution. My own reason is that when my tank cracked and I had to replace it with a fresh one that was not yet mature, I began to have real issues getting my nerites to feed while the other shrimp and snails we're perfectly fine. In the original tank the nerites were eating and zooming around, the perfect picture of health, because there was plenty of infusoria and algae. Now I'm not even sure they are responding to cultured algae, much less prepared foods like snail jello and veggie pellets.

My point is that it's best to add them to a mature, cycled, stable tank. It may seem like I'm being over-cautious but I just don't want you to go through the agony of desperately trying to get an animal to eat. I don't think they're particularly difficult to care for, I just had a streak of bad luck. They are cool little critters and I hope I didn't turn you away from them. I hope this helps.

[Ponyta]

Thanks for the responses, want to make sure I'm prepared before I get any snails. The tank has been set up since June. pik01, you were saying you had difficulties getting nerites to even eat cultured algae? I've only heard of them refusing prepared foods before :werd:. What if I fed them w/ algae scrapings from my tank or does it have to physically be growing on the tank walls? The 1 gal is the only thing I have available for QT right now (18 gal tub is occupied w/ my new rummies).

[Hollygirl]

In the tank with the 3 Nerites I used to scrape off the algae on the front of the tank only, and left the rest for the Nerites. Now I don't even have to scrape the front. They will also graze on large leaves of plants. Mine graze on large Anubias leaves. I also have smooth, golf ball sized pond stones in the tank. They eat the algae that grows on the stones as well.

[Fish-Addict]

My nerites don't eat that much algae so instead i feed them algae wafers which they love. I don't think they like my algae lol.

[bluetik]

Mine are doing a nifty job cleaning up green spot algae in my tank, plus, they are beautiful. They have shown no interest in any kind of food except algae, so as others have noted, keep that in mind. One thing I have noticed recently though, is that in removing the green spot from the Anubias leaves, they seem to be leaving "teeth marks" on the leaf -- kind of skinning it a little. Anyone else notice this with the Nerite snails?

[pik01]

Thanks for the responses, want to make sure I'm prepared before I get any snails. The tank has been set up since June. pik01, you were saying you had difficulties getting nerites to even eat cultured algae? I've only heard of them refusing prepared foods before :werd:. What if I fed them w/ algae scrapings from my tank or does it have to physically be growing on the tank walls? The 1 gal is the only thing I have available for QT right now (18 gal tub is occupied w/ my new rummies).

I've been trying and trying to culture algae on river rocks and lava rocks specifically for the nerites, but maybe I haven't given the algae enough time to grow onto the rocks. I have the rocks in algae-seeded containers sitting on the windowsill during the day and under lights at night. Nothing yet.

According to many others, the nerites should readily take to cultured algae. Dunno why mine haven't, I'm still trying a few things but I'm thinking time is running very low.

[excuzzzeme]

I have at least one Olive Nerite in each of my tanks. Those little snails are work horses! It seems like they never stop cleaning! I use 1 for each 10 gallons. I have 3 in a 5.5 gallon of RCS and I constantly supply the tank with algae wafers. I often see them on the wafers working away!

[msjinkzd]

I have noticed teeth marks in leaves of anubias as well.


I have had no issues supplementing olive nerites with algae wafers, but the zebras and c. corona are less apt to take prepared foods with the c. corona being the most difficult in this regard IME.

[Lupin]

Difficult to feed on cultured algae? Weird. What algae is growing on the rocks?lol I get soft green algae and my nerites race to it although the diffusas just outcompete them easily.:irked:

[Yadokari]

You might be worry too much about feeding. Nerites should and WILL take cultured algae if given. If they aren't taking it as enthusiastically as you want them to be, they may have found a different source in the tank that satisfies their hunger (whether or not you can see them). Nerites won't starve themselves to death. They will eat that cultured algae when they are ready for it, eventually.

[Ponyta]

Good advice on the algae..I should have enough from the goldies and betta tank combined to feed it for awhile. But couldn't hurt to start growing some as well. :thm: What about calcium supplements? Necessary, or is that only in cases of low kh? Oh, and anything to look for in a healthy snail?

I'm going to take a look this weekend. Hopefully they will have some in stock..there weren't any left when my dad took a look last week (But then he may not have been looking carefully and missed them..don't think he even knows what they look like cause he was asking this morning. heh)

P.S Just to share. ..I mentioned to my dad your experiences w/ nerites ...he seems interested, but doesn't quite get the part about algae ("...but they eat algae in the tank..you're not supposed to grow algae for them" )
:)

[Lupin]

Good advice on the algae..I should have enough from the goldies and betta tank combined to feed it for awhile. But couldn't hurt to start growing some as well. :thm: What about calcium supplements? Necessary, or is that only in cases of low kh? Oh, and anything to look for in a healthy snail?
What are your pH and KH? If both are low, then you may try crushed corals, crushed oyster shells, plaster of Paris, marble chips or liquid calcium by Kent (although this one does not increase pH as it is basically calcium chloride).

[colinsk]

Does anyone culture diatoms for their nerites? My zebra's quite efficiently cleaned my whole tank in a coulple of days. It seems to be easy to grow if you supply a source of silica.

[Lupin]

Soft green algae here but there seems to be some diatoms as well.lol

[Ponyta]

What are your pH and KH? If both are low, then you may try crushed corals, crushed oyster shells, plaster of Paris, marble chips or liquid calcium by Kent (although this one does not increase pH as it is basically calcium chloride).

pH comes out 7.0, goes to 7.8. kH is 6

[Ponyta]

Well, finally got a nerite from Big Al's last Wednesday (original store was all out). Its doing a marvelous job at eating green algae (and leaving gifts of lots of snail poo..but what goes in comes out I guess) I was watching it yesterday though, and it spent the whole day in a patch of BBA. This morning patches of the BBA was missing...do nerites eat bba too? Thought nothing eats that stuff as its toxic...Has anyone seen their nerites do this?

[Sounguru]

Oh they will eat BBA I watched 15 Nerites clean a 62 gallon tank that was so covered in BBA that you couldn't see the back wall in a week. Suckers ruined my photo backdrop.

[Ponyta]

Ugh sorry, I meant BGA (cyanobacteria). Brain isn't working today.

[Lupin]

Hah! Some people couldn't believe my nerites ate BBA before because they said theirs never did.lol Lucky girl!:dance:

[Lupin]

Ugh sorry, I meant BGA (cyanobacteria). Brain isn't working today.
Eek! Really? I always thought nothing eats BGA but there was one record of a planorbid eating BGA and everything else ignored it.

[Ponyta]

Hmm..I'm not sure if it is eating BGA..but there are gaps in the BGA patch it was on..maybe it was eating algae that was mixed in :S
But there is something else I wanted to ask. Here's a pic of what I saw this morning:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j79/Ponyta_2006/neritesnail.jpg

Is that pink area a crack in its shell??
(the green stuff is poo by the way).

I'm gong to see if I can get some tums or something today..can I just add it directly to the tank or will it harm my betta?
:nilly:

[Kashta]

The tums will be fine for the betta. That's not really a crack in the shell, it's erosion on the trailing edge. Shows the shell was too thin... so it's good to boost the calcium as long as your water isn't real hard/high pH to begin with.

[Lupin]

Doesn't look like BGA to me. The BGA I had became a carpet on a gravel bed.

[bitbot]

I don't know if that photo is supposed to be showing the BGA.

[Ponyta]

Yeah, I took the pic to show the snail, not the BGA :). Its not a carpet in the tank, just some on the sides. And I think I was wrong about it eating BGA... must be some mixed in green algae that it was after :rolleyes:

We got some fruit flavored tums (hope that's ok?). How much and how often should I put them in? I dropped in 1/4 of a tablet for now.

[Lupin]

I just drop the whole tablet.lol One tablet per day is enough for me. Nerites don't like it but I love the mystery snails burying their faces into it. Nom nom nom...