Do Freshwater Nerite snails eat fish food?

[goldfish freak]

Hello folks,

Does anyone know if freswater nerite snails will eat fish food if they run out of algae to eat? I have looked around the internet for this info but am yet to find an answer.

Thanks.

[Dapple2]

Mine like most sinking algea wafers and the regular Hikari Sinking Waffers as well.

[Gulp]

Yes they will. I had a few were small enough to "surf" on the surface of the water upside down for a bit. When they did this, their mouths were exposed so I put a few flakes on their mouths to see what would happen. The snails seemed to love it. Each flake was quickly devoured.

[TKOS]

My pond and rams horn snails eat algae, fish flakes, shrimp pellets, veggies, algae tabs, and just about any other food source I put in. They don't eat my live plants though, :D

[Mark_b]

Snails will eat anything they find in your tank that is even remotely nutrient rich.

The best thing to do really is to just leave them and dont try and feed them. This way you will not add any needless waste to your tank and as a result of this the snails will keep your tank cleaner by having to eat all the rubbish that your fish miss and the dead plant bits (if you have live plants) that float around.

I seriously doubt that any snail species would ever starve in even the cleanest environment we could provide them!

Cheers

Mark :)

[biogirl361]

will olive nerites eat fine-leaved plants like ambulia? i have heard they eat bba and was wondering if I got some would they be able to distinguish between my beard algae and my fine leaved-plants.

[biogirl361]

bump

[Veneer]

Some sources (http://mikes-machine.mine.nu/Theodoxus_fluviatilis.htm) allege that Neritina fluviatilis consumes nothing but algae:


As far as I have been able to find out, River Nerites exclusively eat various types of algae. It absolutely will not eat aquatic plants. There have even been grazing experiments made which showed that although it is often found on aquatic plants, it is actually not eating the plant, but rather algae growing on the plants. In my aquaria, and quite unlike all my other snails, it also shows no sign of eating leftover fish-food or dead plant matter. I have even seen River Nerites push sinking pellets aside as they browse for algae.

What species do you have?

[biogirl361]

i don't have any yet, i'm very interested in trying some for my algae problem as i've heard they eat BBA. i have heard that other BBA-eating fish are also hard on fine-leaved plants so i was wondering if the same was true for these snails.