Anyone have experience with Nerite snails?
yng...@aol.com
appear to be Neritina natalensis (Zebra nerites) although the patterns
varied. I bought three and put two in my tank with the most algae, a
six gallon betta tank, and one in my 29 gallon (which two BN plecos
keep pretty clean). They were all doing okay for the first day or so.
Then I noticed the one that is the most obviously a Zebra nerite
(classic zebra pattern) wasn't moving. After a day of this I picked
him up for the sniff test. Not dead, and since these snails don't have
trapdoors, I can see his foot and it looks normal enough to me (pink)
although I am not exactly sure what it's supposed to look like.
Thinking maybe he was getting hassled or the temp was too warm (80) I
moved him to the 29 gallon. Still no sign of movement a day later,
even when I put an algae wafer next to him. He still doesn't stink or
look dead.
I don't know much about Nerites or whether they behave differently
than other snails. If this were a mystery snail that hadn't moved for
a couple days, I'd figure it wasn't long for this world. This one
Nerite has the nicest pattern, so I hate to lose him--am I doing
something wrong? How long can they go without eating?
Thanks
--yngver
Daniel Morrow
My 2 cents worth here is that I would recommend you do some research on
this Internet if you haven't already. Also - a lot of animals will go
without eating anything for a very long time. A lot of snakes will not
eat anything for up to I think 6 months. Which is incredible but true
according to what I have experienced listening to other people about it.
Summary - just because the nerite snail hasn't ate anything for a few
days don't mean it's dead. Do these nerite snaisl burrow in the gravel
or am I confused with Malaysian trumpet snails? I believe I am confused
about those 2 but I will say I might like to get some Malaysian trumpet
snails for myself unless I read you have good success with these netrite
snails here in the future - I like pink fleshed snails (think pink
boot). Basically - don't panic yet but best of luck with them - they
sound beautiful. Good luck all and the others here - please speak up
what you can about these nerite pink booted zebra snails. Later!
NetMax
Putting this one in a cooler tank was a good idea. Snails can be
surprisingly fragile during transport, not from the mechanical
movement as they are well rooted, but from toxic water. Some snails
types 'hibernate' for a few days with no bad results, but I can't
recall seeing any of the Nerites doing this. It was more of a Apple/
Mystery snail behaviour. I guess there's not much to do but keep the
water clean, aerated and flowing, and wait him out. Good luck!
NetMax
Kels Mustang
Being curious as to what these snails look like, I did a quick search
and found them to be really cool looking.
From what I read they mostly eat algae, don't harm plants, and don't
breed (well sort of). They breed but the eggs don't hatch out in most
cases.
Some say they're freshwater snails, some say brackish, and some
they're both. Some say they need to be in brackish water for the eggs
to hatch out.
Limestone benefits them as well.
Didn't see anything about hibernating like mystery and apple snails
do. Those guys can go for a month! Drove me nuts when I had them.
Also the one warning with these guys....
They have a habit of getting out. So make sure your lid has no escape
routes or you may find they're on the lamb.
Andy Gratton
Altum
ever seen them not clinging to something. They'll climb up above the
water line sometimes, or sit still for long periods of time, but they
don't do the floaty thing apple snails do. I'm sorry to say it, but
I'm not sure your snail is well.
--Altum
yng...@aol.com
no stink like you get with a dead snail and when I take him out to
look at him, the flesh still looks normal (I know a mystery snail is
well dead when it not only stops moving but starts getting mold or
fuzz on the flesh). Also, in that tank, anything dead gets eaten
pretty fast by the other inhabitants.
He isn't floating--just sitting on the substrate. The other two I have
seem fine, and as you say, they are always clinging either to the
glass or a plant.
I have not seen any of them eat either algae wafers or the zucchini
slices I put in for the plecos and mystery snails. Do yours eat algae
wafers? I'm not sure I have enough algae in my 29 gallon to support
the nerites, since I also have two BN plecos, some mystery snails and
a few otocinclus.
-yngver
Kels Mustang
On Jan 28, 4:41 pm, "yng...@aol.com" <yng...@aol.com> wrote:
> Thanks. I think he is a goner too. He still hasn't moved, but there is
> no stink like you get with a dead snail and when I take him out to
> look at him, the flesh still looks normal (I know a mystery snail is
> well dead when it not only stops moving but starts getting mold or
> fuzz on the flesh). Also, in that tank, anything dead gets eaten
> pretty fast by the other inhabitants.
>
> He isn't floating--just sitting on the substrate. The other two I have
> seem fine, and as you say, they are always clinging either to the
> glass or a plant.
>
Just wondering....
Have you touched it's flesh?
That would be the first thing I'd do. Touch it, see if it reacts.
yng...@aol.com
I think I did poke it, but I can't remember. The Nerites don't have
trapdoors, so I'm not sure how they are supposed to react to a poke.
It started to stink to high heaven, so that's when I got rid of it,
and the LFS gave me a free replacement. But honestly, for me it's a
bit hard to tell whether these snails are alive or not. The flesh on
the dead one looked pink and normal; it just didn't move for a number
of days and then got stinky. But when I did my weekly water change on
one of my tanks that has has two Nerites, I realized I hadn't seen
them for a while and found them in pretty much the same state, lying
on the substrate all pulled up in their shells. I took them out and
gave them the sniff test, and since they passed, I put them back. The
next day they were up on the glass, so obviously not dead. I guess
with the Nerites I just have to give them the benefit of the doubt
until they start to reek.
I have never observed them eating an algae pellet or the zucchini
slices I put in for the plecos, which other kinds of snails love. I
hope there is enough algae in the tank for the Nerites because I don't
think they are eating anything else.
-yngver
yng...@aol.com
The Nerites I have seem to be doing okay (other than the one that died
or was dead when I got it, hard to say). I am not sure what they are
eating--they mainly stay on the glass or on ornaments or rocks and I
don't see them on plants. They are pink fleshed with interesting
patterns on their shells, usually black stripes or spots on reddish
brown. I don't see them burrowing. Don't get Malaysian trumpet snails--
I added a couple to one tank which has a sand substrate--thought they
would do a good job of sifting the sand, and I guess they do, but two
small MTS seem to turn into dozens or more overnight and they are
impossible to get rid of. The Nerites don't reproduce in freshwater so
they won't overrun your tank like MTS.
I got a few assassin snails to try to cut down on the MTS population,
but they have very hard shells and the assassin snails go for easy
pickings. They've pretty much eliminated the ramshorns in that tank,
but aren't making that much of a dent in the number of MTS. Needless
to say, I do not keep Nerites or small mystery snails with the
assassin snails.
-yngver