Part 2: Care


Part 2: Care

                   Ok, remember when I said caring for these guys was easy? Well here we go. Everything you will need to maintain a happy, healthy mystery snail. Aside from all the normal stuff you do with a fish tank, you know de-clorinated water, filter, substrate, etc.

1. High ph. 7 or up. Every now and then add a teaspoon of baking soda to your water to maintain a good buffer or kh.
2. Half bury a cuttlefish bone under a rock or gravel so that if they need a little extra calcium they can go take a nibble or two.
3. Make sure they have access to air and if you want egg sacs the ladies need a spot or two to get out of the water.
4. Keep the water temperature stable, don't let it fluctuate. Never lower than 65 degrees Fahrenheit or higher than 76 degrees Fahrenheit. (Lower temps they grow slower, move less, and are boring, but they do live longer. Mostly because they sit there like a lifeless rock.)
5. Make sure you do not have any aggressive fish or other critters that will eat, peck, tear, or bully your snails.
6. Don't have high metal content or any metal in your tank. Don't use metallic based medications.  If you have an outbreak of ick then check the label on the package to make sure it isn't copper based, or remove the snails for the duration of treatment.
7. Have a lid. These snails can travel out of water and they like to wander. They WILL climb out and fall and crack their shells.
8. And last but not least. FEED THEM! Feed them what you ask? ANYTHING! Ok well not anything. Just anything you would feed your fish. Blood worms, brine shrimp, flakes, pellets, blanched veggies, algae, algae wafers etc. The list goes on.
             

Mmmm, cucumber? Yes I think I will.

            Ok so that is pretty much all you need to care for your snails. If you have any questions about how or why. (Baking soda? Is that a joke?) You can do research online like I did and find out why. I didn't go into detail about all the whys because frankly that stuff is easy to learn with just a few words typed into your search engine. Truth be told I probably will go into more detail about some of these things later on. If not or if anyone has any questions, go ahead and shoot me an email! ambrieldawn@gmail.com


Next Page: Part 3: Behavior




10 comments:

  1. thank you so much i love snails and am always trying to learn everything i can. i used to tell everyone i was going to be an exotic snail breeder now Mystery Gary and Apple Gary have two clutches waiting to hatch. Your blog is wonderful and very interesting thank you again for all the information and confirmation.

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  2. I love this blog! I'm thinking of getting one to keep in my betta's tank when I get it. I've heard that they would be okay together. Do you think so? I've never had these before. Thanks!

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    1. According to my betta's aren't likely tank mates, they are aggressive and may attack the snail. Although some people have claimed to keep them together peacefully. Thanks for visiting!

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    2. It depends on your betta's personality. I've had one betta do fine with a mystery snail. Another betta killed a mystery snail with too many curious/hungry nips - those antennae look a lot like worms to a hungry fish. And I have heard of other people's bettas getting territorial and attacking/killing the snail.

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  3. Somehow I only just came across your blog after 6+ months of researching mystery snails on the internet. So nice to read what you have learned. I'm on #1 and #4 of 4 total snails so far with no eggs yet though. They are housed with a goldfish (I'm trying to remedy that!) so they may be bullied out of breeding. Anyhow, thanks for this info!

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    1. No problem! Thanks for stopping by and I am glad to be of help! :-)

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  4. So it looks like you have regular gravel in your tank...my previous snail seemed to have a hard time getting around on the gravel. It would get all caught up in his foot and he would end up on his back and I would have to rescue him. I have a new snail now, who my betta does not like (he seemed fine with my old one, unless he killed him when I wasn't looking). I rescued the new snail into an old 5 gal tank I have, and it doesn't yet have any substrate at all since this was sort of an emergency transplant. Your snails seem to get around ok in the gravel? Was the problem with my snail and not the gravel?

    Thanks

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    1. Sounds like an issue with your snail, or the gravel may have been a completely different type of gravel. I have used only two types of gravel, river rocks, and shells. The white gravel you saw was actually a shell gravel. Both types were just fine for all my snails. I am really not certain what went wrong for you. Thanks for stopping by and I am sorry for the long time between replies, for some reason a lot of the comments weren't showing up, or I reply (or think I do) but when I hit enter it never actually posts! Again sorry for the long time to reply and I hope everything works out for your new snail, for the record they do just wonderfully without any substrate. :-)

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  5. I have my betta and my white mystery snail together for about a week now and everything seems to be great! My betta always swims over to say hello to him but never pokes or bites. I think he's pretty tame when it comes to bettas but this blog has definitely helped since it's my first time with a snail!
    i do have two questions though...how do you know if your snail is male or female? and is it possible for snails to produce eggs in a small rock that is closed off at the top? or is it always on the top of the tank.

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  6. The snails will lay eggs pretty much anywhere as long as it is out of the water. Their instinct is to go as far to the top without exiting the tank as they can so if the rock is only an inch or so out of the water they will go past it to the top, (most likely). As for telling if they are male and female, go to the Anatomy section of this blog. I really don't want to retype when I have all that info (and PICTURES!) right here in this blog to help you. It is very thorough and should answer all your questions and more. It's quite educational. I worked hard on it lol. Go take a look! :-) Any way I hope this helps and thanks so much for visiting!

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