Uhm... What Do Aquatic Snails Eat?

Galanta

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Well, I read somewhere that simple plants like java moss, etc can be used to help maintain water quality, so I dropped by my LFS yesterday and picked up a little wad. I decided to rinse it off a bit before adding to Azumo's home and - oops - out comes a tiny little snail. It is dark brown, with a long, twisted, narrow and pointy shell. It is only 1/2cm long. I put it into the water right away, not really knowing if it was dead or alive. After I had finished putting all the water back in and put Azumo back, I noticed that it had crawled up a couple of inches on the glass. Azumo spotted it right away and went to investigate. I held my breath hoping he might decide it was not an intruder, but he pecked at it right away and it fell down between the rocks on the bottom, where he couldn't get to it. Today I spotted the snail again safe between rocks, but it has travelled about 1/4 length of the bottom surface, so it is alive and getting around somehow.

Are any of you familiar with these little critters? Will it be OK just living off scraps or should I be feeding it something? Since it is a bowl and not a cycled tank, I am not totally sure what kind of nutrition there is in the water/on the glass... Don't really know how long it will be able to withstand Zumi's attacks either for that matter - does it stand a chance? He did not seem to do anything to its shell when he bit it.

PS: Googled some pics to try and classify it. Seems it might be a Malaysian Trumpet Snail. (On Google Images they show Trumpet Snails in different colors. Some of the photos show dark brown ones and those look just like my little new friend).
 
lol...welcome to the bane of my existance. I couldnt get rid of those darned things if my life depended on it when they invaded my tanks...oh...about 3 years ago. They are still there to this day. That one snail can multiply into hundreds seemingly overnight. They get lodged into filter impellers, they are never ending. ^_^

That being said, the little guys have grown on me. I find they survive off of detrius and leftover food that gets wedged down under all the plants and moss I have. Im not possitive they are killable, they remind me of cockroaches. I've had them above the waterline for hours, when I took out ornaments. They were fine when I chucked it into a glass of water I was filling with plant cuttings I was going to throw into the pond.

Sakura
 
Thanks for answering and thanks for the warning. Well, hopefully it will find enough to live off in my betta bowl...
 

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