Snail food.

[SillySnail]

I have a black mystery snail in a 2.5 gal tank with a betta. A week ago I got a small filter/bubbler and i'm wondering if my snail is still able to get enough to eat since the filter will not pick up most of the extra food. Should i worry??

[Olympia]

It's a small tank to support snail that big.
You can buy "algae rounds" at most petstores that sink to the bottom. They are freaking expensive, but should last a good while, you could drop 1-2 in every week for him.

[Mo]

Mystery snails produce a tremendous amount of waste and In My Opinion a ten gallon would be minimum to properly keep them and have conditions optimal with minimal ammonia. They should ideally have 2.5 gallons to each snail because of there bio load. With 10 gallons being the optimal minimum.

Mystery snails are very easy snails to keep provided with the optimal feeding schedule and food. Most mystery snails don't survive very long in the home aquaria as a minimal amount of people are aware of there true needs regarding food requirements. But Feeding snails is usually not a very complicated subject. Especially with mystery snails and there wide diet. I would recommend dropping small amounts of algae wafers weekly. Along with the regular small piece of cucumber or zucchini. Apple snails are very easy snails to keep provided with the optimal feeding schedule and food.

[Olympia]

It's a mystery snail.. smaller.

[Mo]

I use mystery and apple snails as the same reference. . The only differences would be size, shell shape, and color. Which would mean They have minimal differences and both create a high amount of waste. Also. Because of there similarities between eachother, they are commonly mislabeled so this mystery snail could easily be an apple snail

[MollyJean]

SillySnail, what do you feed your snail to begin with? That will help answer the question you asked.

Adding a filter shouldn't change how much he eats really, unless what you're feeding him has the risk of being sucked up before he eats it. Remember, any uneaten food, even the wafers, should be removed after a day, as they'll muck up the water if they sit too long.

He should be eating wafers, as said, and fresh veggies whenever you can. Mine loves cabbage, cucumbers, peeled peas and green beans. Most will eat potatos and spinach, all raw of course (Rigel doesn't like potatos, go figure). They like food that is soft, so with the cabbage and beans I let them sit in a cup of tank water for a day and start to decompose before giving it to my snail. That way it doesn't cloud up the water for a day before being eaten.

And yes, they do have a heavy bio-load, but with regular, proper water changes, a small mystery snail is fine in a 2.5 tank with a betta. Keep the water clean and watch for clouding.

[SillySnail]

Thanks guys! I change 1 to 2 liters of my water once or twice a week. The snail i have is very small probably smaller than a quarter. And i do have algae wafers, I'll use them. In very small amounts though as my betta tends to eat them (he likes to pretend that he's starving).

I also have a chunk of cuttle bone in the tank for calcium, i'm not sure if my snail likes it though :(

[Silverfang]

Snails, like bettas, should ideally have 2.5G to themselves. Apple snails are also known as mystery snails, and sometimes called briggs.

They do have absolutely ghastly bioloads, they poop more than any fish I've ever seen. IF you are really worried about food, try veggies. Rinsed lettuce, dark green veggies like kale, spinich, collared greens are great, and high in calcium. There are also recipes for snail food out there, however my girls ate them like it was candy >.>

Just an FYI, cuttlebone will rot eventually, so you want to replace it every so often.

[hello12590]

I would get a bigger tank. You don't want to stress out the betta with a huge bioload and you should give him plenty of room to spread out and relax. But also watch out because bettas do sometimes attack the feelers of the mystery snails.