Snail question

[Tracy7768]

Hello,
I would like to put a snail in with my male betta but I want to make sure before I do how to care for him in my betta bowl. What do I need to feed him? With weekly water changes how do I make sure snail has enough food to eat?
Thanks,
Tracy7768

[shellieca]

When you say bowl what size are you talking about? What kind of snail are you planning to get? a Mystery/Apple snail requires 2g per snail as they have a big bio load as do most snails. If there is no algae in the bowl then you will need to feed algae wafers & veggies.

[Tracy7768]

My bowl is 1 gal.
Yes, a mystery snail. How often would I feed the algae wafers? By veggies do u mean live plants? I was thinking of getting a java fern (more for the betta). And removing the silk plant.

What is a bio load? Is it their waste?

All this is fairly new to me and I want to do things right.
TY

[Kuro]

if your bowl is only 1g it is not big enough for the snail as shellieca said they need atleast 2 gallons per snail.

by veggies i think shellie means cucumber and stuff like that. the snails i have that are in tanks with no algae to scrape of the glass and eat i give them wafers every other day or so and sometimes i give a slice of cucumber instead which they like alot.

and yes bio load means their waste.


if you really want a snail i'd recommend you getting a bigger tank...a 5g would be a nice size...still small but enough room for more decorations and enough space for both the betta and the snail and you could use a filter to cycle it and reduce your amount of water changes

[asukabetta]

truthfully it's too small to have anything but a betta, if you get something like a 5 gallon you can consider a snail, or you could get some shrimp XD shrimps do well in a +3,5gs and onwards

[shellieca]

What Kuro said!

[Myates]

Have to agree.. I have many snails and they make such a mess of things and spike up the ammonia bad. There is one kind who is relatively clean, but in a 1 gallon it would be hard to keep him in there. If you decide to upgrade, make sure the tank lid is on tight.. had one climb out through the falling water of the filter and climbed out of the tank, over the top, down the front, then leaped off the counter and fell 4 feet and crawled under my chair.

They are a bit sneaky.. messy and sneaky. Their food is also messy - I have a lot of snails, so the wafers get eaten rather quickly, but when I only had 4, the wafer(s) would get smooshed all over the tank and quickly cause it to become cloudy - same with cucumbers if you aren't careful.

No need for a snail in a 1g, if you are just wanting another little pet, I would recommend no less than 3 gallons for 1 betta + 1 snail just because of the mess they create.