Nerite QT

[maycausedeath]

Hi everyone, long time no see as usual. I hope everyone had a nice winter break and a happy new year.

I'm interested in putting one of the nerite snails in my mom's fishtank into mine. There used to be a bad algae problem so a friend gave us two of hers, but now they keep the tank spotless and I'm worried about them getting enough to eat. It has either mosquito fish or wild type guppies in it. We've had them for about 8 years now so at this point they're probably genetically different anyway. The point is that these fish do not eat their offspring, and so the tank is always quite crowded. That combined with overfeeding and less frequent cleanings and my much higher standard of hygiene in my tank lead me to be a little suspicious of what might be in the tank.

The fish are all frightening healthy and have left the snails alone for the most part. They were taken out of the friend's tank a few months ago and nothing out of the ordinary has occurred since being in this tank so I'm not worried about anything coming with them from her tank or the pet store.

Is there anything her tank could pass on besides poor water quality and is it possible to quarantine snails effectively?

Thanks

[aemaki09]

Theres always a possibility that they could have something that hasnt shown up yet, and just to be safe you should always QT anything going into your tank.

I've heard of a lot of people just leaving their snails that are being qt'd in tap water for 2-4 weeks and that would kill just about anything that would make a fish sick. I'm actually doing that with some of my ramshorns that were in a diseaseed tank and they are just fine in regular tap water. BUT if you dont want to risk the tap-water, I'd just stick them in whatever your QT tank is for 2 weeks and see if they start acting sick before you add them into your tank. Just to be on the safe side

[maycausedeath]

I'm not really worried about them carrying anything since it would have show up in my friends fishtank or my mother's at this point. She bought them several months ago, so I think that should be past the incubation period of any pests.

Would you say that a day or two quarantine in tap water would keep anything from coming to her tank to mine? I'd extend it but I'm worried about food since they refuse to touch the blanched zucchini and I haven't been able to get out to buy wafers.

edit: they're going from an unheated tank to a heated if it makes any difference.

[Silverfang]

do not forget dechlorinator! It can kill them just like a fish.

[aemaki09]

If you aren't worried about QT then you don't have to mess with it, a few days is better than nothing but id double check on tap water, my ramshorns are doing fine in it, but I'm not 100% on nerites since they require somewhat different water conditions (brackish instead of fresh to breed)
I wouldn't worry about the zucchini, my snails won't eat anything except what the scavenge on the tank bottom --pellets, algea, and cuttlebone.
As long as your tank is established and there's some algea growth they'll be fine

[maycausedeath]

Thanks for the reminder about dechlorinator, I think I'll use it, I don't want to take any chances since I couldn't find anything about how Nerites react. I'll do the QT for a few days, it can double as a way to acclimate him (or her) to better water conditions. Algae is definitely not a problem

Thanks for all the help, I'm starting the QT tonight.