Your snail should basically just need algae wafers. Occaisonally bettas nip at them but they get too big for a betta to do any damage. It won't eat your plants and will produce A LOT of waste so if you're cycling the tank be aware that the snail will add a lot of ammonia. The way you acclimated him is correct. They eat a little bit of algae but they won't clean the tank, there will just be teeth marks in the algae thats on the sides (its sorta cool looking) Apple snails have distinct genders so they won't reproduce on their own, but the females sometimes lay unfertilized eggs. They DO climb out of tanks if the water paramaters are bad or the tank is too small or there is no food (I had one of my snails bigger than a golf ball "run away" recently)
Did you even read that article I linked... it pretty much tells you everything...
*Sighs and pulls your shirt collar back and tosses in tainted Anacharis*
Anyway... Apple/Mystery snails are VERY resilient creatures. He/She should regrow the missing part within a few weeks... they can regrow an eye stalk within a month. It won't be as pretty, or as long but they'll be fine.
A snail isn't the smartest creature but they are not by any means stupid. Since your Betta attacked... it will start to wise up to your Betta and hold most of it's appendages like stalks under the hood of it's shell if it senses your Betta nearby and start to react quicker if under attack. This is normal and once your snail starts to react quicker... more than likely your Betta will lose interest and ignore the snail all together.
AS for your betta's scales... eh, Drax has a small patch missing on his upper forehead along the spine, not to be confused with the pink diamond on his head (Thats just due to his Marbly-ness) and it doesn't seem to bother him... sorta like how his eye has never slowed him down. I'm not an expert in scales but I'm sure fish lose scales all the time and I'm SURE they heal over time. Thats like saying when you scrape your arm... you never grow skin back.
Last thing... READ THE BLOODY ARTICLE I LINKED BEFORE! After I read it I feel VERY confident in selecting a few snails which I shall name Lucy and Desi! I'm not mad just... the article is so interesting to read for some reason... like they even mention you can eat Apple Snails like Escargot (Apparently they have a similar flavor). I wouldn't worry about washing the snail off...
Snails are more in common with Parasites than fish. So never have them in the tank when treating your Betta! As well as... Snails are always blamed for parasites but Apple Snails in particular are VERY good at not transferring diseases, and if you got the snail at a petstore (Yes even a Walmart one) you can be 100% (Or almost) sure your snail isn't carrying anything nasty. The only nasty thing they can have is the Rat Lung Fluke (Or something) that won't hurt your fish but can ACTUALLY kill YOU but as I said that's only if the Snail was living in a sewer with Rats... and you could only get it if you ATE the snail.
Bottomline... Oh your getting as paranoid as ME! How cute! Be sure to tell me about your first mental breakdown! Just put the snail in, it can hold it's own.
As always... if it goes terribly wrong... blame me haha.
They DO climb out of tanks if the water paramaters are bad or the tank is too small or there is no food (I had one of my snails bigger than a golf ball "run away" recently)
... it can also mean she's laying eggs. Most Apple snails lay eggs above the waterline. So... don't completely freak if yours does, just watch, maybe they'll go back under water. Also they can survive awhile out of water like I read up to a week if the humidity is good or longer.
I know that already Lol I read the article. I'm saying this, Neon is being stupid and keeps pecking at the snails antennae, and I swear the next time the snail will actually lose it's antennae instead of injuring it. (His antennae didnt fall off, it just went sort of shriveled and useless)
I'm 180% paranoid of anything to do with Neon. "Oh no! His tail looks uneven!" "His scales don't appear as shiny!" "he's hiding!" "He looked at the snail!" "It's the end of the world!!!!" Lol. I'm just an overly paranoid person. A REALLY overly paranoid person. I"d look at Neon and see he'd bite a little snail and assume he's choked ^.^
Oh I see why you'd think... When I said "I hope it isn't serious" I was talking about Neons head wound. For now I'm just getting him the cleanest possible water for him to heal quickly.
Oh by the way everyone! The snail is a he! I'll name him... Albert. No not really Lol, how about... um .... No idea... I'll wait for me to figure a name out.
I have to say a paranoid statement in at least every post... soooo... The snail's eating a stem of tropica sword! Ya, that was a good one.
... *In a VERY O RLY? Kinda way* And HOW do you know it's a male? From reading it's very hard to tell the gender... you may confuse the Siphon for male parts. Not that it really makes any difference if you only have one... cept for maybe the correct Gender name.... maybe go with a non gender name.
Don't think I'm being critical I'm currently hopped up on Coffee so my niceness drains away and becomes rather brutal lol
It will soon become obvious whether I'm right or wrong since "like chickens females will lay unfertilized eggs". I took the siphon into consideration, and I'm 40% sure it's a male. If a week from now there are no eggs still, I'll deem it male. Or if there are eggs, obviously I'll deem it female.
OKAY. Noen just wont learn >.> it's starting to get annoying. He has a whole bunch of fresh gashes where he's missing scales on his face.
So I'm returning the mystery snail. I don't like the idea of Neon constantly scraping his scales off, it just doesn't sound good. Obviously the snails just fine, he's eating and moving around, so my LFS should accept him.
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