What and how to feed aquarium snails?

A fish tank is a great idea. It successfully fits into any interior, pleases the eye and soothes nerves. And if you supplement it with snails, the marine world will noticeably change.

These mollusks are friendly and unpretentious underwater inhabitants. But their livelihoods largely depend on their nutrition, so it is important to know some of its nuances. It directly depends on whether snails will become your favorite pets or will bring unnecessary color to the aquarium life.

Aquarium snails are the best orderlies in your tank. They carry out conscientious cleaning, as they feed on bacterial plaque formed on the surface of water, glass and plants. As well as algae, therefore, they will periodically release the capacity from overgrown plantations.

And they themselves are full, and the aquarium is clean. Even if you forget to feed the armored pets, they will not die of hunger. But there are certain difficulties in this.

• Do not place exotic plants near snails. It is likely that they will be eaten or break under their weight.
• You can not overfeed these mollusks. In this case, they will become lazy, and not only will they stop cleaning the aquarium, but will pollute it even more with waste products.

Enhanced nutrition stimulates their fertility, and soon a large part of the aquarium space will be filled with babies - mollusks. This affects the quality of water, and if snails live with other animals, then it also. In particular, this can lead to a lack of oxygen and the accumulation of toxins in the water column.

Many coral growers prefer not to feed them on purpose, in general, if their pets live in an aquarium with fish. A snail will always find something to eat. However, she will not touch the fish. She just can’t keep up with them.

In some cases, the snail itself may become an object of persecution. Some fish pinch their mustache, others use them as food. Such fateful neighbors for mollusks will be, for example, tetradon, cichlids, fahaka, barbus and even a goldfish. therefore when acquiring snails, specify all the details of the content of their species. You may need a separate aquarium for them.

The aquarium displacement is selected from the calculation: for 1 snail - 10 liters of water. This is the optimal amount that allows the snail to feel comfortable without polluting the water with its waste products.

The answer to the question of how often to feed aquarium snails will be mixed. One species requires nutrition several times a day. For another, a couple of times a week will be enough. If a mollusk lives with fish, it is fed less often than single individuals. A portion of food in volume should be no more than the snail itself.

An indicator that you are overfeeding a snail is a portion of food intact for several hours. Although on the other hand, this may indicate that the animal does not perceive this food as a food source.

Starvation for a snail is as contraindicated as overfeeding. It will cease to increase in size, multiply and eventually die.

Snails are unpretentious in food. And their food supply is quite extensive. To begin with, we will outline what they can eat in the aquarium without additional feeding.

• Bacterial plaque - a gray film formed on algae, tank walls, stones.
• Seaweed, mainly accumulated on other plants and glasses. However, with a lack of nutrition, other plants can also be damaged. Some in pursuit of greenery digging through the soil, digging it with the root. Although there are such representatives of the marine flora that are inedible for snails. For example, Canadian Elodea.
• Dead fish.
• Food for fish. Some species of snails breed well in the aquarium where fish are fed plentifully, and part of the feed settles to the bottom. They are entered into it with acquired vegetation and other attributes. Gastropods prefer drowning food, since they cannot get it from the surface of the water. Preference is given to tablet forms or plates.
• Fish roe.

Now let's talk about how you can feed your pets.

First of all, it is greens and vegetables. Many gastropods are convinced vegetarians. You can treat them with cabbage and carrots, cucumbers, pumpkin and zucchini, peas. Particular preference is given to salad and spinach. It is allowed to give snails dill, parsley, celery, dandelion, nettle and plantain.

With vegetables and herbs, this rule applies: they must be soft so that the snail can gnaw them. To do this, they are boiled for several minutes after thorough washing or scalded with boiling water. Free from the peel and cut into small pieces. Such food should be given to the mollusks in a dosed manner. Otherwise, the part that they have not mastered will remain in the aquarium, begin to rot and spoil the water.

Of the fruits, gastropods prefer apples, bananas, pears and grapes, melon and watermelon, strawberries, kiwi and other sweet fruits.

So that the submerged fruits and vegetables do not come up, and the snails can get them, special devices are attached to them or pricked on a fork.

In addition to greens, snails eat meat. They give it to them in the form of minced meat. And also the diet is expanded by Daphnia, bloodworm, tubule.

It is allowed to feed snails with corn, oat and rice groats, buckwheat, flax and barley. You can diversify the food with mushrooms.Peanuts and sunflower seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, will be for snails an excellent source of protein and vegetable fat.

Of course, each species of snail has its own eating habits. For example, ampullaria and reels love greens: vegetables, algae. And melania feeds on organic matter and food. And helens, in general, are predators. They hunt for other mollusks, although they can be satisfied with a bloodworm.

There are also decorative species for which a specific feed has been developed. All nutritional features should be clarified when buying snails.

They draw it from the water. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain its rigidity, keeping the pH at 7.0 and above. This can be achieved by mixing detailed marble, chalk or shells of other mollusks into the water. Some put shells of shellfish, oysters or cuttlefish in their entirety, and snails bite off part of them. Also available special preparations to keep the amount of calcium at the proper level.

It is not difficult for you to grow young snail offspring at home if you follow the simple rules of its maintenance.

To prevent small snails from becoming food for other aquarium inhabitants, it is better to reset them in a separate container.

Most often, young animals are fed fish food. But it must be carefully ground. From plant foods, lettuce and cucumbers, duckweed and richchia are suitable for them. Greens scalded with boiling water and chopped. Without fail, an aquarium with young individuals should be well lit. This stimulates the growth of algae, which they need.

It is very important for gastropod babies, however, as for adults, thoroughly rinse all the greens that fall to them. And peel it off. The toxic chemicals that may be contained in it are very undesirable for snails.

Despite the fact that snails are picky about food, some restrictions still exist.

• Sour vegetables and fruits are prohibited: citrus fruits, tomatoes, as well as any pickles. The acid contained in these products destroys the shell of the mollusk.
• Do not feed snails with fatty foods. Therefore, if you want to back them with meat, do not use minced pork or lamb for this. Spices, smoked meats, marinades and sweets are also contraindicated.
• Raw potatoes are not recommended for snails. It contains corned beef, harmful to them.
• Do not offer gastropods and flour products. Their digestive system is not adapted to digest such foods. They will cause bowel obstruction, and the animal will die.

Pleasing snails is a simple matter. A little attention - and these unpretentious, "sociable" animals will become not only an occasion for admiration, but also useful roommates for the home water world.

See how to feed snails in the video below.