Adding my own snails?

[AnimaLover1]

Hello,

I have Mayalasian Trumpet Snails in my freshwater aquarium and I was wondering if it would be okay to add them to my shrimp tank? My tank has lots of white mold growing on the top of the water (no algae yet) and it has been sitting around with nothing in it for almost three months now. Also, could I add nerite snails from the pet store into my tank as well?

Thanks!

[AnimaLover1]

***Malaysian

[crittersni]

I bought a nerite from PetSmart about 10 days ago. It's doing fine, but it's the only one there.

He (?) likes to hide. I named him Waldo. Every time I look in the tank, I think where's Waldo?

[AnimaLover1]

Aww, that is so cute! I will be looking into getting one of those as well. Thank you!

[crittersni]

I was afraid to get more than one (I have 3.5 gallons of water) for fear of them over-populating, but my white stuff is rapidly changing to visible algae, and I see feces as I use my magnifier to see the babies. I'm going to add more. The forum says they won't overpopulate the tank. I hope they're right. Mustafa sells them 10 at a time.

When I asked about snails on this forum, they said MTS or nerites. You know more about the MTS. My question would be more about making sure you don't transfer anything unwanted from your non-opae tank. But I'm still much of a novice, so I'd see what the others think.

[Varanus]

If you're transferring them from a freshwater tank then you'd have to acclimate them, but I have no experience in that.

[crittersni]

I bought the snails, presumably in fresh water, at PetSmsrt. I floated them in the bag for a couple of hours to equalize the temperature. Then I just dumped them in without their water. They didn't move for several hours, but then they got going. I did not acclimate to brackish salinity.

My tank salinity is 1.010, right around the middle range posted on petshrimp.com.

[skylorvivo88]

interesting do you have pics? you said it looks like mold?

[crittersni]

AnimaLover said mold.

Not sure this is a great photo of mine. Not mold. More like biofilm I believe. Lately, looking closer, some of it seems slightly green, which doesn't show in this pic.

Here are my nerite snails.

[mike.d]

I got some MTS from Petco/Petsmart for free from the freshwater tanks and just dumped them into my tank. I tried with one first and he did fine. Then I dumped in the others. Same thing with nerites. I bought them from a freshwater tank and dumped them in with no acclimation. They also did fine.

At the store where I got the nerites they had one in a full saltwater tank while the rest were in freshwater. I asked how that happened and they said they transferred a decoration from the freshwater to saltwater and didn't realize the nerite was hitching a ride. So no acclimation there either. He was doing fine in the tank.

Still, it's probably a good idea to acclimate. I'm just giving my experience with not acclimating. I'm lazy.

[AnimaLover1]

Hey All,

Sorry it took me so long to respond. I order some MTS off of Ebay. I asked if they had any already acclimated to brackish water and they said that they did. However, upon receiving them I put them in the brackish tank and none of them came out, so I put them in my freshwater tank and they came right out. I am kind of disappointed b/c I thought I was getting the brackish MTS. I thought MTS were euryhaline?

Yeah, the "mold" is white and somewhat covers the top of the water and the sides of the tank. I would post pics but my camera isn't working at the moment (sorry).

[skylorvivo88]

Is the mold bad for the tank or is it just part of it

[Mustafa]

It's not "mold", it's just bacterial or fungal biofilm and it will get eaten away quickly by shrimp and snails. No need to feed during that time obviously.