How to Take Care of Mystery Snails

A Mystery Snail is a commonly seen freshwater aquarium snail in the pet shops; these are usually brown in color, while some can also be creamy white. Mystery Snail shells are usually in solid colours, but you also get too see color gradients with streaks of light and dark brown, black stripes and other marks.

The patterns and variations of these snails are countless. Mystery Snails do not need scrupulous care and attention for their growth and well being but never the less; certain safety measures should be adopted to keep theses snails hale and hearty.

how to take care of mystery snails

Tips to Care for Mystery Snails

Prevent Escape of Snails

They have the ability and tendency to escape from tanks even through a minute opening. You have to be very attentive and keep a periodic snail count. The escaped snails can either get injured or die by drying while escaping. So watch out.

Tank Size

This is an important criterion and a tank’s limitations are determined by surface area and water volume. They can survive in large as well as small tanks like 5 or 10 gallon aquarium. They feed from the tanks and excrete waste into it. Hence they need well established tanks with sufficient water volume and size.

Water Conditions

Mystery snails enjoy moderately moving murky water, rich in oxygen. Sudden changes of temperature and other water parameters make them stressed out .The condition of the water tank should be stabilized before releasing mystery snails into it. The tropical community fish tank is a good option.

Requirements of the Tank

Aquarium pH: 7.0 – 7.5

Water Temperature: The temperature of the water should be maintained around 68-82 degree Fahrenheit

Hardness & Minerals: These minerals should be on the hard side.

Lighting: Soothing light and not too bright

Positioning of the Snail

Keep the snail upright on the bottom of the tank. If the snail is completely upside down, it might have difficulty gaining the right position. It sticks out its foot from the operculum to reach hard surface and if it is unable to do so, it dies eventually.

Filters

The tank containing mystery snails should be equipped with sponge pre-filters instead of strong filter intakes as these snails are drawn towards these filters in search of food. They ultimately get trapped in strong filters and die if they cannot wiggle out. Thus pre sponge filters is a better option.

Diet of Mystery Snails

Make sure the snails are getting adequate nutrients and a well balanced diet comprising of fish flakes, algae wafers, pellets and bottom feeder tablets. Leaf lettuce, zucchini, iceberg lettuce and squash should be incorporated in the diet of Mystery Snails along with food bought from stores. Some mystery snails eat away aquarium plants. You can solve this problem by keeping hard, durable plants like Anubias Barteri and supply soft plants like Salvinia for mystery snails to feed on. By doing this the other plants will be saved.

Thus on a concluding note, Mystery Snails are a joy to watch and worth keeping in your fresh water aquarium. They do not require fulsome attention but certain precautions have to be taken to keep them in a healthy condition.

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