Nerite snails

kass · Post by **kass** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:02 pm

Can all nerite snails live in BW, or are there only certain ones that can?

Phaedrus · Post by **Phaedrus** » Wed May 10, 2006 7:57 pm

According to this there are fresh and salt varieties. I think I recall RTR mentioning something similar.

I have no idea how to differentiate, or if there actually are different varieties.

Post by **RTR** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:21 pm

Olive Nerites are the ones I use in BW and FW, but there are many species, most being marine.

kass · Post by **kass** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:53 pm

Does anyone know any reliable (and reasonably priced) places to buy olive nerites online, that ship to Canada? Also, will these guys reproduce like mad in brackish water?

Post by **RTR** » Thu May 18, 2006 1:12 am

They have planktonic fry, so are not going to overpower the tank unless there is chronic thick green water.

My source does not ship to Canada.

kjharve · Post by **kjharve** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:44 am

Did anyone find a stockist of Olive Nerites? I live in the UK and am looking for some!

Post by **nmonks** » Sat Sep 23, 2006 9:12 am

In the UK, there's at least one web site that sells them online:

snailshop.co.uk

In London, you can usually find nerites of various types at the Aquatic Design Centre. They keep them in freshwater, and a lot of the olive nerites seem to die in their holding tanks. So I'd guess those ones at least need brackish.

I've been trying to get the Latin names of the nerites offered for sale. This is the first step to figuring out which ones need brackish and which ones fresh. But it's really difficult, because the retailers have no idea what they're selling. The following seems to cover at least some of the traded species:

Vitta usnea (a.k.a. Neritina reclivata, olive nerite)
Vitta virginea (a.k.a. Neritina virginea)
Clithon diadema (a.k.a. Clithon souleyetana)
Neritina natalensis
Neritina sp. "Polka Dot"
Septaria porcellana.jpg

There are lots more species beside, I just don't have Latin names for them. Apart from the olive nerite, I haven't yet confirmed which ones of these are definitively known as brackish water snails.

At a low salinity other suitable snails include Pachymelania spp. and the Colombian ramshorn Marisa cornuarietis (up to 30% seawater in the wild, but will not breed in brackish).

Cheers,

Neale

kjharve · Post by **kjharve** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 am

nmonks wrote:In the UK, there's at least one web site that sells them online:

snailshop.co.uk

Neale,

I've looked on this site before and never seen Oliver Nerites available. I also e-mailed them a few weeks ago and asked them if they had any or if they had any other brackish water snails. But the reply I got only quoted the list of snails on their website and did not answer my questions.

Perhaps I'll see if that store in London will deliver.

Cheers,

Kev

Post by **nmonks** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 6:13 pm

Sorry about that. They had so many nerites, I simply assumed they'd have the common ones. They may well do, without knowing it.

To be honest, provided the SG was around 1.003-1.005, I'd adapt any nerite slowly and see how it did. The group is marine, and I'd expect most freshwater species to have a high salt tolerance, even if they aren't actually brackish water. They're pretty cheap, and if they die, it's just one or two snails, not some lovely fish!

Cheers,

Neale

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