Snails in Brackish Water

[pufferpuggirl]

I'm good when it comes to freshwater, but I'm still in the learning stages with brackish water (and a long ways away from doing marine!).

My question is: What kind of snails will live in low-end brackish water?

I have 2 brackish tanks with 2 GSP's in each. I have been feeding them bloodworms, shrimp (without shell) and now & then some mussel. I've tried putting a cockle in the tank with the shell on, but all that happens is that the cockle makes the tank very rank smelling very quickly. The puffers aren't the least bit interested in opening the cockle to get the meat out. I tried that with shrimp with the shells on, in my other puffer tanks also, and they would not bite through the shell, and the shrimp ended up just sitting there going bad and stinking up the tank.

I am concerned about keeping their beaks trimmed down naturally, so I want to be able to have snails live in there with them, so they can pick and choose a snail when they feel like it. I have snails in my freshwater tanks for my puffers.
I've always thought that snails won't survive in water with salinity .... but do they?

I had an explosion of snails in my community tank, but then I added a few dwarf puffers and they took care of that snail over-population. I'm setting up a snail breeding tank (freshwater) to feed all my other puffers, but I'm concerned with my GSP's right now.

Can anyone suggest which type of snail I should be putting in their tank? And will the snails survive in low-end brackish water? I don't think they will be interested in the snails if they aren't alive and moving, but that's just my guess.

Thanks,
Suz

[yunachin]

I had Malaysian Trumpet Snails live in brackish to salt which kind of caught me off guard. They were stragglers that reproduced. Just toss a couple that you have bred in there and see what happens, you may get lucky.

[Jase]

MTS can survive it. also though, if you breed snails in FW, they won't need to last long in the BW tank with your puffers

[Myaj]

I've had Ramshorns breed in low brackish water, around 1.004.

Nerite snails can live in brackish, but like MTS, they have extrememly hard shells and you may not want to use them for feeding.

[pufferpuggirl]

Nah, the Nerites are too cute to use for puffer food. I will try putting a handful of the Ramshorn in the tanks and see how that goes.