The Puffer Forum

Anyone here had any experience of Nerite snails in there tanks?
Would be interested to hear about breeding and whether they make good puffer food.
I believe for the guys and gals in the States you can't get these legally.
(read something on some other forums earlier)

Anyway looking particularly at the ones listed at:

http://www.snailshop.co.uk/html/tropical_snails.html

Cheers

I keep Olive Nerites now in my FW tanks. They are reported to need BW/SW(?) for breeding, but reproduction does occur in FW. The young are pelagic, and so feeding is a massive issue, which may be the hurdle more than water nature. I have yet to see any detailed article on successful, practical breeding.

Their shell are rather tough, and with the current breeding state, I do not see these as puffer food. True FW snails are so easy.

I did not see Nerites on the site ref'd. Only Apple snails and ramhorns.

RTR wrote:I did not see Nerites on the site ref'd. Only Apple snails and ramhorns.

Four types, rows six and seven from the top.

Are you kidding me? I see ten snails (in five rows of two each), all Apples, period. On Coldwater, I see red rams, unpictured brown rams, and a huge mussel.

Refreshing changes nothing.

Nope, not kidding. There are three and a half additional rows with two pictures each below those five rows with 4 nerite, 1 ramshorn, 1 mts and one FW mussel.

The one pictured ram and the big mussel were on the coldwater page for me, not the tropical page.

BTW, my Nerites are from Wilma Duncan:

http://www.jayscustomcomputers.com/wilma/

I wouls love some nerites, but I can't imagine WHERE I would get them from, other than online.

It's so hard to get anything here.

I think I'm with RTR on this one... can't see no snails, xept a cute lil one with a Santa hat and loads'a instructions on how to keep them well and happy for a very long time!!

I still get the nerites displayed. Though I have noticed that they've updated the page and changed the layout, from when I posted originally. So that might be one of reasons the view was slightly different for you.

I was thinking of getting a couple for my tank which will be housing a figure 8 shortly, as a sort of clean up crew rather than food. I asked about food-wise just in case the puffer got a taste for them. I didn't want to damage the chaps teeth.

I think that Nerites are well beyond an F-8's ability to crunch (both in size and shell strength), and they do not expose as much flesh as most snails. If you do get any and try this, be sure to keep posted on the outcome - I am quite interested.

RTR wrote:I did not see Nerites on the site ref'd. Only Apple snails and ramhorns.

Same situation for me.

I have been keeping a species of Nerite collected from the Florida Keys in a quarantine tank for the past six weeks. I do NOT recommend this — however — I discovered they can withstand a sudden sg swing from 1.023 to 1.010… And so can Nassarius vibex… And so can Chaeto macroalgae… Astrea snails and Cerith snails are not so fortunate though.

oops water change gone bad?

RTR wrote:I think that Nerites are well beyond an F-8's ability to crunch (both in size and shell strength), and they do not expose as much flesh as most snails. If you do get any and try this, be sure to keep posted on the outcome - I am quite interested.

No worries, I'll keep you all posted if it happens

could you, then, keep them with a gsp?

I didn't know they were hard to crunch for them...they aren't all chip-causing like MTS, ar they?

The MTS have a double whammy - heavy shell and excellent architecture. That spiraled shell is strong structurally - all those curves to distribute pressure, and I would suspect a long-term (eons) adaptation for a thick wall to defeat some snail-eater(s) in the wild. The Olive Nerite is structurally more like an Apple Snail, and they can be crunched by large puffers.