• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Nerite needs quarantine?

Big G

Member
Joined
20 Apr 2020
Messages
174
Location
London&Thanet
Morning all,


Got myself a little Tiger Nerite. Acclimatised via the drip method for 4 hours. He/she is currently scuttering around my experimental tank where there is no other fauna. Seems quite happy. The plan is to move the critter to my other tank which has a growing community of Blue Dream Neocaradina and no fish. The rationale for placing it in the experimental tank was so that I could let it settle down unhindered and check that it wasn’t dying . Clearly I have no way of knowing if its carrying any longer -term issues or anything bad that could be passed onto the shrimp or plants in the other tank. Only possible issue is a hairline crack running around the front of its shell.

I had settled on three weeks as a period of isolation before transferring for no other reason than a few (not very authoritative) videos where that seemed what they had done.

my questions are therefore;

1) Do I actually need a quarantine period? If so, how long is best?
2) Is the hairline crack a problem and if so is there anything I can do to help the little thing out?
3) What is the likelihood that young Scutter is carrying anything communicable to shrimp or plants
4) Both the Mrs and I have really come to find the Nerite a really interesting addition to the tank and would wonder if anyone can recommend a supplier first hand (ebay etc). Our little chap was shipped in a really small bag with barely more than a couple of tablespoons of water. Maybe this is normal but it seems a bit harsh. Would be reticent about wilfully putting another one through that without further reassurance.

most grateful for your advice

Bg
 
I find that there is very little good information about nerites online- I once found a single web page that had good, detailed, correct info that hadn't obviously been copied from another site, that included pictures of the snails in a wild habitat- but I get a 404 error when I try to open my bookmark of it. :crazy: There's all kinds of nonsense out there, including a claim that they will never live very long in freshwater, which is absolutely incorrect, as some of mine have been in freshwater for 2+ years.

I find that nerites are very hardy indeed- I have never drip acclimated one, as in the wild they live in intertidal zones, and so switch freely between fresh and brackish/salt water. I have tanks of vastly different water chemistry and if I need to move a nerite, I take it out of its current tank and chuck it directly into the new tank.

They also can and do spend time clinging to rocks above the water line in nature, and also can protect themselves from moisture loss by retreating into their shell and closing their "operculum", which is a sort of natural trapdoor that is very tight- so shipping them with a minimal amount of water is perfectly safe.

I have never seen any indication that a nerite has spread a disease to my shrimp or fish, so I do not quarantine them, though probably someone will come along and tell me I'm making an awful mistake.

The only one that has ever died on me escaped from the tank (suddenly, after several months there) and I didn't find her for a week, which was sadly too late (though they can live for several days out of water)- but I've never had one die inside a tank or from anything that looked like disease/distress, and I've never had a snail bring a disease into my tanks.

Are you sure what you're seeing on the shell is actually a crack and not a growth ring? Nerite shells are very hard indeed, and a crack would be a serious problem, but a very rare one- I found my escaped nerite by stepping on her, and although she was already dead, there was no damage done to her shell.

I find that you cannot feed a nerite using things like algae wafers, vegetables, or "snello"- they require algae/biofilm/aufwuchs that grows naturally- but others have told me that they've seen their nerites eating things that my nerites reject. Edited to add: if your snail is moving around the "experimental" tank at a fairly rapid pace (for a snail), it's probably looking for food and cannot find it. If it remains in a tank with no food, in my experience it will burrow a little way under the substrate and "hibernate" until things are better. This is not an indication of illness, but it will starve if not moved to a tank that has the algae/biofilm/aufwuchs growth that it needs.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that Lilirose,

Glad to hear that the shipping method wasn’t as dangerous as I thought.

I have just noticed a couple of what I think might be Planaria in this tank. Never had it here before or in other tank. Think I’ll see how that situation evolves before shifting the snail. Will have read up on if they might have hitchhiked in on the snail somehow.

Yes, could well be a growth ring. As you say, there’s little information in one place but I’ll keep hunting and scavenging bits as I can. The kine is very uniform and a growth ring makes perfect sense.

I wouldn’t say he’s racing round the tank as such. More like- bit of a move, chill out, bit of a move, chill out. Seems to explore in bursts then long periods of relative inactivity. Plenty of organics in there to graze on. I’ve even seen the grazing tracks on some glass so that's ok. I’m hoping he’ll find some of the hair algae appetising.

The tank is so named as it’s got high pressure co2 running via Sodastream and and is more of a place to house spare plants and bits of wood I want to soak. I can make changes in parameters just a fraction faster here than in my other tank such as fertilising, light regime, temperature, finding optimum location for spray bar and in-tank diffuser to get best saturation and levels. I never go anywhere near yellow to be safe.

I might try some extra foods such as courgette, banana and spinach to see if he/she is interested.

Thank you very much for your input. Very much appreciated.

all the best

Bg
 
Just a little follow -up;

I caught one of the little things wriggling around the tank and can almost certainly confirm it is a Mosquito larvae. Bulbous head, sectioned body, forked tail and wriggles all over the place. End of summer blow-in most likely.

Nothing to do with the snail.
Peace

Bg
 
Back
Top