What does your mystery snail like to eat?

[klfvilla]

I've been experimenting with different foods for my snail this past week and I'm just wondering what other snails like to eat? My guy loves blood worms, he ate half a cherry tomato yesterday, right now he's munching on cantaloupe and he likes to hollow out cucumber. He doesn't seem to like lettuce at all and he's not too hot on blanched zucchini either. He loves the algae wafers but I worry about them messing the water up so I'd rather keep them to a minimum. I keep seeing my three dwarf platies sampling whatever is on the veggie clip too. Oh, and a few days ago I put in an apple slice and he loved that too.

 

[msjinkzd]

my mystery snail eats ANYTHING i put in the tank! Algae wafers, blood worms, flake, peas, cucumber, brine shrimp, carrots....the list is endless.

 

[GoldLenny]

If you have hard water or water with high KH, you may not have to worry about the calcium content in the foods you feed your snails but if you have soft water or low KH water, you should consider feeding some of these calcium rich foods as found on the food list on Applesnail.net.

You can also drop a small piece of cuddle bone (used for birds) in the tank as it is pure calcium carbonate and the snails will much on it and it will dissolve in your tank raising the KH of your tank. You should test the GH and KH to know how much you need to raise it.

Here is the list:

This is a list of vegetables and fruits along with the amount of calcium in each 100 gram portion. They are ranked in order from the ones that contain the most calcium to the ones that contain the least. I would caution us all to remember when feeding these foods that the phosphorous can have an ill effect on your water quality and may cause an algae bloom if the levels of phosphorous become too high.

Vegetables Calcium per 100 gram serving:

• Dill Weed 208 mg
  Turnip Greens 190 mg
  Collards 145 mg
  Parsley 138 mg
  Kale 135 mg
  Watercress 120 mg
  Beet Greens 119 mg
  Chinese Cabbage 105 mg
  Mustard Greens 103 mg
  Chicory Greens 100 mg
  Spinach 99 mg
  Okra 81 mg
  Leaf Lettuce 68 mg
  Cilantro 67 mg
  Purslane 65 mg
  Endive 52 mg
  Swiss Chard 51 mg
  Broccoli 48 mg
  Cabbage 47 mg
  Rutabaga 47 mg
  Brussel Sprouts 42 mg
  Celery 40 mg
  Sweet Potato Leaves 37 mg
  Green Beans 37 mg
  Romaine Lettuce 36 mg
  Parsnips 36 mg
  Head Lettuce 32 mg
  Alfalfa Sprouts 32 mg
  Squash (winter, all varieties) 31 mg
  Turnip 30 mg
  Carrots 27 mg
  Kohlrabi 24 mg
  Sweet Potato 22 mg
  Cauliflower 22 mg
  Asparagus 21 mg
  Pumpkin 21 mg
  Squash (summer, all varieties) 20 mg
  Beets 16 mg
  Cucumber (with skin) 14 mg
  Red and Green Peppers 9 mg
  Tomato 5 mg
  White Corn 2 mg

Fruits Calcium per 100 gram Serving:

• Seedless Raisins 49 mg
  Orange 40 mg
  Lime 33 mg
  Blackberries 32 mg
  Kiwi 26 mg
  Lemon (no peel) 26 mg
  Papaya 24 mg
  Raspberries 22 mg
  Sweet Cherries 15 mg
  Strawberries 14 mg
  Tangerine 14 mg
  Apricots 14 mg
  Grapefruit, White 12 mg
  Grapefruit, Red & Pink 11 mg
  Pear 11 mg
  Cantaloupe 11 mg
  Grapes 11 mg
  Mango 10 mg
  Watermelon 8 mg
  Persimmon, Japanese 8 mg
  Pineapple 7 mg
  Apple (with skin) 7 mg
  Cranberries 7 mg
  Banana 6 mg
  Honeydew Melon 6 mg
  Blueberries 6 mg
  Casaba Melon 5 mg
  Nectarine 5 mg
  Peach 5 mg
  Plum 4 mg

 

[ChuckP]

mine love the hikari algae wafers. Once a week or so, I'll break one up into 4-6 pieces (so everybody gets some - the whole tank loves these things) and toss it in. The snail will find a hunk and completely cover it up to protect its "prize" from the rest of the feeding scrum.

I also occasionally toss a small piece (less than a fingernail, not enough to foul the water)- of one of those "weekend feeder" things in - it's mostly calcium sulfate (good for the shells), the snails rasp it down to nothing in a couple of days. They seem to really like it.

I've no luck at all feeding veggies, though that's probably because the platies are much faster than the snails!