# nerite snails



## ozznet (Aug 23, 2011)

Do Nerite snails actually eat green spot algae off of plants because I bought 4 of them and have yet to see them go on any of my anubias or any other plants.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Nerites are very picky eaters, truth be told. You would also need a veritable army of them to see progress at anything faster than a snail's pace (haha). I had a lone zebra nerite snail and he didn't do a damned thing for the algae.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

It's always a misomer to think that just by adding any fish or snails that they will immediately hack away at the algae in the tanks. It takes time. If you have GSA and Nerites, you will eventually start seeing a decrease in the GSA. It's not going to be a wake up one morning and it's gone type of thing.

Give em time to explore and find things.


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## JonJonHobbyist (Aug 24, 2011)

I've got 2 nerites in my tank and for the first 2 months they wouldn't leave the glass, actually it took a good month for my zebra nerite to even come down into the water for any length of time. Now that they've been in there for a while, not sure exactly how long but probably pushing 8 months, you never know where you'll find them. I'm not overly sure how well they clean as I also have a pleco also but between him and the nerites the tank is spotless. However my tank isn't really planted, I've got some java moss and a large java fern and a few small ferns and the rest are plastic (Working on switching to full on planted). They are frequently on the driftwood and plastic plants but I have yet to see them on the live ones, I just added the ferns within the last two weeks so they might warm up too them.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

ozznet said:


> Do Nerite snails actually eat green spot algae off of plants because I bought 4 of them and have yet to see them go on any of my anubias or any other plants.


Hello ozz...

If you're referring to the small brown snails, then they'll eat all types of algae. The thing with these little guys is they take their time, but eventually they get the job done. I've had these in my planted tanks for years and they've cleaned up all the visible algae in my tanks.

They do reproduce very quickly and have a tendency to pile up in corners of my tanks, but they are second to none in consuming algae. They also do a good job of eating dead or decaying plant and animal material, but they've never bothered my healthy plants that I can see.

They are an important part of my heavily planted and stocked tanks.

B


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## JonJonHobbyist (Aug 24, 2011)

Hey B, 
Unless you've got a brackish tank I don't think your snails are Nerites. From what I understand they can't reproduce in freshwater. I could be wrong though!


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

JonJonHobbyist said:


> Hey B,
> Unless you've got a brackish tank I don't think your snails are Nerites. From what I understand they can't reproduce in freshwater. I could be wrong though!


Hello Jon...

I do have slightly brackish water in my Livebearer and Corydoras tanks. I've added a little more than a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt to every 5 gallons of my water change water for several years. Have had a large number of the little brown snails (some aren't so little) in my tanks just about from the beginning and never knew what they were called. If they are Nerites, then I learned something new today! 

B


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