Questions regarding nerite snails

[ptjw]

Hello to all this is my first post in this forum!

I recently saw the LFS at C328 selling some snails which I believe to be Zebra Nerite Snails? They're black with yellow stripes like a bee,

Anyway I am experiencing a red/brown/diatom algae outbreak in my tank and I read that these snails are great algae eaters...I have a small tank so SAEs are out of the question..

I read that snails would lay eggs all over the tank, soy question is whether this is true? Do you need two (eg male & female) for this to happen or even one would be able to lay eggs?

The eggs aren't supposed to hatch in freshwater but I don't like the idea of having eggs all over, could someone with experience with these snails help me out? Thanks!

[Navanod]

They will lay eggs all over the place.
I believe you're talking about the smaller spiked nerites. Zebras are much larger and are brown/black striped, without the bright yellow or spikes.
The smaller spiky nerites will lay small teardrop shaped eggs and since there's no way to tell if they're males or females, one cannot prevent this by choosing only males.
Some claims that even a single female can lay eggs without the males but thats probably because the female had already mated while at Hotel 328!

[ptjw]

oh it's like that huh, okay..then would they lay their eggs only once? Or will they keep laying and laying after that even with no males around?

[Puffer]

Did you mention brown algae smeared on the tank glass? If so, then you should be getting a couple of otos to clear it. It's proven to be effective, at least for me. You need to acclimatise the otos well.

[ptjw]

thanks for the suggestion, was considering getting an oto but i think a snail would add lesser to the bioload in a tank, especially since my tank is only 20L+, i have diatoms on the leaves of my plants and i think if i got one snail that maybe it could take its time and graze on them...but if i had an oto do it then i don't know how to keep him once he eats up all the algae

anyway i did further research and apparently they do keep laying eggs whether fertilized or not...maybe i'll just get one horned nerite snail from C328 and choose a smaller one...hopefully it is a male, and if its not...well i hope one female snail won't spam my small tank with eggs in a short time

[dannyfish]

thanks for the suggestion, was considering getting an oto but i think a snail would add lesser to the bioload in a tank, especially since my tank is only 20L+, i have diatoms on the leaves of my plants and i think if i got one snail that maybe it could take its time and graze on them...but if i had an oto do it then i don't know how to keep him once he eats up all the algae

anyway i did further research and apparently they do keep laying eggs whether fertilized or not...maybe i'll just get one horned nerite snail from C328 and choose a smaller one...hopefully it is a male, and if its not...well i hope one female snail won't spam my small tank with eggs in a short time

I bought some of them too but then shortly after put them in ....they all dead...
is it due to the acidic water in my tank?

C328 got those snail red colour ..those still manage to survive for a while ..

[ptjw]

My algae problem got worse so I went to buy a pair of horned nerite snails to try and solve the problem, it's been about 4 days since I got them and one of them has been very active and keeps moving all over the tank and climbing on the plants, which is good..but the other one is extremely lazy and hardly moves at all it just stays in one position and moves a bit every now and then, it has eaten some algae but not as much as the other...don't know if it's sick or something..

anyway no signs of any eggs so far, hope it stays that way

[Rokerites]

Remove them from the tank once the start laying their 1st egg or if they get the job done before doing so. This fellas lay eggs like nobody's business and are very hard to remove.( speaking from having this experience!)