Question:I am cycling a tank and the snail that was supposed to be in the tank has been moved because I was concerned about its health in the tank. Now he is in a smaller container and I am doing daily complete water changes and feeding him HBH frog and tadpole bites, one pellet a day. He has been eating them and everything but lately he has been going up above the water level and just sitting there. I have heard that you are supposed to feed snails algae wafers and was wondering if I should go out and buy them for my snail. He seems to be doing good on the frog food, but still...
Answers:
Snails can always use some fresh produce, it's what they'd be eating normally. Give him some lettuce or a small bit of fruit. It doesn't have to be much, after all it's only one snail. Make sure there won't be anything left in there long enough to rot. And apple snail come out of the water regularly, they have lungs as well as gills and sometimes just choose to be out of the water. They also come out to lay eggs so you might have a surprise waiting for you when she goes back into the water again. Maybe not, but then again...Don't disturb her, it takes forever to lay eggs if that's what she's doing.
As for eating detritus, as someone else said, they will eat leftover food but do not mistake that for eating fish feces as the poster implied, they won't do that.
If you haven't yet, check out this website on apple snails:
http://www.applesnail.net/
I am sure you are fine...just remember not to change too much of the water...they need bacteria in there to eat their waste...the snail should be fine in your tank...the best part about having snails to begin with is that they eat the algea in your tank...Go ahead and try the algea wafers...I'm sure he's gonna love 'em...
most apple snails will be just fine eating the detritus in your tank (all the little brown stuff that settles to the bottom) and whatever food you offer should be fine, you may aldo want to try a peice of lettuce once in a while if you stick with the frog pellets, they use this to trap snails as they are attracted to it, they would just remove it when a bunch of snails are on it, so i guess they really like it. ;)
i used to have 2 gold mystery snails. they both ate algae wafers and cleaned up after my female bettas. all snails really need are algae wafers and water conditioner
More Questions & Answers...