Acclimating Freshwater snails to my Saltwater tank?

ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
Is there any way to acclimate freshwater snails over to my reef? I have planted freshwater tanks and I have an overabundance of snails in those tanks where I need more snails in the salt tank.
Anyone ever heard of this?
I am almost willing to try acclimating them over to salt just because I need to get rid of the snails. I just counted over 100 snails in my 20g tank at work.......dasalotta snails.
I was thinking of trying to acclimate them over a week or two to see if I can get it to work........I have heard of wierder things. :rolleyes:
 
mobikobeyob

mobikobeyob

Member
This is funny. I had a freshwater tank at one time, that I wanted to make brackish. and the only thing in it was snails. well, to answer your question yes you can acclimate them at least to brackish levels. however, you may need to strap a rock to them to keep them from floating to the top. It was really funny to see them all like they had anti-gravity boots on, without a concern, or worry just going about their business like normal. LOL :D :D Mobi.
 
E

elan

Guest
hmm.. interesting questions... i would say that certain species can.. since inverts seem more delicate than fish, the following may not hold any value, but i know of several fish that swim in the ocean and then go back into the freshwater lakes in south florida... Tarpon, Snook, seatrout, just to name a few.. but i dont know of any that go from freshwater to the ocean.....
 
tiffster

tiffster

Member
fish are totally different story than snails, but anyway, have you thought of putting a clown loach (or two) in there? They will eat the snails for you. They do get a little big for a 20 gallon, but I'm sure somebody with a bigger tank would take them when the time comes.
 
iceburger

iceburger

Member
i mean hey...if you've got the snails...i've got the salt...go ahead and give it a try...got nothin to lose (cept snails) and they'll reproduce faster than you can kill them
 
leigh

leigh

Active Member

Originally posted by iceburger
i mean hey...if you've got the snails...i've got the salt...go ahead and give it a try...got nothin to lose (cept snails) and they'll reproduce faster than you can kill them
:eek:
did the 'are you responsible?' thread apply only to corals and fish?
:eek:
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
leigh-
The snails that I am thinking of "experimenting" with are nussance snails in my planted tanks. They come in as hitchhikers and reproduce so fast it is unbelievable........they also kill my plants. The plants in the tank are much more important to me than the nussance snails.
I will be getting rid of the snails one way or another........either by a fish that eats them, throwing them away, or trying to acclimate them to saltwater.
If I went to the LFS and said that I had a bunch of the nussance snails that ruin your planted tanks for trade.......they would laugh at me.
 
leigh

leigh

Active Member
My old fish store was always happy to take those snails in...there's always someone looking for snails...but anyhow, I guess I'm just much more in favor of letting the snails be part of an ecosystem where they get eaten by a fish than by experimenting with them in saltwater. I.e. I'd rather be eaten by a bear (part of the ecosystem) than freeze to death cause someone wanted to experiment with putting

[hr]
humans in the tundra (part of an experiment). geez, and i'm a research engineer too...he he :D
 
scotts

scotts

Active Member
Rye,
The problem is that you have too many snails in your FW tank. If you did acclimate them to salt, then you would eventually have too many snails in your SW tank. Not something that you would want.
Scott
 
krux

krux

Member
im guessing there would be some osmosis and diffusion problems with them. if they did survive, i dont think that the cell walls of the eggs would be able to stand up to the pressure variance as salt equalized its self.
fast test would be to put one in a glass of salt water and see if it turns into an alkaseltzer tablet. if so i would guess all the aclimation in the world wouldnt get it to reef specs.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
In general, inverts are far less tolerant of such changes in salinity than fish are and I will pretty much guarantee you they won't survive all that long. They are just not designed for it physically. In marine bio labs, there is a fairly common lab on osmoregulation where various types of marine worms are placed in different salinities and their weight monitored. It gets ugly as the water gets too fresh or too salty...and I expect similar results in the reverse. I really don't think it will work, and suggest a natural freshwater predator such as the loach mentioned :)
And yes, many snails are hosts for a variety of parasites, including some fish parasites, depending on the life histories of the parasites.
I have to confess...I spent a minute going "Huh, never heard of dasalotta snails before, wonder what they look like." I've got friginlotta snails myself. :p
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
Thanks for all of the input everyone.
I guess these snails live to suck another day. I guess I am going to get a small clown loach and then move him over to my 75 gallon tank at home when he reaches larger stature.
Whats a friginlotta snail? :p
 
azonic

azonic

Active Member
You got me wondering on this one. If they are nuissance snails in your freshwater tank, then would they not be nuissance snails if acclimated into saltwater? :confused:
 
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