My Mini Pet Snail - Water Changes?

[GuppyGoddess]

Hi everyone,

A while back, I brought home some plants from my LFS and on one was an itty bitty snail. I don't want snails in my tank, but decided to make a mini-tank for the snail out of a .25 or .5 gallon vase I have in the house rather than toss the snail.

I was putting fish food in the vase (lol), but now algae is growing on the sides for him.

Couple questions:
Since there is barely any water in that vase, how often should I change the water? I'm currently doing it once per day (plus my cat drinks the water, so it's being topped off during the day).
and, second, now that there is algae in the tank, should I still be crumbling up a bit of fish food? I don't want to spend money on him and he seems to be okay as is. It's just him and about 1/3" of gravel at the bottom. No plants (and I do not want to buy any!)

Thanks!

 

[loraxchick]

all snails dont eat every type of algae. as long as you see snail poo i wouldnt feed flake anymore. will just contribute to your algae problem really.
as for waterchanges once a day is more than enough for one pond snail. if you ever do get some plants in there, really you could just use old tankwater to refill the vase as needed and be done with it. the plants will use up the ammonia one little snail produces. perhaps one every couple of months do a clean/actual waterchange. even a stem or two makes a big difference with such a small bioload.
cheers

 

[OneOnion]

Maybe you could cut a small bit of plant like a few inches from one other of your tanks like some elodea?

 

[loraxchick]

Maybe you could cut a small bit of plant like a few inches from one other of your tanks like some elodea?

exactly. if the OP already has stems, just pinch a bit off the top and let it grow in the vase.

 

[nessar]

You might want to cover the vase. I had a similar pet in isolation till this morning. Yesterday morning I woke and found he wasnt in his container (I had changed the water the day before so the quality was good) when I found him on my desk he was all withdrawn into his shell but seemed fine after a couple of hours in water, but I woke up this morning to a dead snail I know it sounds silly but I got quite attached to my little hitch-hiker!

 

[nessar]

update : it seems that little fredrick the snail managed to give birth in the week before he/she/it was put in isolation! woke up this morning and saw 8 teeny tiny snails on the glass - think some got sucked into the filter though now

 

[GuppyGoddess]

Maybe you could cut a small bit of plant like a few inches from one other of your tanks like some elodea?

exactly. if the OP already has stems, just pinch a bit off the top and let it grow in the vase.

Okay, thanks. . .I'll do that. I had put a cutting in there but, even with it anchored, it kept getting loose. I thought the algae would be good for him/her. It seems to be going to the bathroom a lot(LOL!), so I'll just keep sticking flake food in there.