Nerite snails

[finfayce]

Hi- i want a couple more Nerite snails for my 10 gallon tank with 6 Amano shrimp. Where i live Petco is the only pet store close by. I know a veterinarian who helps Petco with sick animals. She said every living creature has been raised in large breeding facilities. Not uncommon to have little pets such as hamsters arrive with broken legs.
So buying snails from Petco is not going to happen. Being 3 hours away from big cities- in any direction, besides driving me crazier, the travel time to this dinky town has resulted in dead fish, dead snails, dead plants and dead birds.
Any suggestion where to buy Nerites from a reputable seller?
I have begged my husband to let us move for years. It was his parents' house so i'm stuck to satisfy his need for sentimentality

 

[gwand]

Hi- i want a couple more Nerite snails for my 10 gallon tank with 6 Amano shrimp. Where i live Petco is the only pet store close by. I know a veterinarian who helps Petco with sick animals. She said every living creature has been raised in large breeding facilities. Not uncommon to have little pets such as hamsters arrive with broken legs.
So buying snails from Petco is not going to happen. Being 3 hours away from big cities- in any direction, besides driving me crazier, the travel time to this dinky town has resulted in dead fish, dead snails, dead plants and dead birds.
Any suggestion where to buy Nerites from a reputable seller?
I have begged my husband to let us move for years. It was his parents' house so i'm stuck to satisfy his need for sentimentality

I have had success mail ordering from Aqua Huna, Aquatic Arts and The Shrimp Farm.

 

[Seisage]

Maybe try looking for local hobbyists who might be selling livestock on facebook/facebook marketplace? Mail ordering is expensive, although there are definitely some good sellers with good reputations.

I have the same problem as you, where I live in a small, remote town and have a local pet shop that stocks fish, but they're all low quality and not in good shape. My nearest decent LFSs are also 2.5-3 hours away from me. And, honestly, basically all hobbyists that are selling anything are also in those larger cities far away from me. What I've done so far is really just a lot of planning and traveling.

Find a good reason to go to the city that isn't just getting animals (because let's be honest, a six-hour round trip for snails isn't worth it), but do plan your travel to accommodate getting animals. If you stay overnight, get the animals on the day you're returning home. The past couple months, I've had to travel to the city for work every other week. If I needed to get something fish related from FB marketplace, I would coordinate with the seller beforehand. Most people are willing to hold items for a specific pick-up date.

Don't be afraid of a long-ish drive with fish or other animals. I've gotten fish from the city and they did just fine on the 2.5 hour drive home along bumpy rural highways. Those fish already had to travel quite a long ways even just to get to the shop. A couple more hours in a bag in the car probably won't make that much of a difference to them. Same for snails.

 

[Ram419]

I got all my nerites at Petco. Not really had many issues with them. But each Petco store could be a different story. And if there's an employee change it could either mean better tank maintenence or worse so things could change as well.

 

[Ram419]

That being said, I've had fish deaths at that same store. I assume due to the source they get the fish and perhaps because they don't have a proper way to quaratine before putting out to display for sale. But, for the most part snails and shrimp I've gotten there seem ok.

 

[StevenF]

At present no nerite scales are being raised commercially in tanks. Nerite snailes live in river deltas. The snail moves in and out of the ocean water but spends most of its time in fresh water. Nerite eggs can only hatch in salt water. It is very difficult to set up a tank that can be used to breading nerite snails.

 

[MaloK]

All Nerites are wild caught, nobody can setup a simulated breeding environment like this. I got mine at the closest fish store available.

Buy twice the number you want to have at the end. Some will escape your tank no matter how good is your lid is and the other will be found on their back dying.

I drip acclimate them, they resumed their activities 5 minutes after introduction to the tank. Still one escaped and was found dried on the floor behind the tank another died 2 weeks later. The 2 survivors are happy patrolling the tank 3 month later.

They also brought with them, detritus worms, hydras, some solid fresh water barnacles, different copepods and algae, to name only a few... While none of them are really a menace, some might be undesired in certain setups. They are a excellent monitor of your water quality, but can become harmful if to well fed. Some of them are literal fry eaters and are, most of them cannibalistic opportunist to the point of stealing others yolk bag at birth.

 

[finfayce]

I got all my nerites at Petco. Not really had many issues with them. But each Petco store could be a different story. And if there's an employee change it could either mean better tank maintenence or worse so things could change as well.

Thanks. Actually our Petco " fish guy" retired a couple years ago. The current manager was sent back to Petco training school- whatever it's called. Scary to know the manager isn't the greatest on top of fish guy retiring.