# Snails for topless tanks?



## feral13 (Jan 17, 2006)

My LFS had some outright beautiful Nerite Snails yesterday. I never gave them much thought till now and I didn't know they would leave the tank. I have also heard of apple snails doing the same.

I have always had a small population of ramshorn snails, but I would like to get something larger. Any suggestions for snails that are not escape artists?


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## Loop (Jan 8, 2011)

I've got an open top 29G with some golfball sized Mystery Snails. They've never tried to escape, but they could if they wanted to. They like to hang out near the top alot on the glass and filter stuff.


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## H2OLOVER (Apr 29, 2010)

Ive only seen mystery snails come out of the water to breed. otherwise they stay in the water. at least they do in my tank. my nerites come out of the water occasionally because they do come from tidepool areas. but never to the point where they cant find the water. after a while they learned to stay in the tank
Ive had a few MTS climb out of the tank and fall to the ground but for the most part they stay right at the surface.
my ramshorns stay in the tank as well as my assassin snails

i would go with 1 mystery snail


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## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

I've never seen my nerite snails go completely above the waterline. If they tried to escape they would never get past the rim. Nerites are not the athletes of the snail world.


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## feral13 (Jan 17, 2006)

My tank is rimless and I have a lot of plants going out the top and over the edge. The water line is 1-2 inches from the top. 

My ramhorn and trumpet snails chew on deposits at the waterline at night, but they never go past. I think my setup is a Nerite accident waiting to happen. Ill try mystery snails.

Thanks all


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

What type of nerites? there are some species that are notorious for being escape artists. Usually olives, zebras, red spot, and the "spikey" nerites stay put while some species like "sun", o-ring, abalone, etc are known for not wanting to stay in teh water.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

I have one 1inch zebra nerite snail in my 15G rimless. My water is filled flush with the top of the tank. The snail has been in there for three weeks, hasn't tried to climb out yet. The weird thing is I bought it because it is suppose to clean diatoms, which it did, within the first three days. After that it just roams a a piece of driftwood in the corner. Diatom is building up again and the snail hasn't touched it in weeks.


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## bklyndrvr (May 24, 2008)

I've had a red spot and a zebra nerite escape from my tank. The red spot was actually out of the tank for at least one day before I found him. Surprisingly he survived


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

japanese trapdoor snails dont leave the water


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## seadreamer (May 6, 2007)

I had two zebra nerites escape long ago when I first added nerites to my tank. I've also found them oozing along the underside of the glass top. I've had no escapes in over a year though so maybe it was just a fluke.


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