Wonder Snails – Olive Nerite Snails
August 30th, 2006One of the more recent snails to the hobby, Olive Nerite Snails are the wonder snail when it comes to algae eating. They have been reported (and observed) eating green spot algae, green dust algae, fungus on wood, etc, etc, etc… These snails are actually brackish water snails, but do just fine in our freshwater tanks. Due to their salty nature, their eggs never produce any snail offspring. Also, their thick shells, and tightly sealed trapdoor often allow them to coexist with loaches. (Much to the loach’s dismay, I’m sure.)
The only downside to these snails is that they tend to produce lots of sesame-sized eggs throughout the tank (shown below). Their egg production tends to be more prolific when they are first introduced to the tanks. Perhaps they are still acclimating themselves from brackish to freshwater?
I’d recommend Olive Nerite Snails for anyone’s tank!
November 28th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
I HAVE A 90gal TANK THAT IS BRACKISH AND I AM HAVING BROWN ALGAE PROBLEMS. WOULD THE OLIVE SNAIL BE WHAT IM LOOKING FOR SINCE THEY SAY THERE IS NO TYPE OF FISH TO HELP CONTROL IT.
AND WHAT KIND OF SPAWNING PROBLEM WOULD I HAVE WITH THE SNAILS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Hi Fernando,
I don’t have any experience with brackish tanks, but I do know that olive nerite snails can survive, and reproduce in brackish water. Depending on what you mean by “brown algae” they may or may not eat it. I’d say, just go ahead and try a couple dozen, and see what happens. Keeping in mind that if you buy snails that are acclimated to freshwater, you ought to acclimate them back to brackish water by gradually increasing the salt concentration of the snail’s water in a bucket until it matches your tank. Also, never having kept them in brackish water, I don’t know how prolific of breeders they would be for you. If nothing less, if they do breed, you should be able to easily make your money back by selling them on aquabid or ebay.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:59 pm
[…] just wanted to share a couple pictures I took of the Olive Nerite Snails in my 40G aquarium. As mentioned in last week’s algae writeup, these snails are fantastic […]
October 30th, 2009 at 10:29 am
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June 21st, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I just bought one of these snails for my small gold fish desk tank that includes only 1 small goldfish that my 4yr old son won at a carnival. I really love this snail and would love to have more but I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep him fed. This little snail really puts away the lettuce. Then I ended up buying 2 betta fish, I don’t even like fish, I am an equestrian but somehow they all work out in my home. I highly recommed this snail.