Would salt water snails work in brackish?

My friend has a brackish tank but he can't seem to find the right snail for it. His salinity is at 1.008. He was recommended to use trap door snails by our store but they died. Then he tried a turbo and it died. Would margaritas work in his tank or is the salinity to low? Any input would be great. He has some guppies, a molly, ghost shrimp, some type of fiddler crab thing, and a spotted puffer. Eventually the puffer might try and eat everything he knows, but its tiny now and gets along well with the other inhabitants. Thanks from me and him!!

 

A lot of people with fish-only tanks run 1.021~1.022. Snails don't like this for extended periods so marine snails aren't going to last long at 1.008.

 

Some snails are more suited to brackish water, of course, and some live only in brackish water. There are several species of potamidids and cerithiids that should do fine in a brackish tank (collectively called "ceriths"), as well as some of the nerites. The dark colored, less attractive cerith species are more likely to be the ones that will survive in brackish water, and the black or purple Neritina/Puperita species with zigzag markings along with the flattened Clypeolus species might do well in brackish water, if you can find them.

Cheers,



Don

 

I didn't read the whole thing but it seems like it will help.

Tropical Brackish Water Snails

Ivan

 

if you'd like i can throw a snail into my brackish and see what happens... i dont think it'll bode well though. 1.025 to 1.005 in my case would prolly kill the little bugger

 

cool thanks guys ill have to show him this when i see him later. thanks for the link irr. my stores has different types of nerites so I'll tell him to look more into that.

 

this might sound dumb but is it possible to start out some snails at a normal salinity of 1.024 and slowly lower it until its at the brackish range?? i would imagine to do this successfully it would take alot of time. maybe what you need is just a lengthy acclimation process to not shock them when they go from 1.024 to 1.008?? seeing how they would be living in a saltwater mix that is just more diluted than normal sea water i would think if done slowly they could get use to the low salinity. I was told that the biggest killer of snails is a sudden change in salinity.

 

I think this would work. I lived on the Mobile River Delta for a few years on brackish water. The salinity was always changing. Sometimes it would be fresh, sometimes full sea water. The fish obviously moved along with the changing water, but I would imagine the inverts who had to hang around were used to it. May be something worth trying.