Zebra Nerite Snail

Zebra Nerite Snail are extremely popular for their unique patterns and colors, as well as their practical benefits. They work hard to clean algae off of glass, plants, and decorations, they eat hair algae, and they keep your substrate clean and the correct color. In fact, nerite snails are widely believed to be the single best snail in the aquarium hobby for obliterating algae off of glass, rocks, live plants, driftwood, and other types of decorations. Although they thrive in both freshwater and salt water, they require salt water to reproduce. Thus, they are quite incapable of overpopulating any freshwater aquarium. Nerite Snails are completely peaceful, and therefore safe to keep with any fish, shrimp, live plants, or other snails.

Recommended Tank Parameters

• pH level range: 6.5 to 8.5
• Temperature range: 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit
• Water type: kH 12-18; gH 12-18
• Notes from the owner:
  • With all nerite snails, it’s a good idea to make sure the water line in your aquarium isn’t too high, as these snails tend to climb up beyond the water line.
  • Nerite snails do not tolerate water with high nitrate levels.
  • Snails are very sensitive to copper, so watch out for copper if you use tap water in your tank. They also need a decent amount of calcium in their water to maintain their shell health, which can be helped by feeding the snails foods rich in calcium (such as kale, spinach, and other greens), by floating a cuttle bone in the water, or by using additives.

Feeding

 Nerite Snails are herbivores and are widely known as one of, if not the most, voracious algae-eaters out of any snail. If there is not enough algae present in the aquarium, their diet can be supplemented with algae wafers or blanched vegetables (such as kale, zucchini, carrots, etc.).