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My friend has just given me about 8 "pest" snails as pets,
but I have no idea how to care for them. At the moment they are tiny, about as big as a pin head, and they are living in a jam-jar full of tap water. They have some shells to climb but that is it. Do I need to get them a tank, and do they need special water? Also, do they need plants etc and what do I feed them?

The Snails will be fine in the jar, as they are small but they need heated water.
They will eat fish food & any other green matter that they'll find.

By the way........ welcome to FP.



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So I need to give them hot water every day? Explain, because I don't wanna buy a heater for a JAM-JAR!!!
Thanks,
A05

P.S Thank-you sooooooooo much!!!

Oh, and I would like to say that you were right. My snails were standing still, then I replaced the water with hot water and they are now charging around like mad (well, sort of snail charging, which means at the pace of 1mph!) Thankyou!!!
A05

Maybe keep it in the sun... in a window.... something that small shouldnt be hard to keep near 72 degrees. But I dont know for sure.

You can keep the Jar in a room that maintains about a 72 degree temp and they shoul dbe okay. Or you can keep the jar near an incandescent light, but make sure you don't cook the poor snails that way. Basicaly, just find a place to keep the jar where the temp will stay stable and above 68 degrees at all times.

Live plant clippings, fish food, lettuce are all good foods for them. You should only have to feed them two times a week, or even less. Remove some of the old water and add new fresh water every so often to make sure that the excess food doesn't cause water quality problems.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

I am feeding them cucumber at the moment, is that ok? Could I put the thing in a bowl of boiling water during the night maybe? I can tell this is going to be a problem, as no where in our house is that warm. Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
A05

Too many temperature fluctuations would be worse than keeping it at a lower temperature. Warmer water will keep them moving faster and reproducing more redily than cooler water, but doing from hot to cool to hot again would be very bad (boiling water would kill them, even just submersing the jar in it briefly would cause a fluctuation that could kill them). Your best bet woul dbe to keep them in a larger tank with a heater, This is really the only way to keep the temperature stable all the time. However, just keep them in your room and don't worry too much and see what happens. They aren't all going to up and die if theya ren't in heated water, though they may not thrive, either.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

I have now given them warm tap water and insulated it with a tea towel, ok?

You won't be able to keep heating the water up like that without killing them. Everytime you add hot water or heat up the water and then leave it alone to cool back down the snails get stressed from the temperature changes. They can survive a wide range of temperatures but the temperature must be stable(no more than a degree or 2 change throughout the day). Temperatures in the low 70s F will cause them to slow down, eat less, move less, and reproduce slower. Depending on the snail species temps in the 60s for too long could kill them but some pest snails will survive near freezing for several weeks. For now if you don't have a spot to keep the temperature constantly warm then your better off leaving it cool.

I would be more concerned about aeration. For now they may be fine but as they get bigger they will have more affect on the water. Without water movement the oxygen gets used up and co2 builds in the water. Unless you do daily to twice daily water changes their health will begin to suffer. I was breeding pest snails for my puffer in a 1.5g fish bowl with an airstone and no heater but our apartment stays at least 70F usually 74F and I had the common pest snails that can survive temporary freezing temperatures.

My pests actually like the temp at 72, but are still active at 70. Keep them by a window, or in a room that is heated over 70 degrees.

Inky

No room in my house is over 70 degrees!! Unless you are talking in F's, then I am not sure. The water is quite cool at the moment, but they seem to be alright. I dunno, I don't really mind if they reproduce or not.
Any other info would be welcome,
A05

Oh, yeah, those temperatures are in F... I think around 22-25 C would be perfect for those snails. Sorry about the confusion... no wonder you were talking about boiling water.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Thats ok, you are just more up-to-date than me!
That is a lot easier for me, now I understand everything you are saying!!!
They seem to be alright at the moment, but I am not sure. They have been eating though, which is a good sign.

What would help now is if you could tell me how to convert between F and C, please. Then I could work it out... somehow.

I just use Google. Type in "70 Fahrenheit to Celsius" and it will give you your conversion. You can do this with any measurement, pretty much, like if you want to convert inches to metric or pounds to grams, etc.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

I dont think anyone could heat there house to 70 C

If you ever hear that a fish/snail needs 70+, they mean F

Inky

Google doesn't recognize the word "to" as it's too common.

You could use the calculators on this site. That's what they're here for.

Google recognizes small words when your typing in a conversion. It has a conversion calculator that watches out for such things. If you type teaspoons in a tablespoon it will give you the conversion or 70 fahrenheit to celsius it gives you the answer in degrees C above your search. I'd have been completely lost figuring out how much kh and gh powder to mix up per how much water if it wasn't for that conversion calculator.

It is just as quick though to use the calculator on this site.

How do I tell if they are dead? They aren't, but for future reference!
A05

If you can tell that they aren't, then you know

Probably when they don't move/eat.