Nerite snails are Euryhaline organisms?

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

Apparently Nerite snails are euryhaline organisms but have to be in saltwater to reproduce... has anyone acclimated ones from the pet store to saltwater? Am I the only one that didn’t know this?

vetteguy53081 · Dec 25, 2020

Nerites are commonly sold in the reef trade and will consume diatoms, film algae, finer hair algae species, and many species of cyanobacteria . These snails are excellent for cleaning the rocks and glass of your aquarium, and are 100% reef safe. They will not consume most display macroalgae, Ulva species are a notable exception though which to them is salad.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Nerites are commonly sold in the reef trade and will consume diatoms, film algae, finer hair algae species, and many species of cyanobacteria . These snails are excellent for cleaning the rocks and glass of your aquarium, and are 100% reef safe. They will not consume most display macroalgae, Ulva species are a notable exception though which to them is salad.

Cool!!! I might pick some up from the pet store and try and acclimate them over

kaylajoy · Dec 25, 2020

I have some I put in brackish water (with just a quick 1 hr drip acclimation) but I'm afraid to kill them with higher salinity. Does it work for all the species?

hds4216 · Dec 25, 2020

Frigus Reef said:
Cool!!! I might pick some up from the pet store and try and acclimate them over

You don't have to acclimate them, most LFS worth their salt will sell ones already collected from a marine environment. They typically live in tidepools.

Udest · Dec 25, 2020

I'd assume it would work with most I think main concern would be temp depending on where they came from like margarita snails or Mexican turbos.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

kaylajoy said:
I have some I put in brackish water (with just a quick 1 hr drip acclimation) but I'm afraid to kill them with higher salinity. Does it work for all the species?

I believe so, I just know Nerites have to be in saltwater to have babies... so all should do well.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

hds4216 said:
You don't have to acclimate them, most LFS worth their salt will sell ones already collected from a marine environment. They typically live in tidepools.

This pet store is a chain

I’m gonna go whenever I get a chance and see if I can pick up five or so

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

kaylajoy said:
I have some I put in brackish water (with just a quick 1 hr drip acclimation) but I'm afraid to kill them with higher salinity. Does it work for all the species?

If you try it post pictures and let us know how it goes! Hopefully I’ll be doing the same soon

saltcats · Dec 25, 2020

Most of the freshwater nerites cannot live longterm in full saltwater! The marine species in the trade are not the same. I wouldn't recommend trying to convert them over.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

saltcats said:
Most of the freshwater nerites cannot live longterm in full saltwater! The marine species in the trade are not the same. I wouldn't recommend trying to convert them over.

Is there different strains or something?

saltcats · Dec 25, 2020

Frigus Reef said:
Is there different strains or something?

Different species, yes. All the different shell patterns are actually different species; the big tiger stripey ones are not the same as the red racers, or the small spotted ones, etc. I am not certain if there are any species which are fully euryphaline but I know the commonly available freshwater species are not.

I did some digging into this recently; it can be tricky to find the info since they're rarely identified by scientific name (and sometimes the only source for the info is one online seller who I'm not convinced is accurate), but once you uncover that you can check them on WoRMs to see if they're fresh/marine/both and where they live.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

saltcats said:
Different species, yes. All the different shell patterns are actually different species; the big tiger stripey ones are not the same as the red racers, or the small spotted ones, etc. I am not certain if there are any species which are fully euryphaline but I know the commonly available freshwater species are not.

I did some digging into this recently; it can be tricky to find the info since they're rarely identified by scientific name (and sometimes the only source for the info is one online seller who I'm not convinced is accurate), but once you uncover that you can check them on WoRMs to see if they're fresh/marine/both and where they live.

What is WoRMs?

saltcats · Dec 25, 2020

Frigus Reef said:
What is WoRMs?

World Register of Marine Species. It's not super user friendly but I like to check things on there sometimes just to see what they have to say (the distribution map is cool!).

For example this is the tiger stripey kind sold for freshwater - http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1353177
Next to environment it shows they only live in freshwater, and I like to check the distribution map to confirm I read it correctly ^^

Hermie · Dec 25, 2020

Nerite is a genus, there are many species of Nerites. Some are euryhaline some are not, from what I recall. So buying any given "nerite" will not necessarily guarantee it's a brackish species.

Casket_Case · Dec 25, 2020

NotASpammerDude said:
Nerite is a genus, there are many species of Nerites. Some are euryhaline some are not, from what I recall. So buying any given "nerite" will not necessarily guarantee it's a brackish species.

Ah I thought they were species lol saltcat cleared it up