We just spent a week at Holden Beach in NC. While we were swimming out in the ocean a moon snail got stuck to my toe! The kids thought it was really cool so we brought it home in some sand and water. It's huge when it comes out of the shell!
I've been googling and I can't find much info about how to keep them in an aquarium. We have successful freshwater aquarium already. I was thinking about setting up a small 5 gallon salt water aquarium just for the pet snail. After researching it I read they eat live clams, yikes!
I need some advice about how to keep it in an aquarium, if that's even practical. I've never set up a salt water tank before. I don't know how long it will last in the tupperware with ocean water, poor captive snail. :roll:
Lets see if I can wade through it for you. Absolute needs are as follows:
Refractometer (Hydrometer)
Heater
Light if you want to view it.
Salt Water Test Kit
RO/DI water- As SW Inverts don't like bad water quality.
Your going to need to watch the water parameters for him. You'll need to change out your water when its need, if he's the only one in there, I doubt your going to have Nitrate issues, but you will need to keep them under 20.
Probably only need Sand for this thing, maybe a few rocks. But you did pick up a nasty lil dude to keep. Gonna eat you out of house and home there.
Mechanical filter.
I think that should do it. Not an easy critter to keep.
I was thinking 5 or 10 gallons with light, sand, heater, and whatever special equipment salt water needs. (See above post for the list, haha.) I already have a lot of those things from freshwater fish keeping.
The snail is pretty cool to watch. We can take it out and hold it and it waves its giant snail body all around. I'm concerned about what it eats. Google says it eats live clams. Why did I not google this from my iphone on the beach??
I was thinking 5 or 10 gallons with light, sand, heater, and whatever special equipment salt water needs. (See above post for the list, haha.) I already have a lot of those things from freshwater fish keeping.
The snail is pretty cool to watch. We can take it out and hold it and it waves its giant snail body all around. I'm concerned about what it eats. Google says it eats live clams. Why did I not google this from my iphone on the beach??
I wonder if it will eat dead clams. I'm guessing no. Maybe if it gets hungry enough. I need to go to the Chinese market and see if they have live clams. They have other live things, like roosters...unfortunately/fortunately the snail does not eat live roosters.
We just spent a week at Holden Beach in NC. While we were swimming out in the ocean a moon snail got stuck to my toe! The kids thought it was really cool so we brought it home in some sand and water. It's huge when it comes out of the shell!
I've been googling and I can't find much info about how to keep them in an aquarium. We have successful freshwater aquarium already. I was thinking about setting up a small 5 gallon salt water aquarium just for the pet snail. After researching it I read they eat live clams, yikes!
I need some advice about how to keep it in an aquarium, if that's even practical. I've never set up a salt water tank before. I don't know how long it will last in the tupperware with ocean water, poor captive snail. :roll:
Well, this is a really old post but in case anyone else sees and wonders:
Moon snails will need a LOT of space and water. Like 40 gallons at least. And will need an area they can climb up out of the water (a decent sized rock or piece of driftwood is good enough). They need the sand for spawning. They eat mollusks by enveloping and then drilling through, so you will need a supply of mussels, clams, snails, or etc to feed them with. I suggest also adopting some seaweed live plant or kelp to help with oxygenation, and a filter since they produce a LOT of mucus.
They do not need heat, since their natural habitat is waters between 40 and 50 degrees F.
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