Can Snails Tolerate Aquarium Salt?

Sometimes aquarium salt is applied to fish tanks for various reasons, such as to cure some fish diseases and to add electrolytes to the water.

This is to say that salt could sometimes be very helpful to fish and could even be recommended by a Veterinarian doctor in order to achieve a purpose.

Many aquarists do enjoy keeping aquarium Snails with their fish, so this brings about the question, ” can snails tolerate aquarium salt?

In this article, you will learn about the different kinds of snails and if they can tolerate salt.

Can Snails tolerate aquarium salt? Some aquarium snails are freshwater dwellers and do not tolerate aquarium salt, while some snails could live in both freshwater and brackish water.

There are two classes of aquarium snails, those that could live in both freshwater and brackish and those that could live only in freshwater.

Salt might not be harmful to those snails that could survive in both freshwater and brackish water, no matter the quantity, but once a freshwater snail gets into saltwater, it will harm the snail.

Effects Of Aquarium Salt On Freshwater Snails

Freshwater Snails have very thin, permeable skin.

When they come near salt or saltwater, osmosis causes rapid loss of water through the skin.

It can even lead to a condition where the snail becomes dehydrated and dies.

This is why snails normally die when they can’t tolerate the amount of salt they are exposed to.

Having known how salt could hurt snails, especially freshwater snails, we will now look at the Types of snails that could tolerate aquarium salt.

Can Assassin Snails Tolerate Salt?

Assassin snails are colorful snails that are often kept in a fish tank because of their colors and also to control the population of other snails because they have the ability to kill and eat other snails.

Can Assassin Snails tolerate salt? No, assassin snails are freshwater dwellers and will be dead if they get in contact with saltwater.

When you are talking about pure freshwater dwelling snails, Assassin Snails should be among because they are irritated by it, and it would dehydrate them in a short while which would result in their death.

Assassin Snails don’t have anything in common with salt, so, they don’t tolerate any bit of it.

So, if you want to place salt in your fish tank that contains this type of snails, kindly remove them or you will end up losing them if you proceed with them still in the tank.

Do Nerite Snails Tolerate Salt?

Nerite Snails are another colorful type of snail which are often kept in fish tanks mainly because of their colors. They Are peaceful creatures and do make suitable tank mates with many other aquarium animals.

Can Nerite Snails tolerate salt? Nerite snails can live very comfortably in both freshwater and brackish water too. Although they can’t reproduce in freshwater, but only in saltwater.

If you are looking for the types of snails that could tolerate both salt or brackish water and freshwater too, then Nerite Snails is one of them.

These snails possess the ability to live in any type of water it desires without getting hurt, but the only problem with them is, that they need brackish water to reproduce, so they can’t lay nor hatch their eggs in freshwater.

How Much Salt Do Nerite Snails Need?

Nerite snails need a salinity level of 1.020-1.028sg.

pH should be 8.1-8.4

The temperature should be around 71-78°F.

Both the temperature and the pH apply to both freshwater and brackish water too.

Can Ramshorn Snails Tolerate Salt Water?

Ramshorn Snails are fine and good to be kept in the fish tank, but the only problem they have and also why people normally distance themselves from having them is, that they are hermaphrodites and could reproduce in large numbers and very quickly, thereby turning into pests in your tank.

Can Ramshorn Snails tolerate aquarium salt? Ramshorn Snails are freshwater dwellers, but they are very tough and could tolerate some levels of salinity.

Ramshorn Snails are very tough in many ways, including being resistant to salt at some levels.

This simply means that they don’t easily get killed by salt, especially when they are fully grown.

Being asexual, they can multiply on their own and fill your fish tank. They normally come with aquarium plants, like in egg form or tiny Snails, then they will multiply in the long run, that’s why live plants are normally dipped in saltwater before planting them in the tank.

This is a way to kill any Ramshorn snail or egg in the live plants, but once they grow, they will begin to resist salt, and at this period, they could only be harmed by a very high level of salinity.

So, salt could be ineffective in dealing with them, just get some assassin snails, and they will deal with the pest snails.

Can Mystery Snail Live In Salt Water?

Mystery snails are one of the biggest aquarium snails, they are colorful, and that’s why they are often kept in many aquariums as pets. Although they are scavengers, but they are very peaceful and harmless too.

Can Mystery Snails live in saltwater? Mystery Snails are freshwater snails and will die if exposed to saltwater.

These snails are one of the purest freshwater Snails, as they don’t tolerate any form of salt, and will dehydrate once they come in contact with it.

Is Aquarium Salt Safe For Invertebrates?

Invertebrates are very sensitive to salt and it could easily harm them.

Invertebrates such as snails can’t stand salty water because it dehydrates them, which is very fatal for them.

Although some could tolerate it to some levels, but it is very harmful to the majority of them.

So, once you want to have salt in your aquarium, it is very necessary to remove any Invertebrates you have there or risk losing them eventually.

Conclusion

Some snails can tolerate aquarium salt, and some can’t, so it depends on the type and species of snail you have in your tank

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References

Aquariawise