What Do Gold Mystery Snails Eat?

Gold mystery snails are similar to other mystery snails, but many people prefer them because of their coloration. They add a pleasing aesthetic to the tank as they crawl around the glass and ornaments. Like most mystery snails, gold mystery snails love to eat algae and plant matter, but they have their own food preferences as well.

If you are considering purchasing gold mystery snails for your tank, keep reading, and you will discover exactly how to take care of these fun creatures.

What Tank Conditions Help Them Thrive?

Gold mystery snails are adept at living in a variety of tank conditions. However, they do have their limits and there are some things you should keep in mind when providing them with a suitable tank.

Water Parameters

Before adding mystery snails to your tank, it should be cycled and established. These are some of the best water parameters for your snails:

• Ammonia: 0ppm
• Nitrites: 0ppm
• Nitrates: <40ppm
• pH: 7.2-7.5
• Temperature: 68-82 degrees Fahrenheit

You should be careful with the chemicals that you add to your tank because mystery snails are sensitive. Use caution before using any medications, water treatments, or fertilizers.

The Tank

Gold mystery snails love to explore and will escape from their tank. If you want to prevent these escapes and possible deaths, you will want to provide your aquarium with a lid.

When choosing a filter, be sure to not purchase one that is too strong. Your snails will crawl on the filter intake searching for food. If the suction is too strong, they may get stuck, or worse, sucked into the filter.

What Do Gold Mystery Snails Eat? Watch this video:

What Do Gold Mystery Snails Eat?

Scavengers

Gold mystery snails are opportunistic scavengers and will eat anything found in the tank. Snails gain beneficial nutrients from fish food that sinks to the substrate before the fish can eat it.

However, they have their preferences, and will go after certain foods more than others.

Favorite Foods

Snails favorite food is plant matter. Mystery snails usually won’t eat live plants, but will opt for dead or dying plants instead.

Fortunately for mystery snails, live plants are always shedding old, dead matter. This matter sinks to the aquarium substrate where the snails feed. Because of this, live plants are a great source of food for mystery snails because they provide an unlimited source of food.

Feeding Habits

Although not strictly nocturnal animals, mystery snails really like to hunt for their food at night. Nighttime is when they choose to dig deep into the substrate to look for any plant matter or detritus that may have gotten lodged just out of their reach.

If you’d like to find out more about what mystery snails eat, check out our complete guide.

What Do You Feed Mystery Snails?

Even if your tank has plenty of algae and detritus for your gold mystery snails, it is still important to provide them with a food source just for them. To keep your snails happy and healthy, you will want to make sure they are getting the nutrients they need.

Vegetables

Provide snails with regular feedings of vegetable pieces. Not only is it healthy and beneficial for them, they will devour it.

There are a few greens that most snails seem to love. Blanched leafy greens is usually the go to, but they also enjoy spinach, cucumbers, and lettuce.

Spinach is especially important to feed your snails regularly because it gives them much needed calcium. Snails shells are calcium based, so they need calcium to stay healthy. Without calcium, their shells begin to degrade which can eventually lead to death.

When feeding greens, make sure that you thoroughly rinse the vegetables off first. You want to rid the greens of any harmful pesticides that may be lingering on them.

Wafers

Algae wafers and bottom feeder pellets are designed specifically for critters like mystery snails, rich in all of the nutrients they need. These wafers will sink straight to the bottom of the tank so that the snails can feed on them without competition from fish.

Wafers should be fed on a regular basis, just be careful not to provide more than they can eat. If you provide too much food, it will sit in the tank and decompose.

Fortunately, wafers are easy to break into small pieces. Give them only a small portion of the wafer with each feeding. If you want to provide extra enrichment, you can distribute small pieces throughout the tank so that they must hunt for their food.

How Much Food?

The amount of food that you provide your snails is going to differ depending on how big your aquarium is and how many snails you own. However, you generally will not want to feed too much.

Snails love to eat, and some will engorge themselves to the point that it is harmful for them. Even if they don’t eat more than they can handle, excess food will simply dirty up your aquarium.

The best way to find out how much they like to eat is by adding one or two tablespoons of food to the tank. Keep an eye on your snails to see how much food is leftover after a few hours. Depending on whether all the food is gone or there is some leftover, you can adjust the amount you give them next time.

Conclusion

Gold mystery snails are beautiful, docile creatures that make great additions to your tank. They are very easy to take care of. They help to naturally clean your tank by feeding on algae and detritus. They love to eat, though, and are crazy about veggies that keep them healthy and strong.

Now you know everything you need to in order to create a good home for your new gold mystery snail. Plan to keep them fat and happy and you’ll have a wonderful, colorful addition to your tank.

Interested in black mystery snails? Know exactly what black mystery snails eat here.

Also read our guide on how big mystery snails get and learn more of what mystery snails eat here. Find more guides to mystery snails and other kinds of snails here.