Snails are usually admired, used in medicine and even in cooking, but few people know what snails eat. But these mollusks, like all living things, need food. In numerous encyclopedias you can find detailed information about the life of these animals in nature, but especially the question of what the snails eat is of interest to those who contain mollusks in the aquarium.
Homemade
Before you think through the diet of your pets, you need to understand their structure and features of the digestive system. Only snails have an oral cavity, slugs do not have it, therefore their nutrition occurs through the nipples. The owners of the shells, unlike other types of mollusks, have a mouth that contains a muscular tongue and 14 thousand teeth, with which they grind food like a file. A unique feature such as the presence of a mouth allows these animals to consume grass, vegetables and fruits. This easily solves the problem of those people who decide to get mollusks in the aquarium and don’t know what domestic snails eat. They are happy to taste algae, as well as bacterial formations, thus contributing to the purification of the environment. But you can treat them with a fruit and vegetable mixture, and dead plants. But fatty, spicy, smoked, salty, sweet, sour - in general, everything that usually makes up the diet of a modern person is not suitable for mollusks: they can seriously suffer from such food. Most loved by them are grapes, apricots, pears, watermelon, melon, fragrant berries and tropical fruits. If you decide to treat your pet with vegetables, then offer him cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, corn, and legumes. As a special delicacy, knowing what snails eat, you can introduce cottage cheese and eggs into their diet.
Achatina
Dead plants are also preferred by those snails, which can often be seen in the garden. Contrary to popular belief, they are not dangerous for garden plants, on the contrary: animals destroy weeds and damaged inanimate vegetation. Although sometimes they can enjoy young plants of various cultures. Sometimes on a grass bush you can see a whole group of mollusks that will not leave until the plant is completely destroyed. These are Achatina, who prefer to consume food in this way, in groups.
Predators
In addition to herbivores, among the gastropods there are also predators that eat small crustaceans and insects.
Minerals
Considering the conditions of detention and the question of what the snails eat in the aquarium, it must be remembered that for normal life they need calcium, which is part of the shells. That is why pets need hard water, in which you can add various mixtures to increase stiffness, with a pH of at least 7.
Mollusks are amazing and attractive creatures that can be kept at home. And so that they always feel good, it is necessary to find out what snails eat and take care of a sufficient amount of minerals, especially calcium.