What snails eat at home and in nature

Snails are admired, used in medicine and even in cooking, but very few people know what snails eat. But these mollusks, like all living things, need nutrition. In numerous encyclopedias, you can find detailed information about the life of these animals in nature, but especially the question of what snails eat, interest those who contain shellfish in the aquarium.

Home

Before considering the diet of their pets, it is necessary to understand their structure and peculiarities of the digestive system. The oral cavity has only snails, slugs do not have it, so their nutrition occurs through the nipples. Owners of shells, unlike other types of mollusks, have a mouth that contains a muscular tongue and 14 thousand teeth, with which they, like a file, grind food. Such a unique feature, like having a mouth, allows these animals to consume grass, vegetables and fruits. This easily solves the problem of those people who decide to have shellfish in the aquarium and do not know about what the home 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 fat, spicy, smoked, salty, sweet, sour - in general, everything that usually makes the diet of a modern person, does not fit mollusks: from such food they can seriously suffer. The most loved are grapes, apricots, pear, watermelon, melon, fragrant berries and tropical fruits. If you decide to treat the pet with vegetables, then offer him cabbage, carrots, pumpkin, eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, corn, beans. As a special delicacy, knowing about what snails eat, you can enter into their diet cottage cheese and eggs.

Ahatines

The dead plants are preferred by those snails, which can often be seen in the garden. Contrary to popular belief, for garden plants they are not dangerous, on the contrary: animals destroy weeds and damaged inanimate vegetation. Although sometimes they can eat and young plants of different cultures. Sometimes on the grassy bush you can see a whole group of mollusks that will not go away until the plant is completely destroyed. These are the ahatines, who prefer to consume food that way, in groups.

Predators

In addition to herbivores, among the gastropods there are predators, which eat small crustaceans and insects.

Minerals

Considering the conditions of the content and the question of what the snails eat in the aquarium, it must be remembered that they need normal calcium for vital activity, which is part of the shells. That's why domestic pets need hard water, in which it is possible to add various mixtures to increase the hardness, with a pH of at least 7.

Mollusks are amazing and attractive creatures, which can be kept at home. And that they always feel good, it is necessary to learn about what snails eat and take care of a sufficient amount of minerals, especially calcium.