Can Mystery Snails Eat Celery?

Last Updated on January 20, 2021 by cmoarz

Celery is something a mystery snail will happily chow down on without much problem. Although it’s not necessarily a good snack for them. As far as nutritional value is concerned, your snail may as well be eating shoe leather.

Celery has almost nothing in it. It’s also especially low on calcium. Your mystery snail requires as much calcium as he can get in his diet in order to maintain shell health and proper growth.

Assuming your tank had adequate levels of calcium in the water to make up for some loss in its diet by giving it celery, celery won’t necessarily hurt her.

So if she likes to have a little treat of celery from time to time, that’s perfectly fine. Just keep in mind celery can be a bit hard to chew for a snail, So you should blanch it for a few seconds in the microwave beforehand.

Let it cool down before giving it to your snail.

It might also be worth letting the celery break down and start to decay a bit. That’s more a snail’s speed when it comes to greens. They like half-decayed plant matter versus fresh greens.

If you notice your snail not eating her celery, let it sit in the tank for a few days. She might be waiting for it to become more soft and supple for her small teeth.

If even after that time period and she doesn’t touch it, Remove it. Feed her something else, as she might just have no interest in the celery. Snails can be particularly picky for a gastropod who will try to eat anything.

Dark greens should be a treat

Remember at the end of the day, your snail is just a glorified vacuum cleaner in your aquarium. That is, assuming he isn’t off on his own in his own tank.

Snails are bottom feeders/scavengers and will enjoy any leftovers your resident fish do not finish. A bulk of their diet will come from various algae growths and leftover fish food in the gravel.

By giving them too much excess extra food, It could just end up causing the tank to become dirty. Snails will only eat until they are full, then they will stop and food will rot.

Giving it extra food is always a good idea, But it’s only an additive to their main diet. So unless they’re on their own, Remember that you should give them nutritious treats like dark greens. Celery is not considered dark green and contains almost no nutrition.

Focus on foods higher in calcium such as zucchini. Not only do they absolutely love the stuff, But the high calcium levels will keep their shells nice and healthy, and you may see them continue to grow!

Just remember, fresh veggies while good for other snail species, can be difficult for our little mystery snails to eat. Boil or microwave them first to soften them up. You can also allow it to start to rot first.

And, as always, do not feed your snail pasta, rice, or any other starchy food. This will cause them to bloat up and die. The same for onions, acidic foods, and garlic. They’re very sensitive to these foods and will likely perish.

Bottom line

Celery makes a fine treat once and a while, But should be avoided as part of the snail’s main diet. Being utterly void of nutrition makes it a bad food source. If your snails do like it as a treat though, it’s fine to give them once and a while.

Just remember to boil it or microwave it, or just let it rot for a bit. It needs to be soft. The amount you add to the tank will vary based on the number of snails you have.

It’s better to stick with dark greens and other veggies (that area ALWAYS boiled) because they are just plain better for them. But at the end of the day, anything you give a snail that lives in a closed ecosystem with other fish is just supplementary, and the majority of their nutrition will come from algae and leftover fish food.