Can Mystery Snails Eat Lettuce?

Last Updated on January 29, 2021 by cmoarz

Mystery snails can’t survive off random tank algae and leftover fish food forever. Although it’s the main part of their diet, These snails also require supplemental feeding of calcium-rich foods alongside such things as algae tablets.

The variety of foods is also an important factor in keeping your snail happy and healthy, and lettuce is exceptionally good for your snail and should be part of its main supplementary diet.

With a whopping 33mg of calcium per 100 gram serving of romaine lettuce, You really can’t go wrong giving them this lovely treat. It’s important that the lettuces you give them be nutritious. Ice burg lettuce is basically just water and really isn’t worth giving compared to other lettuces like romaine and butter lettuce for example. Although it won’t hurt and is a nice snack, don’t depend on it.

Getting the lettuce to stay sunken to the bottom of the tank is the real challenge. You have a couple of options for achieving this.

Preparing lettuce for your snails

Blanching

You have the option to blanch your lettuce of choice. This will make it easier to eat for the snail and keep it from floating up from the bottom of the tank. Given how soft lettuce already is, blanching isn’t a requirement for your snails to eat it.

We don’t recommend this option for lettuce. It should not come as a shock that lettuce doesn’t really hold up that well to a quick blanching. It’s also fairly pointless because option 2 is just far superior in every way. This is what we recommend:

Weighing down the fresh lettuce

This is the best option for getting your romaine lettuce to sit at the bottom of the tank. Just weigh it down with a bit of aquarium gravel or aquarium decorations.

This will prevent it from floating to the top of the tank and your snails will easily be able to climb and start eating it. No blanching required.

Types of lettuce you can feed your snail

Romaine lettuce

Romaine lettuce is the go-to staple for many aquarium hobbyists when it comes to supplemental snail feeding. It’s cheap and fairly nutritionally dense with all the vitamins and minerals a snail needs. Well, maybe not all. But certainly a large portion. Romaine lettuce contains (per 100g):

• 0.3 grams of fat
• 8mg of sodium
• 247mg of potassium
• 2.1g of fiber
• 1.2g of sodium
• VIT A
• VIT C
• 2.5% (33mg) Calcium

Nutritional value source

Buttered lettuce

Butterhead lettuce is another great addition that many people like to give their snails. It’s fairly nutritionally dense, with a high calcium count. Per 100grams, it contains:

• 0.22g fat
• 5mg sodium
• 1.1g fiber
• 0.94g of sugar
• 1.35g protein
• Vit D
• 35mg of calcium
• 238mg potassium
• Vit A
• Vit C

Nutritional value source

Kale

Although it’s not “officially” a lettuce, for all intents and purposes of this article, we’re calling it a lettuce. It’s hugely beneficial to your snail and packed with many nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Per 100 grams, it contains:

• 1.5 grams of fat
• 53mg of sodium
• 4.1g fiber
• 1g sugar
• 2.9g protein
• VIT D
• Calcium is a whopping 254mg’s
• 348mg Potassium