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Summary: A snail in an aquarium will eat fish scales, dead fish and algae, but a lack of these sources requires that a snail's diet be supplemented with a veggie or algae tablet. Feed snails an algae tablet every couple of days with information from a pet store employee in this free video on snails and pet care.
Cordell Jacques has worked in the pet industry for more than 10 years. He is also a reptile hobbyist in one form or another. Jacques keeps more than 20 various reptiles, frogs, fish...read more
"What to feed snails... Snails are scavengers. A snail in your aquarium is going to eat pretty much anything it wants as far as fish scales, dead fish, algae, leftover fish food, things like that. However, if you're not offering enough of this stuff, if your tank isn't active enough to give these things, you need to supplement the snail's diet in order to maintain a healthy snail. What you want to offer is simply a veggie or algae tablet. They look like this; it's going to be a green tablet. Essentially what that is is a mixture of algaes and veggies and things like that. They'll all be healthy and helpful to the snail in the growing process. So, they're not very expensive and they go a long way. One tablet every couple of days should be more than enough to feed a snail. Be aware, however, that your fish will also eat these tablets, so you need to make sure that it's available to the snail to actually get to and eat on his own and that the fish aren't scaring him away and stopping him from getting his own food. You can also offer him things like lettuce and stuff like that, properly weighted down in the aquarium, the snail will munch on those things as well. Make sure you move them after a day or so, because it will start to rot and make your fish tank messy and the water dirty and that's detrimental in the long run, but a day of that being weighted down for him to nibble on wouldn't be a bad thing. Make sure you're using some sort of a vegetable that's high in calcium if you can - kale or spinach. Calcium is very important to snails as they do make their own shells and without the proper amounts of calcium, will eventually die from a pitted or damaged shell. You'll be able to see it; it will look like little, white pits on the actual snail, and it's a good indication that he's not getting the correct diet or health that he needs. Or also possibly that your water quality is not as good as it should be and that the acid or the pH in the tank is starting to eat away at the shell and that could also be a good indicator as well."
eHow Article: What to Feed Snails
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