I work at a retail pet store and do my best to keep these fish happy and healthy. I ordered some assorted nerite snails this week as we were getting low, and was horrified at what arrived.
For those who don’t know, this isn’t natural. These snails have been dipped in acid, which strips the outer layer of their shells in order to give them a white shell. It’s a terrible practice and nothing I’d ever willingly support. The issue is that I can’t just throw these snails away or anything!! They’re still alive and as healthy as they can be!! I just feel so bad having these in our store. We constantly get compliments on our selection of fish, quality of fish, and cleanliness of our tanks. Having these snails just makes me feel shameful.
It’s probably not even our supplier’s fault, they’re the middleman, not the ones out catching wild nerites and dipping them. However, instead of just keeping them and writing them off as a loss, they sold them to us. I’m planning on writing them a very sternly worded email on Friday when I get a chance.
Posted by MaryamMonster
7 Comments
O_o
I’ve never heard of that before. Why would they bother? Is it supposed to look nice or something?
I don’t get it.
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That’s just aweful.
I didn’t even know this was a thing… this is absolute torture.
Poor snails! If I was local to you, I would buy them and put them in one of my community tanks because I love the Nerites. They don’t cause a lot of damage and they clean up pretty good and their shells can be so varied – – even without mangling them. Mine also seem to have really long lifespan, so I’m a fan of these snails.
APET?
if you work for a LFS and not a chain, suggest to the LFS owner that they switch Nerite vendors.