Marsh Periwinkles and Spray Bottles

[HazelSnail]

Hello,

I was curious if anyone here keeps or knows about the keeping of marsh periwinkle snails. There are loads of them where I vacation in South Carolina, and I have been quite tempted to bring some home, but I didn't want to try and care for them without a good bit of information first. I have researched their lifecycle and feeding habits, and I have a few ideas on how I'd look after them (tank setup, food, ect) but I wanted to see if anyone on here knows about them, since I haven't found any information on the internet so far that tells how to keep them as pets.

My current idea for a setup is to have a tall tank, with a sandy bottom and a thin layer of saltwater. I would then stick fake aquarium grass in the sand so it sticks up, mimicking the marsh grass the snails are used to. As for food, since they rasp algae off marsh grasses, I though it might work to dissolve algae wafers in water and smear that on the fake plants.

On a slightly different note, what sort of spray bottles do you use? I have tried many, but none have worked that well, especially when it comes to pointing them downwards.   

Thanks!

(Wasn't exactly sure where to put this, so sorry if it's in the wrong place)

[Evan]

Wow, those are some really cool snails! Wikipedia says that they practice fungiculture, which is the cultivation of mushrooms and other fungi!

Let me know how that goes!

[Liguus]

I've got some Melampus and they're very easy. They eat vegetables and pretty much are fine on there own in a sandy wet terrarium with saltwater. They will require a higher humidity though, large tupperware with only a few holes poked in the lid works well. I would try feeding the periwinkles vegetables and solid algae wafers first, as they might be less picky than they appear.

I was going to try to keep some Florida periwinkles, but I forgot them at the beach. Because of that I can't comment with certainty about how simple this will be, as I also think some periwinkle species are harder than others.

Here is my sprayer: www.ruralking.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/2/0/20001.png

[HazelSnail]

Yeah, they're really interesting little snails!

I'll definitely try solids first, thanks for the tip! Very excited for the summer when I can go and collect some.

That sprayer is ingenious, thank you!