Marbled Limpet AKA Porcelain AKA Turtle Limpet Nerite Snail (Septaria porcellana)
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- Backordered, shipping soon
The Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail is a very unique and uncommon species that comes in a variety of great shell patterns!
The Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail (Septaria porcellana), also known as the Porcelain Limpet Nerite Snail, is a beautifully-marked, limpet-like gastropod that is very new to the freshwater aquarium world. Its shell is described as “tent-like” or similar to half of a clam’s shell. These snails are rather compact and small-bodied compared to snails of similar size, so they produce less waste and contribute less to the bio-load of the aquarium. The Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail LOVES the surface of glass and rocks and it can cling to those surfaces with unbelievable strength. Due to its strength and the protective shape of its shell, the Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail can often be kept in an aquarium with animals that are typically not compatible with most other snails and gastropods.
Unlike many limpets, the Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail is a highly herbivorous species that eats a great deal of algae and biofilm. It is native to freshwater, brackish, and marine tidal areas where it congregates with other snails and scours rocks, contributing heavily to preventing the overgrowth of algae. Though it sometimes originates from brackish and marine environments, the Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail is highly adaptable to fresh and brackish water. It is widely believed that it spawns in brackish or marine environments and spends the majority of the rest of its time in freshwater. Breeding in freshwater has been reported, but such reports are unsubstantiated thus far. We have kept the Marbled Limpet in our freshwater tanks for months to ensure its longevity, and it has thrived magnificently.
Care for the Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail is basic and undemanding. It requires clean, mature water with the availability of plenty of algae and biofilm to thrive, but it will also usually eat high-quality dry foods. We recommend dosing GlasGarten Bacter AE for optimal algae and biofilm growth.The Marbled Limpet Nerite Snail's small size and low bio-load make it an excellent candidate for nano aquariums.
We now offer B-grade Marbled Limpet Nerites as well.The B-grade variants mean that the snails may have minor shell damage, erosion, or calcification, but are otherwise perfectly healthy. Responsibly wild sourced snails do not always come in with perfect shells so we offer these at a discounted price to help find them good homes as well even though their shells are not in pristine condition.
* IMPORTANT NOTE: Because of their unique shell shape, these snails have difficulty turning themselves when they have been overturned. This is unlikely to be an issue once they are established in your aquarium, but take care not to place them on their backs when introducing them to your aquarium. *
- Completely peaceful
- Highly variable, attractive color patterns of black, gray, white, and tan
- Safe with all plants, but eats algae voraciously
- Excellent scavenger that contributes a lower bio-load than most snails
- Thrives in a variety of environments.
- Temperature: 74° - 84° F (23.3° - 28.9° C).
- pH: 7.5 - 8.2, although some specimens will adapt to lower pH
- KH: 2 - 12 dKH
- Minimum tank size: 2 gallons per snail
- Diet: Scavenger that feeds continually. Requires very little feeding in a well-established aquarium containing algae, biofilm, or decaying plant matter. In less mature aquariums, high quality dry foods with high plant content can be sparingly fed daily.
- Social behavior: Peaceful
- Origin: Taiwan
- Average adult size: 1 - 1.5 inches (2.5 - 3.8 cm)
- Average purchase size: .5 - 1 inch (1.3 - 2.5 cm)
For the safety of our animals, we only ship live fish, crabs, and select other inverts exclusively via UPS 1 Day Air. If your order contains this item, you will only see UPS 1 Day Air as a shipping option during checkout. If other items are in your cart that can ship with 2 day or standard shipping options the only shipping method you can still select is UPS 1 Day Air.
UPS 1 Day is a description of the duration of time a shipment will spend in transit once it has been shipped. This does not guarantee the package will be shipped the same or next day from which the order was placed.
Shipping Schedule for this service
Current Handling Time:
1-9 business days
Here at Aquatic Arts, we consider the welfare of the live animals we are shipping to be of the foremost importance. This process is much more involved than simply creating a shipping label and affixing it to a box. Depending on the order, it takes from 4 to 7 people to complete this process properly. We check the weather conditions here where they fly out of the Indianapolis UPS facility and the destination for each shipment. We start early each morning and go through a multi-step process to have the day's shipments prepared in time for the UPS pickup. The volume of orders in our system also affects the processing time. Therefore our stated handling time is 1-9 business days.
Shipping Rate
Pricing is by size of package needed to fill entire order and distance it must travel. It will be calculated at checkout.
