Olive Nerite snails

Question
Hi, I just recently (last week) got 13 Olive Nerites to help with a severe algae problem in a lightly planted 10 gallon tank.  It was so infested that my poor fish (1 betta and 1 clown pleco) had to blow on the side of the tank to part the algae and see out.  3 weeks ago I moved them to a slightly more planted 20 gallon set up (which now has brown algae issues and so some of the snails are going to that tank, as well as getting CO2 and looking at diff. fertilizer and lighting), but these critters are way too efficient.  The 10 gallon tank is just about as polished and sparkling as it was at initial setup.  I can't seem to find any info about supplemental feeding for them anywhere.  Can I feed them veggies like I do for the pleco?  And how much, how often?  Poor things, they are going to go from feast to famine fairly quickly :(
Thanks for any info, Renee

Answer
Hi Renee,
It seems like they have been doing their job very well!
Snails love veggies and you can feed them with chopped lettuce or sliced squash. Although, the veggies sometimes tend to rot the tank, so it is important to change to fresh veggie at least once a week. I would say, the best veggie to give would be chopped or sliced squash. You can cut it one-inch-by-one-inch-by-half-inch, and put it in the aquarium. Though, I am not sure how your pleco would respond to that. I have known some plecos that take over all snail veggies, and some that don't care. If your pleco dominates the squash, then you can cut it into smaller pieces and drop a few. Just make sure to pick up everything later on, though. Snails will also eat vacation fish blocks or algae pallets for bottom dwellers.
How often you feed, it depends on your snails. They do not need much food to survive, but if you decide to give real veggies, I would say change them frequently so it does not rot your tank.
Personally, I don't like to feed snails separately. It is good idea to consider buying a live aquatic plants. It provides oxygen, and fish really seem to like it. Hopefully the snail will not eat up the whole plant! :)
Since you have a betta, I would recommend getting aquatic plant called "java fern". It is Asian plant, so it becomes more biotope for the bettas, and since it has thicker leaves, the snails can crawl on it.

I hope this information helped, and good luck with your snails!

Barbara