ocean snails

Question
Hi, i was recently near the ocean and i picked up a few snails from the rocks lining the beach. I put them into a container with some of the ocean water and brought them home. I would like to keep a few as pets but don't know how to go about it. Can I keep them in a small container or should I have an actual tank? What do they eat? How can I keep them in salt water? Any information is appreciated!

Answer
Hi Kathy,
They basically need a salt water aquarium set up for them. If only the snails, a 1 to 5 gallon system with lighting, filtration, live rock and a substrate(crushed coral or sand) would suffice. You can generally pick up the small complete systems like this at Walmart, Meijer, Kmart, Petco, Petsmart, etc. very inexpensively. They all feed(depending on the species) on either algae, plankton(small sea critters), detritus wastes and small particulate matter or all of the above. You can buy sea water salt mixes and ro/di(reverse osmosis distilled) water and a hydrometer to mix the water to the proper specific gravity(1.024 to 1.026). Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.