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How to Keep a Snail Alive in a Closed Ecosystem

Functional and effective ecosystems consist of producers, consumers and decomposers. A snail, which is appropriate for water ecosystems, is considered a decomposer, since it functions to keep the environment of the ecosystem clean by eating and discarding of the waste. It is important to have the necessary plant life in order to keep them alive in a closed ecosystem. Since you don't want the water in your ecosystem to evaporate, you must secure the vents and air passages of the cage, which means that without the proper oxygen-producing plants, your snails can suffocate.

Things You'll Need

2-gallon aquarium
Water
Gravel
2 elodea plants
Window

Instructions

- 1
  Fill a 2-gallon aquarium tank with gravel on the bottom. Plant two elodea plants into the gravel. Elodea plants are fast-growing and have petals that float. They can even grow in environments that are dimly it, although they grow and multiply faster with the assistance of light.
- 2
  Add filtered water to fill the tank until it is 2 inches away from the top rim. Submerge the snail into the water, along with the other animals that you introduce into your closed ecosystem.
- 3
  Place the closed ecosystem underneath or by a window. The sunlight will help the growth rate of the elodea.
- 4
  Avoid adding too many fish into the ecosystem. The fish will eat the snail eggs and possibly try to eat the snail. You can keep a snail alive by reducing the fish limit to between three and five.
- 5
  Add a few smaller snails into the ecosystem to assist the larger snail. Small snails will multiply quickly to fill the ecosystem with more decomposers, which will keep the environment cleaner.

Animals & Science