Margarites pupillus

(Gould, 1849)

Margarita Snail, Pearl Snail

Range: Eastern Pacific Ocean: Alaska to California.

Size: 1 inch (2.5 cm)

Natural Environment: Inhabits rocky areas where kelp/alga accumulates.

General Husbandry: Occasionally seen in the home aquarium trade.

Even though a very good consumer of algae, including hair algae/filamentous algae, red cyanobacteria and brown diatoms, this cool water species does not fair well in tropical aquariums.

Its also prefers to hide during daytime hours, therefore enough caves/live rock/crevices is required to maintain them long-term, besides a cool water temperature. Mostly inhabits rocky surfaces.

Under the right conditions, they can rid the aquarium quite fast of unwanted algae growths, yet should their diet become inadequate, they become weak and fall off rocks. It's then time to provide them some vegetable-based tablet foods/dried seaweed/Nori.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Gastropoda

Order: Archaeogastropoda

Family: Tegulidae

Genus: Margarites

FYI: Not well suited for tropical aquariums, as they are truly a temperate species, however they show up in the trade and are often short-lived because of the higher water temperatures. Nevertheless, there is some discussion saying they can withstand temperatures as high as 75°F (24°C). Yet even that is usually above the average temperatures in home aquarium, therefore, much caution is advised if thinking about purchasing these snails.

Experience Level: Intermediate

Diet: Herbivore

Temperament: Peaceful

Aquarium Environment: Better suited for cool water aquariums

Coral Safe: Yes

Fish Safe: Yes

Invertebrate Safe: Yes

Acclimation Time: Sensitive to specific gravity/salinity changes, therefore be sure to adjust the bag's water to that of the aquarium in which it will be placed by slowly adding small amounts of aquarium water to the bag every few minutes. In most cases, this process should take at least 15 minutes.

Aquarium Hardiness: Moderately hardy

Temperature Range: 50 - 68°F (10 - 20°C)

Minimum Tank Size: 20 gallons

Water Movement: WM 1 - 2

Specific Gravity: 1.023 - 1.025

pH: 8.0 - 8.4