Would it be weird to buy a snail?

You can keep a pet snail if you want. No different to keeping an aquarium with fish. You set up the tank system, heater, filter etc. Feed the snail, clean the tank occasionally, change some water etc.

Whether the tank has a fish, a snail, a crayfish, a frog.. No real difference in how you care for the tank system.

Snail has the same basic requirements as a fish. Clean water, oxygen, food, correct temperature etc. Provide that and your snail lives a long time. The tank still needs to be big enough to heat, filter and cycle, but because snails aren't big and active critters, you can probably go down to 2 or 3 gallons for a snail.

You can easily keep just the snail. The aquarium will have to be filtered and heated for most species of snail, though, and large enough to keep stable parameters and temperature - so 5 gallons or more. Some of the prettier ornamental snails include the various types of Nerites (Tracked, Horned, Olive, Zebra, etc.) and Mystery/Apple Snails. Ramshorn Snails can also be quite attractive and come in a range of colors, but they may reproduce to crazy proportions. These snails need good water quality, just like fish, so the tank should be cycled and the water should have 0 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrites, and below 20 ppm Nitrates. You should do weekly partial water changes.

Ornamental snails need a pH of at least 7.0, if kept in water more acidic than that their snails can start to erode, and they will eventually die. Nerites are herbivores, and do well being fed algae, algae wafers, and blanched vegetables such as Zucchini. Mystery/Apple Snails and Ramshorns are omnivores, and can be fed sinking omnivore foods with the veggies as treats. All types of snails need a calcium supplement, a piece of unflavored cuttlebone should work nicely. That will float at first, but will sink once thoroughly waterlogged.

http://applesnail.net/ is a good resource for people with a focus on keeping snails.

You can certainly have a pet snail in an aquarium. As Ian says, keeping the aquarium is the same as for fish.

I suggest you get one of the larger aquatic snails, such as an Apple Snail (also called a Mystery Snail).

Nothing wierd about that. I ehave always thought that snails were interesting snail, I had to wait months and remind the petstore to order tiger nerite snails for me.

No you don't have to have fish, i had pond snails and some live pond weed in a plastic bowl tank when i was younger. I later had giant african land snails

just walk in and ask to buy a snail no problem it is no different than housing fish!!

i have had fish that died and the snails lived for years more and bred and kept going! they live well in a small tank, depending on species.

right now all of the snails are in Ferguson Missouri looting and lighting cars on fire

so at the moment you cannot buy a snail

yes, you can have a snail without having any fish.

Snails don't live very long