Brittle Snail shells?

LyzzaRyzz

I just tried sexing my new apple snails, and i realized their shell opening is very brittle!

I just put the calcium brick in there today, they've been without since the petstore, for two days..would two days make such a difference? or were they in this condition when i bought them?

Is there a quick fix? Or something that i can add to make sure they harden fast and heal?

Ive heard of tums? And when you guys say calcium pill, do you mean like a vitamin? one we take? Should it be a multi vitamin or a calcium specific? Crush it up before or drop it in whole? are they supposed to eat it or get it through the water?

kitten_penang

check you ph i find they do better in higher ph as lower ph is acidic and it eats away at their shells.my red ramhorns are having that problem in the softwater planted tank.i feed them spinach and do regular wc to keep the calcium levels high enough for them to regrow better shells

redchigh

I'd personally never use Tums.. I use calcium tablets every so often. Try to find one with magnesium in it as well, and drop it in whole.

I drop a half-tablet in once or twice a month in my ten gallon, but you could probably get away with much less.

What's your PH? If you don't mind the PH rising a little (6.8-7.2), you can buy agricultural limestone extremely cheaply, and add 1 TBSP to the substrate.

Some vegetables have fairly high amounts of calcium, but spinach, rhubarb, chard, and beet greens all contain Oxalic acid which could 'lock up' the calcium.*


*Oxalic acid prevents mammal digestive systems from absorbing a lot of the calcium. I'm not absolutely certain how Oxalic acid would affect calcium absorption in an aquarium.

kitten_penang

Cooking breaks down oxalic Acids that's why i cook the spinach first soak it then let it cool before feeding them.

kitten_penang

romaine lettuce (not iceberg lettuce, which contains little or no nutrition), collards, berries, cantaloupe, squash this will also help.i found it online for you

LyzzaRyzz

Cantelope? I never heard of that!
I'll have to try it!
And which berries? Strawberries?

My PH is around 6.4-6.8
I barely have any substrate, just enough to layer the bottom, and have little hills and such. It makes cleaning so much easier.
Im used to bare bottom tanks, and substrates are way different.

I'll look for calcium/magnesium tablets, and when I find some I'll check with you guys before dropping it in!

kitten_penang

not sure actually they din't state anything further but personally i wouldn't add strawberries in my tank so just cross it off and try the rest of the veggies.btw do they take pellets?? you can soak the pellets in calcium before adding it to the tank.like a vitamin bath.i do that for my predator tank once in a while and since i can't dose marine liquid calcium straight to my tank i dose foods and let them eat it.s liquid calcium does leak out of the food but i wouldn't do it all the time as high levels of calcium will disrupt the ph.if you want to up the ph you can use old sea shells, crushed coral or some of the stuff redchigh told you about.sea shells must be boiled and soaked to make sure it doesn't leak out any un-wanted toxins into your tank

LyzzaRyzz

Thanks guys!

I have tons of old seashells..and coral. Do I just boil, leave out and repeat?

kitten_penang

if you have collected it from a clean area and is not picky you can just rinse and put them in. if your worried boil it then let it soak in clean water.

Pogthefish

I just add seashells and conch shells. They make great decoration, and they leech calcium and raise the
Ph, KH, and hardness! Its great for them all around!