[avraptorhal]

I have the usual infestation of pest snails that live plants bring with them. Some of the larger ones shells have turned white. Is this an age related thing? If not, what are the other possibilities?

 

[NeonFlux]

The causes of white shell erosion on the pest snails and nearly all snails like that is because it has to do with the water hardness of the tank.. especially if the hardness is low, or it could be lack of calcium and minerals in their diet.

 

[Flear]

soft water & low pH will erode a snails shell, ... if it erodes to far (enough to eat right through the shell) your snail(s) will die

pH desired to keep your snails, ... 7.0-7.5 would be good, ... better higher, ... i only hesitate about going higher as this may make things difficult for anything else in the tank.

this is the number i went with for pH, ... it's about the lowest you can go and still be looking out for snails health, doesn't mean things are happy, it's only about reducing or trying to prevent shell erosion.

i would have to look into it again to get a better pH number, ... or you could look into it as well

 

[henningc]

If the snails are pests than you are slowly exterminating them with lack of minerals. I raise a lot of pond and ramshorn snails to keep tanks clean and feed my crayfish. If people are interested in keeping the snail shells in good shape, watch the ph, and feed them reptile vits with calcium. I feed that to feed snails for a week prior to uing them as feed. I just put them in a five gal bucket and dump in the powder. They eat it right off the bottom.