Cucumber?

[Rozmere]

Hi, my snails have not changed their behaviors mentioned in my previous post (Ridley is still doing her laps around the top of the tank, Phork is still a algae wafer munching lazy snail) .

My question is, I keep reading that I should give them a little fresh vegetation but I'm afraid (terrified actually) that all the vegetables at the store have pesticides. How can I make sure I don't get a poisoned cucumber or something? Is there a brand or a type of veg that you guys would recomend that won't hurt my snails?

 

[Tetra1990]

Hi, my snails have not changed their behaviors mentioned in my previous post (Ridley is still doing her laps around the top of the tank, Phork is still a algae wafer munching lazy snail) .

My question is, I keep reading that I should give them a little fresh vegetation but I'm afraid (terrified actually) that all the vegetables at the store have pesticides. How can I make sure I don't get a poisoned cucumber or something? Is there a brand or a type of veg that you guys would recomend that won't hurt my snails?

Do you have a garden or know somebody who does. To be honest though, I've been feeding store bought veggies since I've had tanks and not had a problem. Just wash them like normal and blanch if need be.

 

[Cecil2010]

Most of the pesticides reside on the skin so a good wash or cutting off the skin should be ok

 

[Rozmere]

Thank you guys, I'll get something today and make sure it's very well washed.

 

[Khuligirl93]

Or just buy organic

 

[Mogurako]

There is a fruit and vegetable wash that work very well to remove anything that maybe on the skin or like someone mentioned just shell out the little bit of extra $$ and buy organic veggies.

 

[Sam870o]

I feed mine zucchini. I just peel it and blanch it for about a minute. My snails love it(nerites and mystery snails). I just buy it from any store haven't had any issues..

 

[Rozmere]

I just bought organic turnip greens from Walmart, I used some NovAqua Plus to treat some cold water and swished a few leaves around in it to get anything off then gently relocated my two snails to where I weighted one of the leaves down in the aquarium.

My biggest (who has seemed to almost double in size since I got him...was it a week ago?) is just sitting on the leaf, he is a lazy snail and likes to sleep a lot anyway. My smaller one crawled over him and went back to doing her laps around the top of the tank like she always does, neither seem to be interested in the leaf :/

This would not be that big of a deal except for the fact that today I was looking at Phork (the big one) and the newer part of his shell is clear and kind of rubbery (I didn't push too hard, just inspecting him) so I'm thinking I need to get some calcium into them which turnip greens are very high in calcium. I tried to find some Caltrate without the added D vitamins today but sadly I can not find it in this little town, I hear that they will love it and it's very good for them. So what do i do?

 

[Khuligirl93]

If you have limestone in your area maybe you could put a little piece in there, I've heard that works. I don't think you necessarily need to get them to eat calcium, just get more of it in the water.

 

[Mogurako]

Add Cuttle bone to the aquarium it will slowly dissolve then releases calcium and other minerals into the water column, which will aid in shell development.

 

[Rozmere]

Add Cuttle bone to the aquarium it will slowly dissolve then releases calcium and other minerals into the water column, which will aid in shell development.

I found cuttle bone at Walmart but could not find a "Good" cuttle bone. This is a warning to anyone who reads this, make sure you read the ingredients on the pack, the one I found contained a lot of copper which is bad for snails, obviously I did not buy it.

I did however find some vacation feeders made by Wardley, they do contain a little salt but appearently not enough to harm the snails. After I dropped two of these shell shaped feeders into my tank my snail "Ridley" stopped doing her laps around the top of the tank and came down to nibble on one of them for a few minutes which was good to see since see has been kinda passive toward everything else I've offered to her. "Phork", my other snail seems to like them too and if I'm not mistaken it looks like it's helping his shell YAY!

 

[Mogurako]

I found cuttle bone at Walmart but could not find a "Good" cuttle bone. This is a warning to anyone who reads this, make sure you read the ingredients on the pack, the one I found contained a lot of copper which is bad for snails, obviously I did not buy

Cuttle bone is Cuttle bone it doesn't contain anything that it doesn't contain when it's in the actually cuttlefish. There are however Bird chews that are shaped just like Cuttle bone that I would be leery of. Not only are trace amounts of copper safe for invertebrates but also also essential for good health. Look at the foods that are designed for invertebrates, darn near all of them contain copper sulfate.

 

[Rozmere]

Yes sorry, what I meant was that something that was clearly labeled "cuttle bone" was not cuttle bone. I didn't know about copper being essential though, I've always been told to strictly avoid anything with copper in it so thank you for telling me, I won't stress quite as much about what I allow them to have...oh who am i kidding I'll still stress, lol, but thank you for a little peace of mind.

 

[Mogurako]

Copper isn't bad for shrimp in low doses, so don't stress out! It's actually needed to produce hemocyanin, which is the oxygen transport protein in hemolymph which is basically the blood and body/organ fluids that fill the shrimp.
short version... without copper oxygen gets nowhere in shrimp. I bet many of the vegetables we feed have it and so does our tap water.

Just to put into perspective you'd need to dose almost 3 LITERS (3,000 ML/CC) of Flourish ( Common fert that contains copper) into a 10 gallon before you'd approached the safe levels of Copper recommended for the most sensitive inverts like Caridina shrimp. The dose would have to be doubled, that's 6L into 10gal before you'd dose the amount of Copper recommended by pesticide people to kill pests. You'd have to dose many more times this to kill most ornamental fish.


FYI
-5 ML/CC is the common dose of a 55 gallon aquarium btw
-6L is almost 2 gallons

 

[Rozmere]

Good info and I'll keep that all in mind for my snails thanks. For right now they seem to be happy with the feeder/calcium blocks that I got for them.

You mentioned shrimp and it got me thinking that some day I might get a shrimp. Even though we've had aquariums since I was a kid I don't recall ever having a shrimp but I see them in the fish stores and they are very cute. Maybe when I get a new aquarium and plan a community that would be appropriate for one.

Anyway, thanks again for the info, very good to know