Can I feed NATURAL calcium pills to my Apple Snail?

[Jed Fish]

Or should I only feed Caltrate 600 w/o vit D? These pills are Life Stream Natural Calcium sourced from a sea vegetable (Lithothamnimum Calcareum) it contains magnesium, boron, selenium and Zinc.

 

[icydeath]

I would be wary. I've always just used egg shells and dropped them in the filter after I cleaned and boiled the shells.

 

[nshepler]

I would be wary. I've always just used egg shells and dropped them in the filter after I cleaned and boiled the shells.

Same here I just use egg shells.


May the force be with you.

 

[BBradbury]

Calcium Question

Or should I only feed Caltrate 600 w/o vit D? These pills are Life Stream Natural Calcium sourced from a sea vegetable (Lithothamnimum Calcareum) it contains magnesium, boron, selenium and Zinc.

Hello Jed...

You don't have to feed your snail a calcium supplement. A trace of calcium is already in your tap water. Just change out the tank water regularly to replenish this and many other natural trace elements.

B

 

[Autumnsky]

Plain Cuttle bone from the bird section is great. Doesn't cloud the water and they can munch on it any time. I put it in, hard shell side at the top and soft side towards the water, it floats for awhile, then when it sinks, I plunk it into the substrate like a surf board in the sand. It can go behind your decorations, but it will dissolve in the water and make interesting designs and I like to see the snails eating off off it, so I put is at the side so I can see it!

 

[Bloodroot]

Hey! So you know those 3-10 day feeder blocks? They are basically stuck together with calcium!!! Snails love them!!

Here is a little tip for apple snails. Nail polish! it is wonderful!! I happen to have a tank at work that had a ph of 6; well that slowly disolves the shell. So I paint my snails! Not only do they live longer they are fashionable! Mine is blue currently. Just make sure to let the polish dry. I normally leave them out for a hour of so. Just be aware it is toxic to them if you get it on anything other then the shell. They can also take a little longer coming out of their shell after you paint them. After my last paint job it took my guy just under 24 hours to pop out of his shell; now he is bacj to his active self!

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[wildroseofky]

Painting them with nail polish really is a bad idea. The chemicals in the polish are really harmful to any shelled animal. THe suggested fix for eroded shells is egg shell patch stuck on with crazy glue. You can crush the eggshell into powder and mix it with the glue and paint if on too. Just be sure not to get any on the snails soft parts. Any natural calcium source is fine for the snails. You can make your own calcium blocks with drywall patch. Just make sure it doesn't have any mold inhibitor in it. Applesnail.net has lots of recopies for supplementing their diet. If you have a PH below 7 you need to supplement the calcium to keep them from having damaged shells. You can use human calcium supplements, eggshells (no need to boil just rinse and drop in), seashells, antacid tablets like Tums, cuttlefish bone, or any green plants high in calcium like dandelions, spinach, kale, anything they will eat.

 

[Bloodroot]

I respectively disagree. I have had multiple mystery snails that I have fixed with nail polish and lived long and healthy lives. The key is the same with crazy glue. Don't get it on the fleshy parts and make sure it is dry before they go back in the tank (which does take much longer then crazy glue). The best thing about nail polish is that you can actually make dry patches (that you could attach with crazy glue) by painting a zip lock bag and letting it dry then peeling the dry nail polish patch off the bag and attach it to a broken shell as if you were attaching a piece of shell. You have basically made a flexible bandaid for the shell. I have found multiple sites that do actually suggest nail polish other wise I would have never tried it on my boy. However I have also found many that say the exact opposite...
Also for those people that are not gifted with fine pression work nail polish is much more forgiving.
Different perspectives we are aloud those

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