Snails and cuttlebone question

[sobersteve323]

I've been searching around the forums and found a lot of you use cuttlebone as a calcium supplement for your snails.

What is the best way(s) to put it in the tank? A chunk of under the substrate or in the filter? Leave it out so snails can actually nibble on it? Or grind it up and "dose" it?

 

[adeebm]

Just leave a bit out on the substrate, they will find it.

--Adeeb

 

[sobersteve323]

Is the idea to have them actually eating it or just absorb the calcium? Or both?

 

[adeebm]

They'll munch on it. They do absorb calcium from the water as well, but that is already present, especially in hard water. So you could just let it dissolve if you wanted. Are you having problems with your snails or do you just want to supplement?

--Adeeb

 

[sobersteve323]

I actually don't have any snails yet. I was just planning on getting one and doing some research ahead of time.

Is it even necessary to supplement calcium if there's no problem?

 

[HN1]

What is your tap water like? It is pretty likely that your water doesn't require supplementation at all. The cuttlebone may not even dissolve depending on your water conditions. We have very soft, low TDS water here and just add cuttlebones to our invert tanks to prevent shell erosion. Directly in the tank works as does in the filter. The higher the flow around them the more quickly they dissolve (if they will) which can lead to less stable CA concentrations. They don't actually eat on them from what I've seen, but they will clean them of algae and biofilm.

 

[sobersteve323]

Thanks, HN1. That was a lot of helpful info.