Snails shells turn white/erode

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Ipalarez

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
13
Location
Philadelphia
Im just starting to get into the chemistry of water parameters and more in depth in my hobby! Now that I'm more knowledgable and proactive my snails shells STILL continue to erode and turn white (even the new ones, the old ones i can understand because i wasn't doing what i should have been) I've added crushed eggshells in my aquarium, hopefully that will help (Btw, Does anyone know how often this should be done?)

my questions:
1) What causes this erosion/ damage to snail shells?
2) How can i avoid this?
3) Does this correlate with Fish fin damage?


1~Rams Horn Leopard Snails
2~My tank parameters mg/l :
(CAC03 mg/l) 50
Free Chlrorine 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0-1
Carbonate 40
Total Alkalinity 120-180
PH 7.2
3~ 10 GALLON, 1+ years
4~ Dual sponge filter from Amazon
5~14 fish 2 khuli loaches, 1 betta, 2 glo tetras, 5 neon tetras, 4 guppies.
6~Water changed today, water change atleast once a week.
7~All relatively new fish, (less than 1month) but ive had the snails for over a year. drip acclimation
8~recently added new substrate and plant and fish but this problem has been going on for long before all of the new additions
9~tropical flakes, dried blood worms, betta pellets
 

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The quick answer is the damage is from lower pH water parameters. You might follow along with the testing and see if the pH drops. In times when there are few water changes in certain water conditions, will become more and more acidic.

To raise snails with nice shells is is easy when there are high minerals and water that is 7.5 pH and above to 8 ish. Plenty of calcium content too. Also a diet which is packed with minerals for optimum snail health.

There are DIY recipes on youtube, etc.for making snello /snail jello food which is gelatin based with added minerals and veggies, also some recipes are made with Rapashy.

You can also feed Rapashy made into a gel or some people use it by sprinkling it in. I have no personal experience with that, but results seem to be great.

Member TMaier raises / has raised many very healthy snails. You could PM asking to help with this issue too.

I like using the silicone mini ice cube tray for the feeding because it portions out a nice small amount which can be placed in different spots to give all snails a better chance for a big meal.
(fyi - I get no benefits for posting this link, and mine is from Starbucks from a couple years ago, so you might find one used at a thrift store as well) So you can see what I was meaning...
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Cho...one+small+ice+cube+tray&qid=1601580252&sr=8-8

Was that a short answer, lol?!
 
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