Is A Calcium Supplement Required If You Have Hard Water?

[eustoma01]

The water here is pretty hard and I heard that you don't have to worry so much about calcium for your snails if that's the case, but I just wanted to make sure... I actually just picked up two nerite snails from a local river today because my tank was being overrun with algae and I want to take good care of them.

There's also a ramshorn I found today while cleaning my filter that had its shell broken. Will it be able to recover? I'm kind of worried for it, it hasn't really moved and only moved when it was on top of the nerite's shell lol

 

[JackieWitch]

I don’t think so... but how hard is the water?

 

[eustoma01]

Pretty hard. There is a lot of limestone in the water so we actually use a softener system for the house and business.

 

[JackieWitch]

I live in a hard water area... ph around 8 from the tap. My nerite which I have had for 7 months seems pretty healthy. I never added anything to the tank. She just munches about on the algae and lays eggs (sigh) all over my tank. Another sign of her happiness I guess.

 

[eustoma01]

I live in a hard water area... ph around 8 from the tap. My nerite which I have had for 7 months seems pretty healthy. I never added anything to the tank. She just munches about on the algae and lays eggs (sigh) all over my tank. Another sign of her happiness I guess.

Oh no haha you only have one Nerite and it lays eggs? I saw the eggs today in the river and they looked hard to get rid of... I heard they don't even hatch in freshwater so now I'm worried. In fact the one I got has egg casing marks on its shell! I thought they were a design until I looked close.

 

[JackieWitch]

They don’t hatch but they are really hard to get rid of. Sometimes they start laying on the glass... I just saw somebody mention they can only remove them with razor blades. It depends on what you got. I researched thoroughly before I bought mine and well... I guess if you are unlucky to have a single female they still lay. Mine is now off the display tank as it is very unsightly.
Have a look at this piece of driftwood. That’s what they look like. I moved the piece to hide them but (sigh).

 

[eustoma01]

Does your snail ever hide? I woke up this morning and the two snails were nowhere to be seen... kind of worried they might have escaped but I'm pretty sure they didn't leave the tank.

Man I like the snails but I do not need eggs in my tank as a permanent fixture lol. Maybe I can return them to the river once they eat all the algae.

 

[JackieWitch]

Are they native species of your area? Be careful not to destroy your ecosystem. I have seen many cases where you introduce a foreign species, they overrun the new environment due to lack of predators, out-survive the natural species by competing for food and voila you have started a natural disaster. Better to give them to someone or return them to the fish store if you indeed do not want them. Give them time as well as you might not have a female and things will be good. They don’t cover your tank overnight. You’ll have time to do something if it happens .

 

[eustoma01]

Are they native species of your area? Be careful not to destroy your ecosystem. I have seen many cases where you introduce a foreign species, they overrun the new environment due to lack of predators, out-survive the natural species by competing for food and voila you have started a natural disaster. Better to give them to someone or return them to the fish store if you indeed do not want them. Give them time as well as you might not have a female and things will be good. They don’t cover your tank overnight. You’ll have time to do something if it happens .

Yes, I sourced them from a local river. I would never do something as irresponsible as releasing a non-native species into the wild. Our island has enough invasive animals threatening our ecosystem as it is! Also, turns out they did escape, but I returned them to the tank and they haven't left again. Maybe they just didn't realize they were in a tank and no longer in a river... which makes me even more determined to return them, but I can't do so until the weekend.