Mystery Snail Shell Health

I have a female golden mystery snail in a 10-gallon planted tank with a betta (also female). She's generally healthy, and I suspect she's comfortable because she's been laying a ton of eggs recently. The specs of the tank are pretty decent: pH of ~7, temperature usually around 76 degrees F, almost no ammonia. However, my snail's shell seems to be weakening/turning slightly gray. I've tried feeding her blanched greens to help boost her calcium, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. I've seen a lot of people recommending cuttlebones to supply calcium, but have also read that it may not be effective in a tank of my size. Is it worth a try? If not, could anyone recommend a good calcium supplement that wouldn't impact my betta?

 

Remember that nerite snails come from brackish water where the pH is high and the water has lots of minerals. A pH of 7.0 is quite low compared to the 8.1 - 8.4 pH they were hatched in in. At a pH of 7.0, the shells are likely to dissolve.

How hard is your water? If your water is hard dKH higher than 8.0 you might have sufficient calcium in the water.

Thus, nerites do better in hard, alkaline water. BTW: although nerite snails will lay eggs in fresh water, the eggs will hatch only in brackish or salt water.

Cuttlebone and Wonder Shells are primarily calcium carbonate. They will slowly dissolve in the tank. The lower the pH, the faster they will dissolve. You are trying to increase the ppm calcium concentration in the tank. The larger the tank, the more calcium you will need to add.

Purchase cuttlebone from the bird section of your pet store. You might need to boil it to get it to sink. For a 10 gallon tank, break off a chunk and add it to your tank. When it dissolves add another.,

 

Do you happen to know what your gh and kh are? Knowing that would help quite a bit- if they're on the low side it could be whats causing it. Cuttlebone in that case would help raise it a bit but could potentially raise the pH a bit. I would say it's definitely worth a shot though! You'd likely want to only use a very small piece to begin with just because the tank isn't super big. If you have some cleaned seashells adding them could also help.
I know some people use wondershell which is basically just calcium pressed into a cute sea shell shape.

Remember that nerite snails come from brackish water where the pH is high and the water has lots of minerals. A pH of 7.0 is quite low compared to the 8.1 - 8.4 pH they were hatched in in.

Your reply has a lot of great information but I think you may have misread. The original question is about mystery snails, not nerites.

 

Do you happen to know what your gh and kh are? Knowing that would help quite a bit- if they're on the low side it could be whats causing it. Cuttlebone in that case would help raise it a bit but could potentially raise the pH a bit. I would say it's definitely worth a shot though! You'd likely want to only use a very small piece to begin with just because the tank isn't super big. If you have some cleaned seashells adding them could also help.
I know some people use wondershell which is basically just calcium pressed into a cute sea shell shape.

Your reply has a lot of great information but I think you may have misread. The original question is about mystery snails, not nerites.

Thank you so much! I don't know the gh and kh but just ordered a test kit. Is there an ideal range for mystery snails?

 

Thank you so much! I don't know the gh and kh but just ordered a test kit. Is there an ideal range for mystery snails?

I recommend a gh of 6 or higher for snails. kh is usually balanced by your pH.

IME, mystery snails are way more prone to shell damage and calcium deficiency. If you’re giving proper calcium and food, there’s probably not much else you can do.

 

Everything i read says feed what they can eat in 3min???? This so never happens with my mystery snails. They graze throughout the day/night on whatever I'm feeding them that day. How do i know if I'm feeding too little or too much?

 

Everything i read says feed what they can eat in 3min???? This so never happens with my mystery snails. They graze throughout the day/night on whatever I'm feeding them that day. How do i know if I'm feeding too little or too much?

It would be good to start a different thread on this, or reply to your one on shell health. That way, we won’t end up hijacking this thread.

 

Everything i read says feed what they can eat in 3min???? This so never happens with my mystery snails. They graze throughout the day/night on whatever I'm feeding them that day. How do i know if I'm feeding too little or too much?

For snails, I usually feed what they eat in 24 hours.

 

For snails, I usually feed what they eat in 24 hours.

Thanks

 

Everything i read says feed what they can eat in 3min???? This so never happens with my mystery snails. They graze throughout the day/night on whatever I'm feeding them that day. How do i know if I'm feeding too little or too much?

I usually feed mine one algae wafer every other day, plus the occasional blanched spinach when I think to.

 

Everything i read says feed what they can eat in 3min???? This so never happens with my mystery snails. They graze throughout the day/night on whatever I'm feeding them that day. How do i know if I'm feeding too little or too much?

Most of the time "rules of thumb" have a inkling of truth, but have to be evaluated based on the specific circumstances. For example, the "1 inch per gallon" rule is heard frequently in the hobby. That rule of thumb works quite well when dealing with narrow bodied fish that never exceed 2 inches in length, but it does not work well for a goldfish that is 8 inches long and needs far more space.

The same thing goes for the "feed what they can eat in 3 minutes" rule. That rule works quite well for fish who rush to devour the food as soon as it hits the tank. However, some fish take their own sweet time in eating. If you have a combination of fish in your tank, the ones who eat more slowly may starve if you follow the 3 minute "rule".

 

Thanks... I'm slowly learning that.