Dents/holes in apple snail shells

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I havn't had my apple snails very long, only a week or 2, but since i bought them i noticed they had these little dents in their shells like holes. The snails were in a 10gal tank with about 60 other snails when i bought them and most of them were dead, im thinking that the holes in the snails shells are some kind sign of malnutrition? So far i have fed them some algae wafers and a slice of fish and a couple of catfish pelets which they much up very quickly but the holes havn't changed- anyone know what they could be like some kind of snail desease? The giant ramshorn snails with them aern't showing any dents in their shells apart from some weird lines running across the shells(not natural ones mind you).

 

[Adistar]

The dents holes may be from when the apple snail was younger and the shell was not as developed and a little softer may have been banged into something. A couple of mine have had this on them, ones that ive bred from babies, and im guessing its from dropping them into gravel from a top of a tank by accident.



EDIT: what do you mean by holes, like actual holes in the shell?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They just look like holes in the shell but there is no flesh exposed, its like there is a super thin layer of shell in the bottom of each hole, some holes have algae growing in them making them look even deeper. I'll see if i can get any pics tonight to show you what i mean .

 

[Adistar]

I would suggest start feeding food with more calcium, they cant 'replace' their shell but they can make it stronger. with a thin layer of shell a fish could prolly nip at it and then the flesh would easily be exposed.

Their was also a suggestion in the applesnail.net forums i believe. That you take aquarium cement or something of similar. And add it over the crack or hole or dent or somrething whiel ahving the snail in a shallow thing of water wait till it drys up(the aquarium cement) and then add the snail back in. I will try and dig it up

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for the advice and info , what sort of high calcium foods are there that apple snails will eat?

 

[SarahBravo]

You can buy a liquid calcium supplement from www.snailshop.co.uk or feed them crab pellets - these usually have calcium added so the crab shells grown strong. My shrimps AND snails absolutely lurv Hikari crab pellets.... you've never seen snails move so fast!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The pics aern't very good but if you see carefully you'll notice the base/middle of the apple snails shell is riddled with holes and the giant ramshorns shell has stripes/dents running through it;