My rabbit snails shell is deteriorating

[Maryjaeee]

Hello !! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted but I’m really concerned with my female rabbit snail. When I first got my pair of rabbit snails , I put them on a larger tank with my Bichir who took less than 2 min to go after one of the snails. ( stupid I kno, but I read somewhere that rabbit snails were ok with them) he got a solid bite by the belly of the female & a few smaller ones towards the back. I tried to mend her shell with an egg membrane & aquarium safe super glue … it’s been almost a year & about 20 babies later .. but now her shell by her head is deteriorating badly & I’m starting to see the inner layers. On one side you can see a small crack. I do have small pieces of calcium carbonate in the water but I don’t think it’s been helping much anymore . I was thinking of using another egg membrane and applying it towards her head , I’m just alil nervous about using super glue so close to her head . Should I continue with this or does anyone have any other opinions ? Please let me know
Thank you

 

[Beastije]

This is calcium insufficiency in its diet, snails go after their own shell close to the mouth first.
Start superfeeding, I found so far cuttlebone does nothing, spinach leaves are great but most important part is to have pH above 7, or the calcium will just leach back out. I read about grinding oven baked eggshells to fine dust and applying to a fishtank, but I have not given this a try because I dont understand how would the calcium work.

There are many articles how to feed calcium rich foods to the snails, some snello with calcium supplements,...
but beware the temp and the pH first and give it time

 

[Maryjaeee]

This is calcium insufficiency in its diet, snails go after their own shell close to the mouth first.
Start superfeeding, I found so far cuttlebone does nothing, spinach leaves are great but most important part is to have pH above 7, or the calcium will just leach back out. I read about grinding oven baked eggshells to fine dust and applying to a fishtank, but I have not given this a try because I dont understand how would the calcium work.

There are many articles how to feed calcium rich foods to the snails, some snello with calcium supplements,...
but beware the temp and the pH first and give it time

Awesome thank you so much!! I will start looking into super feeding now..
I am in Arizona , so the ph is at 7.6 which is good . I’ve had issues with the heater not working 100%.. but temp is usually 74-76 . I will adjust to 78 or should I go warmer ?
There’s my large family of rabbit snails ,
A few shrimp, 9 silver tip tetras , a gold gourami , a syndontis catfish , and a large twig catfish in the tank

 

[Beastije]

78 is fine, don't adjust too rapidly and check what max temp the fish you own can tolerate. I have 76 now in my tank after reducing from 80 nd so far have not noticed reduced activity, but wouldn't go lower. Temp just affects metabolism, so focus more on the food. The ph is good too i have the same. Do you feed daily? With this many snails you need leaves (oak, almond, whatnot sold for shrimp) and daily dose of vegetable/chlorella/fruit in small amount for 4hours to keep them balanced
Spinach leaves and dried nettles work well, frozen peas, frozen green beans, frozen spinach even. And blanched pumpkin, bell pepper, carrots. Cauliflower leaves and other root vegetable leaves are good too

 

[Maryjaeee]

Right now I feed algae wafers daily , and shrimp pellets for the shrimp . I’ve fed blanched zucchini and they seemed to like that a lot . Im going to feed some frozen spinach now, and will remove in 3 hours just to be safe haha . I end up forgetting sometimes . Thank you

 

[Beastije]

Leaves don't foul the water as quickly as vegetables and even those have nothing to fruit. I do 24h for leaves, 12h for vegetables and 4 hrs for fruit. But each one per own experience ofcourse

 

[Maryjaeee]

alright, I like that I will feed leaves more often then. Is kale good too? Should I add some calcium supplement to the water as well or would this be too much calcium?

 

[StevenF]

this isn't a food issue. Once the shell it made it is like hair or your finger nails. Any damage to it will not heal. There are two things that damage snail shells like this

• Acidic water. your PH of 7.6 is high enough to exclude this.
• Abrasion.. Basically rubbing on a hard abrasive material. In this case your substrate.

When your snail is eating algae on the glass very close to the volcanic rock substrate you have the shell will rub against the rock. The hard sharp edges of the scratch the shell. In yourpicture the pointed end of the shell is rubbing against the substrate. No about of calcium in the food or water will fix this. Switching the substrate to to bollsihed round rocks will greatly reduce or eliminate the errosion because polished rock has no hard edges. but again the damage will not heal. It is permenent.

 

[Maryjaeee]

I’m afraid it’s a combination of both of these issues I have been feeding spinach the last few days & im getting some zucchini tmrw . I did catch her feeding on her shell which scares me , it looks so bad will she stop at any point or just eat her shell til it kills her ?
I’m waiting for a new tank I was supposed to get a week ago & plan on moving the snails to a larger tank with mostly sand substrate

 

[Beastije]

New growth will be better if the snail has calcium in the diet. You can I guess drop a piece of cuttlebone in the tank to stop from consuming calcium from own shell, maybe if there is an alternate source it will leave its shell alone.
Only time will tell

 

[StevenF]

Snails idon't have teeth. If they did they would have scratched up the entire surface of plastic aquarium. So they cannot eat their own shell However they can eat the algae growing on the shell. Same is true for cuttle bone. But any acids in the tank will attack a cuttle bone causing it to slowly dissolve leading to people thinking that shrimp do eat it. Anything you feed to snails will have calcium in it.

 

[Beastije]

Ofcourse the snail doesnt "eat" its shell with "teeth", it rasps it with its radula, which technically is thousands of little teeth. There are million of forum entries and articles about snail rasping their own shells, the closest one to them is the softest with the lowest layers, and it is clear sign of calcium deficiency.
Also snails absorb calcium from their diet but also from the water, same as fish who dont need as many

Calcium Sources in Freshwater Tanks for Snails, Shrimp & Crabs

Keeping freshwater shrimp, crabs and snails is an interesting part of aquarium keeping. You may have a specialty shrimp tank with exotic species of Caridina. Some aquarists keep a single crayfish. Maybe you like to watch mystery or nerite snails glide across your aquarium. The one thing all...

fishtankadvisor.com

 

[JuiceBox52]

Snails idon't have teeth. If they did they would have scratched up the entire surface of plastic aquarium. So they cannot eat their own shell However they can eat the algae growing on the shell. Same is true for cuttle bone. But any acids in the tank will attack a cuttle bone causing it to slowly dissolve leading to people thinking that shrimp do eat it. Anything you feed to snails will have calcium in it.

This is incorrect, aquatic snails and land snails alike absolutely have teeth

 

[Colin_T]

snails have a radula that is used for grazing/ grinding things off hard surfaces.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Consider this?
https://kensfish.com/collections/ke...ns-premium-mini-vegetable-sticks-with-calcium

Product Description​

Formulated using a wide variety of vegetables, including only the best kelp! Excellent for shrimp, snails and other inverts that require a high level of calcium in their diet. This contains a 20% calcium level in a sinking stick. Now with probiotics!

Ingredients: Mixture Of Plants And Vegetables Including: Seaweed, Spirulina, Carrots, Squash, Spinach. Vegetable Oils, Soy Meal, Yeast, Wheat Flour, Calcium, Vitamin & Mineral Supplement. Asorbic Acid (Source Of Vitamin C). Natural And Some Artificial Coloring. Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Licheniformis Fermentation

Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein 35.0% Min., Crude Fat 7.0% Min., Crude Fiber 7.0% Max., Moisture 8.0% Max., All Natural Ingredients, Except For Some Artificial Coloring. No Preservatives

I feed this for shrimp and snails but other fish gobble it, especially my corys. I use the mini and will break it into sn=maller sticklets. The amano shrimp will grab it and rush off to eat and hide so ther shrimp wont steal the food. A big amano can carry off one of the kens regular size sticks.