Tropical Fish Forums

[Zowie72]

I don't know much about snails, but my son really wanted one and I thought an apple snail in our quarantine tank would keep it ticking over until needed... We've only had it a couple of weeks and it appears to be doing well, eating lots and growing quite quickly. Only thing is the new bit of shell is transparent and very soft... is this normal?

I thought maybe it needed more calcium in the water, our water is very soft and all my filters have some crushed oyster shell in them to bring the KH upto about 5 dH. Will putting more in help, or is there something else I should be adding or feeding?

I've never really liked snails before, but this little guy has grown on me really quickly and I'd like to make sure it's well taken care of.

Cheers,
Zowie.

[bignellm]

Crushed Coral is good. So is adding stones to your tank and possibly a little limestone. The white part of the shell is simply soft new growth. It will harden and turn pigment when it does so. However if there are spots on the shell in other areas that look whitened or crater like, then your water is dissolving it's shell. This would lead directly to it's death. For a healthy snail, you need at minimum slightly alkaline water. A pH of 7.2-8ish is great. The snails take the calcium and other minerals from the water to directly grow the shell. They also leech it from algae, food, and directly from calcium formed rocks.

If your pH is in the range above, I suspect your snail is perfectly healthy and the crushed coral is a plus. You could even add some to the substrate to counter the soft water more.

Apple Snail Basic Training
http://www.applesnail.net/content/multi_languages/english.htm
Apple Snail Net home page
http://www.applesnail.net/