Deficency In Snails?

[Mikaila31]

This has been going on for a while. I've finally gotten around to trying to figure it out. My hickhiker snails, breed fairly well. They also always die funny. Holes in the shells. I would normally guess a calcium deficiency, but I've got slightly hard water with a KH of 7-8 degrees. I would assume they should be getting enough calcium from the water. This happens in ALL my tank. Ramshorns suffer the worst. MTS seem to suffer too, they don't get hole in them, but its rare for me to find one in my tank larger than .5" long. They all stay really tiny. first pic is of a live snail, second is obviously a long dead one. Any idea why this is happening to them? I would rather have snails that don't look like they have been chewed on by a cat.

 

[three-fingers]

Have you tested the pH? At day time and night? A pH below 7 will eventually corrode their shells over time, even if it's just dropping at night. This is one of the reasons I took CO2 of my high light tank. Though with a KH that high, it shouldn't be a problem, it's worth testing at the end of the day and just as the lights go on (even if you don't inject CO2, pH will drop at night).

An acidic pH will result in shell corrosion. I mean, older snails do get "crinkly" shells as they get older, but nothing like the white exposed pinholes your seeing.

Additional calcium is often useful in soft water and in tanks very heavily populated by snails, but the initial protein layer over the shell shouldn't expose the shell in the first place if the pH is high enough.

I'd test everything at day and night first, if there's no issue, adding some extra calcium is worth a try, but shouldn't make a massive difference. The calcium wouldn't let them regrow their shells, but it may help new born snails grow stronger shells.

If you have an LFS that deals with marines, you could offer them a dollar or two to test your water for calcium, just to see if it's extremely low at like 0ppm or anything, and if not I could compare it to my water and other tanks.

 

[Mikaila31]

pH out of tap is 7.6. This tank is hi-tech with pressurized CO2. pH is usually 7-7.4 as far as I know. I will check it tonight, but CO2 turns off when the lights turn off so I don't expect it to drop too much during the night.

I think I know a place that will test for calcium, but it will be a while till I can get up there. And with as much as we deal with hard water build up, I'll be shocked if calcium comes back as zero.

Older snails definitely suffer from it more. Young snails may show no signs, or very slight white areas where it is just starting to corrode.

 

[Mikaila31]

My tap has pretty much zero iron. I'm trying to figure out why one of my plant species started dying suddenly and lack of iron came up. What would happen to a snail in water with zero iron?

 

[three-fingers]

Nothing really, the snails would get iron mainly from their food, and the shell is composed of mainly just calcium carbonate.

 

[Mikaila31]

Well I have been corrected on APC.com. In trying to figure out a plant deficiency I added the snail issue to see if it is related. Was told it was indeed lack of calcium. Which is due to my water softener, despite the KH. The softener also takes out all the magnesium too. I've known I've had a magnesium deficiency for a long time, but ignored it as it was only in my pennywort. At the moment I plan to start adding CaCO3(plaster of paris) and MgSO4 (epsom salts) along with my EI ferts. As soon as I have time to figure out what the proper dosage is....

 

[three-fingers]

Bear in mind that even if you give the snails enough calcium, that their shells wont grow back, and that they will still corrode if the pH drops at night.

Instead of trying to work out safe dosages, cant you just use some unsoftened water? Would that not be easier?

 

[Mikaila31]

I'll test the pH in a few hours after light have gone out.

I would be happy to use unsoftened water, but the only place I can bypass the softener also bypasses the water heater. Maybe I can use a mix or something? Mix the really cold well water with some hot tap water or something..... I do 50% weekly WC on this tank and can't wait for the water to warm up.

 

[three-fingers]

How cold is cold? A 50% water change resulting in the tanks overall temp only dropping a few *C wouldn't be a big deal.

How big is this tank anyway? Would a couple of kettles full of boiled water added to some of the buckets not raise the temp enough?

Or if you have an electric shower, you could heat the water up using that.

Though starting off with 50% well and 50% softened water for water changes would probably be best, suddenly increasing the GH probably isnt a good idea, do it over a couple of water changes.