Invertebrates and Calcium

[PETsMARTchick]

Do you need to provide calcium for snails and shrimp? If so, how?

 

[Teelie]

Yes if your water doesn't have a high hardness level. If you have hard water then it should have enough calcium. If not you can buy supplements of various sorts to help increase the amount.

 

[PETsMARTchick]

Yeah...my water is soft. Could you give me some examples of supplements?

 

[Teelie]

Most of them will say they are supplements and contain calcium, calcium carbonate and some will have iodine in them. I have Kent ZOE Freshwater supplement.

 

[PETsMARTchick]

PETsMART only sells calcium supplements for saltwater tanks. Is that okay to use? Will it make my water hard?

 

[Teelie]

Yes it will harden your water but any kind of calcium you use will harden your water. It depends on a lot of factors though on how much it hardens the water. I'm not sure if you can use saltwater specific calcium supplements like that in freshwater though.

 

[myenigmaself]

You can also simply add chalk.

 

[Inchworm]

I was just looking for answers to this problem because my apple snail's shell seems to be eroding.

One of the suggestions I found was to add a cuttlebone to the tank. These are sold in the bird department of the lps.

I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to.