Aquarium snails have become a big part of the fish-keeping hobby in recent years, as owners of aquarium snails might have found. That after a few months, their once gorgeous-looking snails now have badly chipped and not looking in tip-top shape. I have found that there is not much advice to be found online about how to keep your snail shells from being damaged. So hopefully this article will shed some light on the subject.
Why do snail shells get damaged and lose their color over time?
The biggest thing that needs to be remembered about your snail’s shell is that they build it out of calcium, and much like humans with bones, they need a constant source of calcium to keep them healthy and strong. This means that having a calcium source in both the food that you are giving to your snails and the aquarium they inhabit is essential to keeping your snail’s shells healthy. If these conditions aren’t met, your snail shells will lose their color and become thin and easily broken. The health of the shell is an integral part of the health of the overall snail and actually becomes an indicator of either good or bad water parameters.
The main causes of shell damage.
Shell damage in aquarium snails is pretty straightforward: It’s caused by a lower acidic pH in your aquarium. Depending on where you live, your water may be more or less acidic, and the water is just too soft for your snails. The ideal pH for your aquarium snails, pH of between 7.6 and 8.4. This also means that keeping your GH (general hardness) high is very important to keep your snail shells healthy. More calcium equals a higher GH. Calcium deficiency can be very bad for your snails. It makes it very difficult for the snail to build its shell, which is very important when it comes to the health of your snail as the shell protects the snail.
What can I do to keep my snail’s shell healthy?
As I noted earlier it is often said that having an acidic pH can dissolve your snail’s shell. While this can be true, what’s most important is keeping a stable pH. As long as you provide your snail with vegetables and food that have a high calcium content they will do perfectly fine in softer water. As long as your pH isn’t extremely low, and you are properly supplementing your snail, it should be fine. So what exactly can you do to keep their shells healthy? Some ways you can supplement your snail shell with calcium is by adding the following to your aquarium filter: Crushed Coral, Crushed Eggs Shells, Cuttlefish Bones, and Aragonite. This will help buffer your pH and raise your GH (general hardness). Since snails also love a variety of veggies such as, but not limited to, spinach leaves, zucchini, carrots, any kind of lettuce, cucumber, and so forth. All these contain calcium that the snails need to build their healthy shells with!
