How to Boost Calcium Levels for Aquatic Snails

Freshwater aquatic pet snails use calcium that they get from their environment to build healthy shells.

You can measure the calcium levels in your aquariums by examining how healthy your snails shells are. If calcium levels in a tank are low, the snails shells will look weak, brittle, discolored and flaky. Low calcium levels also cause snail shells to crack, break, dissolve, etc.

If your tank has enough available calcium then your snails shells will look perfect and flawless. In this case it's not necessary to increase the calcium levels in the water.

In some cases, snails may slowly suffer as their shells disintegrate. Shell erosion appears to be a very painful process that no snails should ever have to go through. If the low calcium levels aren't corrected the snails will usually die. Most calcium related shell disorders can be corrected if caught in time.

If low calcium levels persist over a long period of time, the end result will be the death of any snails living in the tank.

Water quality should be closely monitored using test kits. Partial water changes should be performed about once every week to once every week and a half. During a partial water change about 25% of an aquariums water should be changed out and replaced with dechlorinated, then "aged" tap water. (Water should be dechlorinated, then age for at least an hour before adding the water into a snail tank).

Larger snails such as apple snails, spixi snails and mystery snails will need the most calcium in their water, food and environment. A large colony of pond snails in a 10 gallon tank will require large amounts of calcium when compared to having just a few small pond snails in a 50 tank.

Don't overload a snail tank with too many snails because they will quickly use up all of the available calcium. Sometimes, if you take some of the snails out of the tank, the remaining snails shells will start to grow healthier and stronger.

There are many ways to increase the calcium that is available to your pet snails. Follow these simple steps which will increase (and balance out) calcium levels for your snails in any freshwater aquatic environment.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Crushed Coral
• Liquid Calcium
• Foods high in Calcium
• Saltwater Coral (Dead Coral)
• Cuttle Bone
• Sea Shells (Saltwater snail shells)
• Crushed Egg Shells

1. 
    
   Crushed Coral.

   Use crushed coral as the only substrate in your snail tank. You can also mix crushed coral into the aquarium gravel or sprinkle it on top for a unique effect. Chances are good that the gravel and coral will eventually get mixed together (during gravel vacs, water changes, etc.)
   
   If you don't like the way that crushed coral looks in your tank, you can add a small amount of crushed coral into a mesh filter media bag and hide it in the back of your tank. It's not clear whether this adds enough calcium to the water or not, so it's best if you can use crushed coral as the only substrate in your snail tank. (Although not entirely necessary.)
   
   You can absolutely keep any "fish-safe" substrate with aquatic snails. Crushed coral just happens to increase the calcium levels in the water.

2. 
    
   Sea Shells and Aquarium Gravel.

   Mix sea shells into the gravel in your snails tank.
   
   Sea shells AKA saltwater snail shells slowly dissolve (break down) in freshwater. This puts more calcium into the water column where the snails can use it to build strong shells.
   
   It might also be possible that freshwater snails are able to slowly eat through the sea shells (to some extent) obtaining calcium directly from the shell.
   
   It will take many years for larger saltwater snail shells to dissolve in fresh water. Because of this, sea shells only ad small amounts of calcium to the water.

3. Buy a few cheap cuttle-bones from a pet store and add them directly into your snail tanks to increase the calcium level.
   
   Cuttlebones are made to be used for pet birds. Cuttle bones can usually be found for sale in the bird section at most pet-stores.
   
   Cuttle bone is used by hobbyists to boost calcium levels for their pets and this includes aquatic turtles and freshwater aquatic pet snails.
   
   Simply snap the cuttle bone into a few pieces and drop it into your snail tank.
   
   Cuttle bone will slowly dissolve in the water column. As the cuttlebone dissolves it will release calcium into the water where it can be used by the snails to build strong, healthy shells.
   
   Snails also eat on cuttle bones when they are lacking calcium in their diet and/or water column (environment). You can make homemade sinking fishfood and add finely crushed cuttle-bone into it. This will provide your snails with another form of calcium.

4. Feed your snails a widely varied diet that's high in calcium.
   
   A snails daily staple diet should consist of fishfood flakes, algae wafers and shrimp pellets. (In addition to other treats such as krill, freeze dried shrimp, etc.) The snails should also be fed fresh vegetables around 4 to 5 times per week.
   
   Calcium rich vegetables include : Bok choy, broccoli, collard greens, dandelion leaves, green beans, kale, kelp, okra, rhubarb, spinach, etc.
   
   Sometimes it's necessary to blanch vegetables before feeding them to your aquatic snails.
   
   Vitamin D is necessary to absorb calcium. Feed your snails foods rich in Vitamin-D around 3 to 4 times per week.
   
   Egg shells are a great source of calcium for your snails. There are two ways to add egg shells into your aquarium that will allow your snails to use the calcium to build strong shells.
   
   1 - You can crush up eggshells and tie them into a mesh filter media bag and hide the filter bag behind a plant or decoration in the back of your aquarium where the eggshells will slowly dissolve adding another source of calcium into the water.
   
   2 - You can crush eggshells up into a fine powder. Add the crushed egg shells into a batch of home made sinking snails foods. This is a great source of calcium for your aquatic pet snails.

5. Supplement the water in your snail tanks (that are home to larger snails) using liquid calcium. Larger snails would be apple snails, mystery snails, spixi snails, etc.
   
   Liquid calcium can be purchased at a fish store in the salt water fish section. Liquid calcium is meant for a saltwater reeftank. It is water soluble, therefor a usable form of calcium which will make your snails shells strong and healthy.
   
   As an example : If the addition of liquid calcium is required, then add one drop of liquid calcium for every 10 gallons of aquarium water. Add liquid calcium into your snail tanks every 3 days. This amount will vary depending on the number of snails that you have and depending on the size of the snail tank. Some tanks require more or less drops of calcium per 10 gallons.
   
   For large (golf-ball sized) snails you can dose 3 drops per large snail. Do this every 3 days. (More or less.)
   
   Liquid calcium can be quite expensive at about $10.00 a bottle depending on which store you buy it from. However, one bottle will last most freshwater snail keepers for at least a year. That's definitely worth it, to keep your snails shells looking perfectly healthy.
   
   Don't add liquid calcium directly into your tanks. As this might burn your aquatic pets. First, add the liquid calcium into a cup of aquarium water and swish the water around to mix up the calcium. Then add the calcium/water solution into your snail tank, taking care not to pour the solution directly onto any aquatic life. Swish the solution around in the water with an aquarium net after adding it into the snail tank to evenly distribute the calcium.
   
   In most cases, don't add liquid calcium into a snail tank until two days after a partial water change. This is because most tap water supplies have enough calcium to sustain a snail tank for at least a day or two. So there should be no need to add any liquid calcium into the tank until the snails have used up all of the available calcium. (Large snails can use up all of the available calcium in the water column in 2 or 3 days. The amount of liquid calcium required will vary depending on the size of the snails, the number of snails, the calcium content in the water supply, the water quality and the size of the aquarium).

6. Add salt water coral (white, dead saltwater coral) into your snail tanks to increase the calcium levels in the water.
   
   Large pieces of inexpensive, dried, white coral are available at most fish stores in the saltwater fish section. Coral will slowly dissolve in a freshwater aquarium which slightly increases calcium levels.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't overdose your tank with calcium! If the shells of your pet snails look good, then don't try to fix anything!

Resources

• How to Feed Bottom Feeders Healthy FishFood

[Upon-Request]

on 8/29/2009 Thanks for the info - I learned something new.