I have fish and snails in the same tank and I want there to be enough food left over for the snails?

Question

I have 7 dwarf platies 2 mollies and 2 mystery snails.

Also my snails are turning white, My blue snail is all white and I bought it that way from petsmart and my black snail's tip of the sprial is turning white, I've heard this is from the water being too "soft" how can I harden it or Is it not the water at all?

Answer 1

There is likely sufficient food however it sounds like there is insufficient calcium carbonate in their diet for proper shell development. You can do many things to your water such as add baking soda to raise KH and something along the lines of Flourish Equilibrium for GH (Epsum salts add magnesium which is part of the GH makeup, however calcium is more important for the snails than magnesium so you're best off with a product that provides both).

On the other hand, you can tackle the problem by changing their diet. Many sinking pellets for shrimp have high levels of calcium. Cuttlefish bone sold at any pet store is also a great addition to their diet, it is made mostly of calcium carbonate. Just tie it to a rock and leave it in the back of the tank. By doning this you won't have to change your water chemistry just for the snail's sake assuming your fish are happy in the existing water.

Hope that helps

Answer 2

Increasing water hardness is easy, using baking soda and epsom salts. Start by adding 1 flat tsp of each per 10 gallons. If required, wait 20 minutes and add more. You'll need to test for pH, carbonate harness (KH) and general hardness (GH) regularly to ensure that none of these values climb too high while you're adding the epsom and baking soda.

As for feeding, your mystery snails will find enough food. Just make sure that a few fish flakes fall to the gravel when you feed your fish, and you can pop an algae wafer or a shrimp pellet in there every now and then.

Mystery snails will clean up uneaten food, but don't forget that they poop like crazy, so when you do your water changes, get real deep in the gravel with the syphon tube to get out all the gunk.

Answer 3

Call the pet store where you bought it. They're really the experts there and can give you advice on what to do.