How do I take proper care of freshwater snails?

Question

I have a 20 gallon tank currently housing on angelfish. In the beginning I kept one golden mystery snail that lived for a good 6 years!!! When he departed this world, I replaced it with a ramshorn snail that lived for a little more than a year. When it joined our Lord in heaven, I purchased a white mystery snail who made it only a few months. I am now snail-less. One thing I've noticed is that all these snails had holes in their shells. I was already aware of this danger prior to keeping snails. I was told by the "experts" that placing a clean oyster shell in the tank would provide them with the calcium necessary to maintain their shells. This I did. "Dr. Turtle" was also recommended by these same "Experts" for the same reason even though it's obviously intended for turtles. I've also tried that a few times. Before I purchase a new snail, I'd like more info on their needs. I love snails; they're my favorite animals and I hate to see them die. Please help the snails! Thanks.

Answer 1

Check out and join the message board over at this site, its all about snails and how to properly care for them. http://applesnail.net/

Oh and check out this site too, you can buy more snails there (they have basicly every color) but they also sell supplies, like liquid calcium and snail food too. http://www.thesnailstore.com/

If you don't want to order stuff from there you get can liquid calcium from almost all fish stores, its usually in the salt water section. They probably have other brands but Kents liquid calcium is what most snail owners use, well the ones that actually use liquid calcium. You can also make your own snail food, there is a link on the snail store website but I'll add it anyway, I made the pumkpin cookies for my snails just a couple months ago, it makes a lot but I also have a lot of snails (50+). http://www.thesnailstore.com/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=9

Answer 2

Do not put oceanic items in a freshwater tank. You will kill the fish to save a snail. Adding oceanic features will toss off your PH levels. You may kill everything else in the tank.

It's not uncommon for certain species of apple snails to have parts of their shell dissolved. In the apple snail disease section, you can see an example of this natural occurring surface damage.
The shell of an apple snail consists of a colourful organic outer layer, this layer is created first and in a later stage the snail creates the strong, calcium-rich innerlayer. However, the colourful outherlayer is not very resistant to mechanical damage and subsequently as the snail gets older, this layer tends to become thin and even completely absent at certain places. At that point, the calcium based innerlayer is exposed to the water and can dissolve is the water does not contain much calcium and the shell then gets small pits, which can be described as 'wormholes'.
Well, to this point, one cannot speak of a dangerous problem, as long as this process is slow and the snail gets enough time to reinforce the innerlayer by adding more calcium. Nevertheless, when the decay of the snail progresses too quickly, the snail gets real holes in their shell. This doesn't mean that the snail will get in trouble as long as the holes aren't too big. The snails often don't seem to suffer from it and after a while they make a calcified layer on the exposed tissues and sometimes even manage to repair their shell by creating a new layer at the inside of the shell. .
You can try to repair the holes by attaching some pieces of shells from other snails with superglue. I did this several times without problem
Be careful that the glue doesn't come in contact with the snail tissues or your snail might get killed!
"I had one of my large apple snails (about 4", 4 years old) partly crushed. I used 'superglue' (cyanocrylate) to put his shell back together. Fortunately, he wasn't damaged internally and this reconstructed shell worked very well. I also put him on a diet of algae tablets and canned spinach. In six weeks he had regrown enough of his inner shell to hold himself together and I was able to stop reglueing. He's doing well a year later.
Roark".
Better than repairing the shell is to avoid problems by keeping the calcium concentration of the water high enough to inhibit and prevent shell dissolving. That is to say the fish you have will tolorate the calcium

A higher calcium concentration can be easily achieved by adding calcium carbonate to the water. Many aquarium and pond shops sell special preparation to increase the calcium concentration. powdered marble, limestone and eggs shells are useful alternatives.
Before you starts to add calcium supplements, make sure that the other inhabitants (fish) of the tanks/pond tolerate calcium rich (hard) water and remember: 'if it ain't broken, don' fix it'. If you must, remove your snails and treat them in a different area than your fish until they heal.

Answer 3

The reason there were holes in your snails was because snails need lime/calcium to protect their shells... You don't feed the snails calcium, the water has to have calcium. Snails don't really need much to make it happy, just food, calcium in the water and water changes.

The fill the water with calcium, you need lime stone rocks in you aquarium or go to a pet store to ask for something that increases the calcium content in your aquarium but too much will make your angelfish very sick because calcium makes the water alkaline.

Limestone makes water alkaline and makes calcium level increase. Just place a limestone rock on a direct water flow in the aquarium. As the water flow wears away the limestone, the minerals of the rock increases calcium content. Too much is not too good for angelfish or any fish that are not adapted to hard water.

*Alkaline water has same meaning as hard water.