My ramshorn snail shells turning white

[MrClockOff]

Is this a bad sign? This is a first time I came across this phenomenon ..

By the way they all are moving all around the tank like nothing happened 😳

 

[Hanuman]

A picture is always worth a thousand words.

 

[john6]

Could be a number of things, lack of calcium, too soft water, high co2, too much copper. These are all things to check.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Is this a bad sign? This is a first time I came across this phenomenon ..

It is <"shell attrition">.

Could be a number of things, lack of calcium, too soft water, high co2,

All, or any, <"of those reasons">.

cheers Darrel

 

[AlecF]

I lost my population, which I regret. My guess is carbonates. My nerites seem to be surviving. I had a huge number of ramshorns breeding, but then they fell way and have never returned. I have cuttle fish in the tank. No Co2, no copper. The tank seems healthy, but now I miss them! I'd start with cuttlefish, but please correct me someone if that's wrong.

 

[MrClockOff]

There is one which has whole shell already white..


And this one is half way. Looks like it starts from centre spread outward

It’s like 50/50 of the snails affected. This one is OK


My CO2 was set for 1 PH drop and wasn’t touched since January. Also have not checked the PH since then. When PH drops by 1 the water PH was 6.7. Drop checker is consistently lime green during photoperiod and gets blueish during the night.


Tank full shot

 

[AlecF]

I'd chuck in some cuttlefish shell pronto

 

[MrClockOff]

Sorry forgot to mention that I’m dosing APF fertilisers concentrations according with instructions. Just modified for daily doses. Plus additional 0.1 ppm Fe DTPA and 0.1 ppm Fe EDDHA per week.

Regular 60% WC once a week.

Water is mix RO/Tap 50/50 plus Prime which gets to 7-8 GH and 5 KH as a result

Hardscape is dragon stone and spider wood

Substrate is crushed lava rock as a base, capped with about 4 litres of Tropica aquasoil. Front is a mix of inert gravel and sand (well packaging said it’s inert)

 

[Aqua360]

Dennerle do snail stixx, also shrimp mineral tablets, both of which will help combat this. Can't say it'll do it 100% depending on all factors, but definitely something to consider trying

 

[Hanuman]

The cause of this is the water PH and CaCo3 being dissolved with acidity. In general, snails and high tech tanks usually don't go hand in hand. Darrel gave you the technical explanation above. Now let me demonstrate in pictures what happens to Nerite snails that have no business being in a high tech tank.

Unless you have plans on running that tank with no CO2 what you see will keep on happening over and over again.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

And this one is half way. Looks like it starts from centre spread outward

Yes that is it. The snail is making new shell at the mantle (head end), but it can't repair older shell and the oldest shell is at the spire (so middle in the Ramshorn). As soon as the pH dips below pH 7 calcium carbonate begins to go into solution as Ca++ and HCO3- ions. When the pH rises back above pH 7 those ions come back out of solution as solid CaCO3, but this doesn't help the snail, its shell loss is permanent.

cheers Darrel

 

[MrClockOff]

Oh poor things.. There is no way to take them all out and definitely no plans to stop using CO2.. Thanks everyone for great replies

 

[kayjo]

In general, snails and high tech tanks usually don't go hand in hand.

Makes sense, but is there anybody here that sucesfully keeps snails in a "high-tech" tank? If so, how do they make it work? Are some types of snails more resilient to the lower pH?

I have the same problem, but with "low-tech" tanks. The pH is 7.5. For me, cuttlebone seems to be resolving the problem.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Are some types of snails more resilient to the lower pH?

There are, and there are two main reasons for this.

They can be <"specialist species"> adapted to <"acidic water">. I'm going to suggest that none of these species are commercially available, and if they were? They would be very difficult to keep.

Some very common species show some adaptation to more acidic water, and they are species that occur in heavily vegetated still water, where the pH and CO2 levels at night may lead to periods where the water is acidic. In my tanks I can keep Physella acuta, Planorbella duryi & Melanoides tuberculata, but the other <"snail I tried"> died relatively quickly.

Nerites definitely need hard water, but some members have managed to maintain them in high-tech tanks, mainly because the snails have spent the <"CO2 on" period"> above the water level.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

I agree with everything written above but unless my eyes are playing tricks (and they probably are) the first two pictures look like a blue morph of the ramshorn and the second a golden morph.

I have a mix in my tank and they don't get very large for the above reasons. I also see with Malaysian trumpet snails, the pointy end of the snail disintegrates away but the snails still survive and get large.

 

[MichaelJ]

Dennerle do snail stixx, also shrimp mineral tablets, both of which will help combat this. Can't say it'll do it 100% depending on all factors, but definitely something to consider trying

This one. I keep Ramshorn in both my tanks. I have fairly soft and acidic water in both. The main difference is that in one tank I keep shrimps and maintain a slightly higher GH but also feed the shrimp plenty of minerals a couple of times a week - which the Ramshorns get their fair share of... The Ramshorn's in that tank looks normal. While the other tank where I do not feed minerals the Ramshorn's have a tendency to have paler/whiter shells.

If you want to move them to another tank, they are fairly easy to round up if you put some shrimp sticks or algae wafers on a shrimp-feeding dish.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[AlecF]

I seem to recall that adding egg shells can help?

 

[MrClockOff]

The reason I’ve used all inert hardscape and substrate is because I wanted to have stable GH and KH throughout the week. If I’ll start using Ca supplements are they going to go into solution too due to low PH and rose GH?

 

[MichaelJ]

If I’ll start using Ca supplements are they going to go into solution too due to low PH and rose GH?

Adding a few shrimp/snail mineral sticks a couple of times a week is not going to change your water parameters in any meaningful way with your regular/weekly 60% WC. If your GH is already 7-8 (assuming you GH is mostly made up of Ca), you don't have to add any additional Ca.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[MrClockOff]

Adding a few shrimp/snail mineral sticks a couple of times a week is not going to change your water parameters in any meaningful way with your regular/weekly 60% WC. If your GH is already 7-8 (assuming you GH is mostly made up of Ca), you don't have to add any additional Ca.

Cheers,
Michael

Yes it’s all Ca according to water report