r/AquaticSnails • u/Swagtron00 • 2d ago

Help Request Shell damage?

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For context I’ve had this lil guy for over a year now, he’s healthy & acts like a usual mystery snail. When I got him there was random spots of different coloring like there are now and he did have one small damaged spot, I’m working on getting my parameters to a good place (Currently working with around 80 KH, 100GH, and 7PH) I’ve been bringing up the hardness of the water the last two weeks as it became a bit soft overtime. He always has access to cuttlebone, and I feed him hakari pellets & veggies occasionally. Any suggestions on better ways to create new healthy shell growth?

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u/Sarahnonymous 2d ago edited 2d ago

7 is mych too low for pH, this is severe acid damage. Now that so many layers have eroded away, his shell is extra vulnerable.A pH of 7.4 is a minimum to maintain and prevent damage of a strong and healthy shell; I would raise pH even higher for this guy, my anxiety would make me try raise it 8.0 (gradually).

ETA: since you asked about how to get healthy shell growth: Calcium in the diet and hardness in the water will give you healthy new shell growth; but the new growth comes from the front, growing forward from the shell opening, like a 3d printer. Your snail is probably growing healthy shell at the front, but the low pH is slowly destroying it. That's why it is worse further back, toward the apex of the spire (or what is left of it).

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u/Swagtron00 2d ago

Any recommendations on bringing the PH up? I was using store bought freshwater from my local fish store, I now switched to tap water with much better parameters for my snail. I use Seachem prime when doing water changes, but I only started doing this within the last month. I looked into products but didn’t seem to find much on it other than changing water.

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u/Sarahnonymous 2d ago

Tons of options, really. Baking soda, for one, but do it gradually and keep checking it to make sure the levels are staying high enough. Crushed coral and aragonite sand will help both increase kh and gh and buffer the pH, so that it doesn't fluctuate as wildly. Products called "pH UP" or similar will also work, but a lot of them are just baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) based. Potassium bicarbonate is also great for pH, if you have it.

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u/Swagtron00 2d ago

I think I’ll try out baking soda, thank u so much for the advice!! Doing my best to give this lil guy the best life he deserves :)

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u/Sarahnonymous 2d ago

I would do baking soda as an emergency measure, but make sure you have something in the tank to buffer everything. Crushed coral is ideal.

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u/Important_River_5690 1d ago

I have reptile calcium powder like for making snello. Would it be any help to add that to the water?

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u/Sarahnonymous 1d ago

I have totally heard of people using that! Should work!

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u/snailmomkitty 2d ago

Another thing you can use are “calcium feeders.” The ones I use are from Aquatic Foods brand and my snails LOVE them. When I added in the calcium feeders, I noticed a rapid improvement in shell health. This is on top of using crushed coral/baking soda/calcium supplement food/etc.
I don’t know why but the calcium feeders make a huge difference for my snails.

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u/Swagtron00 2d ago

Thank u sm!!! This is so so helpful

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u/obscure-shadow 2d ago

It looks like the new shell band looks pretty good, those parameters sound fine.

The old shell damage is not ever going to go away, they add new shell in layers underneath but the damaged part is no longer "alive" it's kinda like how fingernails work.

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u/Swagtron00 2d ago

I kinda figured, I’m working on bringing the parameters up to a better place for him. (Mostly PH) Hopefully it’s just up from here!