i have maybe a dozen snails in my heavily planted fish tank, and all have
very thin shells with white encrusting spots on their shells. is this a
sign of a Ca deficiency? the local water supply reported the our water has
a range of 4-31ppm Ca; how is this level?

tai, darren

Darren wrote:

i have maybe a dozen snails in my heavily planted fish tank, and all have
very thin shells with white encrusting spots on their shells. is this a
sign of a Ca deficiency? the local water supply reported the our water has
a range of 4-31ppm Ca; how is this level?

4 is very low, 31 is typical of medium soft water. What is your GH? Do you see
signs of calcium deficiency in your plants? Look he
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

If you need to add calcium, there are many cheap sources. Ground up seashells,
Lime (calcium carbonate), and aragonite gravel from a sal****er tank are
popular. May fish stores sell aragonite by the pound, so you can buy just a bit
for $1.

I'm not sure about the calcium thing, but my snails get that way when
they get old. None of my younger snails have it, but once they get, it
seems to be a sign of "old age". I usually have my snails for about two
years before they develop it. I'm not sure, but I think it might be
"molting" its shell al ittle bit but doesn't seem to fall off.

AD

Darren wrote:
i have maybe a dozen snails in my heavily planted fish tank, and all have
very thin shells with white encrusting spots on their shells. is this a
sign of a Ca deficiency? the local water supply reported the our water has
a range of 4-31ppm Ca; how is this level?

tai, darren

can only speak of marine aquariums, but they put iodine in to help with
shells, I wonder if it would work on freshwater.. I too have MTS that are
turning white at the point, but in a tank at work, there are no white tips
to speak of... that's where the snails came from anyway.... so old age may
be right....

btw, can iodine be put into a freshwater aquarium??


"Darren" wrote in message
m...
i have maybe a dozen snails in my heavily planted fish tank, and all have
very thin shells with white encrusting spots on their shells. is this a
sign of a Ca deficiency? the local water supply reported the our water
has
a range of 4-31ppm Ca; how is this level?

tai, darren