White patches on snail

[dannih]

Hi everyone.

First I would like to say that this forum is brilliant and has been a great source of knowledge for me and my boyfriend (chris86uk) over the last 18 months.

Secondly I apologise if the pictures in this post are huge but i'm not really sure what i'm doing!

One our Capaeas, Charlotte, has suddenly developed a lot of white patches on her shell, as per the pictures below. I don't think it should be age related as we only took her in around this time last year and she was very small.... She also has constant access to cuttle bone and we renew it frequently (though admittedly I haven't seen her eating any recently).

Does anyone have any idea what would have caused this and whether it's something we should be concerned about?

Thanks,

Danni

[Liguus]

It's weathering of the periostracum layer (protein on the outside of the shell). Might be due to the substrate turning acidic and wearing away the shell. There isn't really a "cure" that's known, but this isn't too terrible for the snail. I personally mix calcium powder into the soil to prevent it from happening.

[dannih]

Thanks for that. I think my boyfriend has something to check the soil acidity with so i'll get him to do that and get some calcium powder if that's the issue.

Could this have been caused by a lack of protein in her diet? We were giving all our snails fish flakes on a regular basis but they haven't had any for a while

[mangoandlemon]

I do not think so.

[dannih]

Thanks. Ok, well we'll check the acidity of the soil and go from there. I've just looked back at photos from when we first got her and she's actually nowhere near as small as I remember... so I guess I can't rule out age either

[astana]

Older snails seem to develop those patches more often.

[giantsouthamerican2n]

This is a sign of age or more likely, acidity in the tank. I would also mix in calcium powder to alleviate this problem.