Problems with the hardness of the shell.

[keli]

Hello.
I have been a lot of days without internet. A stormy day, lightning struck my house and broke the computer.

Well. Do you remember the fourtyplets?
Now are a bit more of twenty.

The question. I think the shell snails are not tough enough for the size they are now.

Yesterday I had to put to sleep one of them, because his shell was very very broken. At least, he had only the middle of his shell.
The poor snail was all they beside the water. But he was walking with difficulty.

Other snails with the same problem but with their better shells, was dead before that one.

I don't know what to do.

Indeed... Now I have over two hundred snails newborns. And I'm waiting to be born so many others.

I'm going to drive me crazy!!

[lee2211]

OK, I wouldn't keep hatching snails untill you can sort out the problem,
now if that is indeed the problem, provide loads of calcium, limestone powder is good sprinkled on food. Liquid calcium in their water and spray bottle and mixed in with their substrate and of cource cuttlefish to munch on at their leisure.

Could there be anything else that's causing the problem? If you could give us details of the behaviour of the affected snails, or pictures?
Anything new added to the tank? Or water problems of late?

[coyote]

Wow, a lightning strike fried your computer. That must have been scary when it struck your house. I hope there was no other serious damage, and that no one was hurt.

I agree that perhaps it's best if you stopped hatching snails until you can figure out what the problem is. Providing lots of calcium in many different forms is good (cuttle, liquid calcium, limestone powder, etc).

It is also possible there may be a genetic flaw in your snails that prevents proper absorption of calcium. It is difficult to say with any certainty what is going on.

[crossless]

And I think it could be wise too to check that don't feed to small snails anything that could harm absorption of calcium in their bodies. Example avoiding citrus fruits and avoid those vegetables that have really high oxcalic acid in them.

Some small species grow slow, so it might take time to shell thicken up? I have some wc snails they are quite big but still shell is little bit transparent..

[Bumblebee]

I would agree with others, dont hatch more snails than you can handle. And can you even seperate them all from eachother? So that they wont breed with their parents/siblings, since that could result in weak snails, and maybe even mutations that can be painfull for them.

[keli]

Sorry for not to answer. I had problems with the computer.

Well, these are two pics of a snail with his perfect shell.




And these other pics are of a snail with his shell broken. It's so thin, like paper.






I have no enough place to put them in separate boxes.

I'm thinking to leave them in the nature. Really, I have more than 200 snails. And I'm waiting a lot more. At this moment, the snails are having sex in the kitchen

[keli]

Jolin, I had just washing dishes and my hands are very dry.

[fabrizio]

What species is the first (integer shell) snail, Keli?

Sometimes shell lightness could depend by the species, some (expecially among european ones) have a naturally thin shell...

Although badly damaged, the second snail could survive, is kept in a peaceful environment: I've seen breakages worse that that, with the suffering snail fully recovering and surviving

[keli]

They are brothers.
Otala punctata.

There was another snail I went to sleep in the freezer, because I was completely broken, and the snail was walking with difficulty.

[fabrizio]

Thank you Keli,
as a fact, it seems a strangely "thin" shell, for a Otala... and they are not too "juvenile" as well; so perhaps some disturbance (or inborn anomaly) could have happen...
Are they "inbreed" for some generations, perhaps?

-Anyway, being cared after in captivity should ensure them a quite normal life. You did well however, to freeze the one that was suffering so much and without hope for recover

[lee2211]

I think it's probably something to do with inbreeding to, in which case, you really need to stop hatching eggs.
Like you said you have 200+ and it's not good to have so many snails that you can't keep up with and individually monitor each one incase it has problems. Because they will then start to suffer.

[coyote]

I once had a WC Theba pisana with a paper-thin shell that kept cracking so much I had to put him in the freezer. He came from a small population along a creek here in town. It's possible that they were all so inbred that it led to his shell problems. There are no other populations nearby for those snails to interbreed with.

[lee2211]

Also, how early on are you handling them once they've hatched?

[keli]

When this shell came home, I only had that one of otala. And a few days after, he laid eggs.

I do not know whether or not by inbreeding.

When the eggs hatched, the snails I put in another box. The **** with a spoon of ice, untouched by hand. I hope they rise to the spoon, and they go down. If they are asleep, I put on the spoon carefully.

[lee2211]

Maybe that's why, you're touching them too early.
You should really put the eggs in a box and then let them hatch. They are so delicate that you don't really want to touch them with anything for at least a week or two after hatching.

And what do you mean with a spoon of ice? As the word you put is a swear word here, and it doesn't make sense.

[coyote]

I'm not sure what the original message (pre-translation) was intending to say, so I edited the post a bit.

[keli]

Sorry. I don't know what I wrote.

An ice-cream spoon.

Or sometimes, with a stick I wait the snail up to him.
If I have to change their food, somehow I have to catch them.

If the lettuce (or other vegetables) has been dry, I have to remove them and put in order to throw new lettuce.

The problem is that the snails grow, they don't grow the hard shell.

You tell me that I can't touch them. Tell me how I can do to change food and not touch them. Maybe you give me some idea.

Thanks.

[ness]

You do not need to remove the old food when you put new food in. Put the new food in, then later remove old food after the snail have gone to the new food.
I have read that some snails have difficulty absorbing calcium. You could perhaps try varying the calcium. Have you tried putting in soaked fish flakes (goldfish food)?
I don't know what else to suggest, but they probably have a genetic fault and should not breed.

[lee2211]

Well, once they've hatched you should wait at least 3-4 days before putting any calcium in, and I wouldn't change the old food at all, don't put a lot in, put in a tinsy bit and they should eat it all and you wont have to change it.
I don't touch mine untill two weeks after hatching.

I agree with Ness, the fault probably is genetic as well. I wouldn't hatch any more eggs.