Iredalei Eating Own Shell

[thegreatloofa]

My iredalei, Colin, has been munching on his own shell in a way that is limiting his growth. He is rasping away on the edge of the shell right where it attaches on to the last turn and he wont stop it. He hasn't grown since he started doing it (if he did his mantle wouldn't cover it and his innards exposed). He still eats plenty of cuttlefish like the rest of my snails but its not as if he is eating any old part of his shell as if it was a calcium deficiency, its always the same part. here are some pictures:







Any ideas on how I can stop him doing this? I think there must be something caught up there that is irritating him, but I'll be damned if i know how to get it out without it hurting. Another thing it may be is those fat mite things that are rife in the tub he was in. In case it is this, I've chosen him to be the first to use my quarantine tub to rid him of mites before he goes into my new, much larger, tank which is mite free. He's only been in a day though so too early to tell if it works.

[bookitten]

Wow he really has been busy....
Sometimes i see gary eating his shell, but not so much now... hmm... Maybe you should feed him some vitamin stuff so he stops/revovers? Or maybe it is jsut the mites up there? Sorry, I dont really know

[thegreatloofa]

I think the reason it looks like he has eaten so much [of his shell] is that as his shell puts down new growth he has rasped it away in the same place every time while the rest he mostly leaves alone to grow. He seems to have stopped all new shell growth altogether now, but I still catch him rasping sometimes...

[Deleted]

i had a snail like that, didnt grow for about a year. eventually i got fed up so i carefully filed down the edge of the shell to meet with where it had been eaten. maybe that will help and the edge will grow more uniformly?

kind regards

mike

[thegreatloofa]

Was it an iredalei? 'Cos mine (and I think everyone else's ) came from you. I think I'll wait to see if the quarantine works first before I start filing anything down, which I think'll be a last resort.

[Deleted]

no it was a fulica

usually iredalei shells grow really fast and without problem. i dont know why this snail is eating its shell when there is cuttlefish. maybe you could find some sort of calcium supplement?

kind regards

mike

[sezzy5889]

try putting a peice of tape there so he can't reach it

[natrat84]

But he'd eat the tape and the gum might be dangerous to snails

[alexc1981]

[thegreatloofa]

Good news! The quarantine seems to have worked, Colin is already putting down new shell growth all along the edge, including the bit where he was eating it before. The new shell is still weak but I think I can call this a success! Pics:

[natrat84]

Yay well done Colin and you hehe ;D Great news. Wonder why he did it when he was with the others then You will have to keep an eye on them when you put him back with them to try and work it out.
Nat

[thegreatloofa]

He'll be staying in quarantine 'till about Monday to make sure he has his guts free of mites. Then he'll be going in my new big tank. All my GALS are going though quarantine into the new tank, next being Hercules, my Tiger 'cos he is the smallest and therefore most susceptible to the mites.
After all my GALS have been through, it'll be my natives turn as they also have a mite problem.

[bookitten]

hey nat u just gave me an idea! its probably wrong but maybe the other snails crawl over him [like they so often do] and it get slime on that part of the shell. then it irritates him/or he wants to get it off so he eats his shell by accident.

[thegreatloofa]

bookitten said:

hey nat u just gave me an idea! its probably wrong but maybe the other snails crawl over him [like they so often do] and it get slime on that part of the shell. then it irritates him/or he wants to get it off so he eats his shell by accident.

Maybe, if he starts doing it again after more snails join him in the big tank, I'll know to keep him separate from now on.

[Deleted]

well done james its a great feeling when you cure a snail of their ailments

[thegreatloofa]

I added Hercules into the tub on Saturday, and he has started a growth spurt! I think he has grown as much in the last five days as he has grown at all since I got him. And Colin has put down about 5mm of new shell as well. This tub is great! Thanks for the idea Val!

[natrat84]

Glad their doing well now ;D

[anjieburdett]

What tub?? What idea did Val give you?? Do share rofl. God i'm soo damn nosey - don't you just love me hehe.

Anjie,x.

[thegreatloofa]

The idea was from this thread: petsnails.proboards3.com/index.cgi?board=habitat&action=display&n=1&thread=4757
The "Alternative way to keep 'babies'" thread. I thought it would be a good idea for a quarntine tub as any poo can be easily removed and there is no substrate for the mites to hide in.

[anjieburdett]

ooohhhhhh! Yeah saw that one - good idea.

Fanks. ;D

[achatitan]

Not all sources of Calcium are equally suficient for the body. The same is the case for layer chickens, the same Calcium present is the feed is sometimes still not sufficient to meet egg laying demand, and crushed oyster shells are provided, as the Calcium present in the oyster shell is much more easily absorbed.

In the case of the species it may be the case that cuttlefish bone is not readily absorbable as other sources of Ca may be. Try other stuff like ground limestone, crushed egg shells (priorly put in an oven), orhelse chicken mesh, I have also tried sea shells. The latter would be very similar in composition to the snail's own shell and maybe who knows he may nibble at sea shells instead.

[copigeon]

I know you solved the problem, but you know that looks alot like the issue apple snails get when they have a series of sudden drops in hardness of water.


Image pinched from the applesnails website as example. A tad extreme for that one but always a dead area that forces trumpet shape as the shell grows.

[Emma]

HI

I know this is an old post, but i would say that this is almost certainly a result of the parasites that u described. I say this because all my fulica developed exactly the same growth, and I have the same parasites affecting my snails Unfortunatlly fulica seem to very susceptatble to this bug and I lost several young ones despite cleaning out their tank everyday. U are lucky to have managed to reverse the problem through quarentine and i assume daily cleaning. This growth has nothing to do with feeding or calcium because all my snaills are provided with a regular supply of both. I think this is a result of irratation caused my either the parasites themselves or something they secrete.

[Val]

thegreatloofa said:

I added Hercules into the tub on Saturday, and he has started a growth spurt! I think he has grown as much in the last five days as he has grown at all since I got him. And Colin has put down about 5mm of new shell as well. This tub is great! Thanks for the idea Val!

Hey I've just seen this Brilliant that it works for you too James!!!
So glad your babies are doing well now, mites can be SO debilitating!!

[thegreatloofa]

emmachan said:

HI

I know this is an old post, but i would say that this is almost certainly a result of the parasites that u described. I say this because all my fulica developed exactly the same growth, and I have the same parasites affecting my snails Unfortunatlly fulica seem to very susceptatble to this bug and I lost several young ones despite cleaning out their tank everyday. U are lucky to have managed to reverse the problem through quarentine and i assume daily cleaning. This growth has nothing to do with feeding or calcium because all my snaills are provided with a regular supply of both. I think this is a result of irratation caused my either the parasites themselves or something they secrete.

I agree, some of snails that are still in the old tank have started showing the same thing, although not yet to the extent Colin had, he must have been extra-susceptible.