Shell Troubles *NOW WITH PICS*...

[lucyjames]

Hi All,

I have been noticing lately that two of my snails are having a really hard time with their shells - the growth is very pale, soft, and uneven, and very rough... Can issues like this be genetic?

They share the same enclosures as other snails, and they have cuttle and limestone flour, and they eat it, yet their shells are terrible, and the others that they live with are growing much faster and have perfectly formed shells, that are nice and strong...

Similarly, Bernie's growth is like this, and he shares with Hattie, how is now triple his size, and has no problems with her shell...

Do some snails have issues with the absorption of calcium? Like they cannot use it or something?

Thanks for any ideas!

[coyote]

I recall a discussion on the forum about calcium absorption a while ago. I can't recall the details, but I believe the conclusion was that some snails indeed might have calcium absorption problems. It's possible there is a genetic cause, but it could also be some kind of disease that interferes with the snail's calcium absorption.

[lucyjames]

Pictures of what I can only assume is inhibited shell growth as a result of problems in absorbing calcium:

Bernie:


Ken:

[heydihoo]

they may grow out of it i have had quite a few snails do that then just seem to shoot up and have perfect new shell growth

[Katie]

Both of my snailies are doing exactly the same. Humbug also used to do it before he died
the only difference is, it isn't as large, its more like the edge of their shells has gone white and crusty. Sprout is about a year and a couple of months now, and only around 6 cm in shells length. Its been like this for about a year now

Does anyone know how to help them, if it is this calcium absobing problem? katie x

[Rachel]

my retics have had it almost since birth and since before I got them, it seems to be genetic with them.

[kanin]

Could it be caused by lack of sun light perhaps? I've noticed similar problems when I where breeding large amounts of snails and due to lack of space had to have many babies in enclosures with bad or no acces to sun light. some of those babies developed similar problems even though they had acces to both cuttle and liquid calcium. Since we moved I've had all permanent and temporary enclosures equiped with UV lamps and I haven't seened this problem since then.

Edit:
Also, I suspected that the problems i where experiencing where due to bad lighting as i also keep tortoises which are very sensitive to lacking light acces. Therefore i placed the affected snails in an enclosure equiped with an UV lamp resulting in a dramatic increase of quality in those snails shellgrowth.

[lucyjames]

I am pretty sure that it is not lack of sunlight with my snailies, as they are on the wall next to the window - so they get the sun for the first half of the day before it moves around...

Though I am in the UK after all - not so much with the sun here

It is a mystery, but all I can do is make sure that they have everything they need, and pump them full of calcium, lol... I know that they eat it, it just doesn't seem to get used properly...!!!

They eat like gannets though and are active so I am not too worried - the shell may be rough but it is not soft at least...!!!

I shall keep you posted!!! Thanks for all the ideas...!

[Bumblebee]

well still...in sunlight there is UV with helps absorb calcium, but these uv rays cant go through glass....at least not the UVB rays.
Ive been thinking alot about supplying uvb light for my snails, but im not sure at all if the rays could go through the vent i got on top of my tank, since im really against having warm devices inside the tank due to risk of possibly burned snails...

[kanin]

There are glass that will let through UVB rays, it's expensive but a piece the size of a lid isn't that expensive. Most of my tanks are custom made and I usually have a section of the lid made in steel netting to let through UVB as it's cheaper. There are many UVB lamps that dont provide that much heat and could be mounted above the tank, theese are often quite inexpensive and are usually used for plants.

[Deleted]

Hi i live in uk and my snail (Grove snail) has gotthe same problem and it could be from lac of calcilum but if you dont have any cuttle fish bone you could use egg shells thats what i give mine now.

[snaillover]

I have some snail eggs wondering if you knew if they were are snail eggs clear? teree were loads of worms near tem not sure if there worm eggs or snail eggs please help. And yeah you need to give them more calcium

[coyote]

I don't know of any snail (or worm) that lays clear eggs. What size were these clear eggs? That might help narrow down what they might be.