# Snails with cracked shells



## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

Today I bought 3 Zebra snails and 3 Tiger snails from Petco. I had 3 Zebra snails before but the disease my Pictus brought with it from Petsmart killed them I think. When I bought them, they all looked fine, maybe I didn't see the two with cracks because they were all on top of eachother. Now that they are in my tank, I see that 1 of each of them has a crack in its shell. They were the first two to start moving as soon as I put them in, so I'm not too worried about them. But how will this affect them?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It might not affect them at all, or it might kill them. What you want to do is make sure the water has enough calcium and magnesium in it to allow for the shells to heal. Too-soft water is a common snail-wrecker.


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## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

How do I raise the water hardness? I tested it a few weeks ago and the testing strips said my water was a little soft. The chemicals I have dont test for water hardness so I don't know if it is actually soft because the strips aren't all that accurate sometimes. So far they're the two most active snails, and I can't really see inside the shells. It looks more like a layer of the shell broke off rather than the whole shell being cracked the whole way through.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Well, you would need a KH test kit if you want to measure it, but there are plenty of reefkeeping products, like "Purple Up" for example, that will effectively and safely fix the problem.


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