# cracked apple snail shell



## egoreise

I recently got an apple snail and shortly after bringing him home, I noticed a long crack in his shell. It goes with the grain, it isn't gaping, and it isn't missing any peices. I understand that he will be fine since it's not a severe crack, but I'm wondering... does this ever heal up? Or is he stuck with it for life?


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## Revolution1221

snails are like hermit crabs they change shells you need to grab the snail and yank it out as hard as you can and then stuff it in a new shell using a butter knife! HAHA no im just kidding but you would think since the shell grows as they grow that it would be capable of mending a crack but i have no idea.


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## egoreise

OMG! You had me so horrified I was thinking about giving him away before I even finished reading the sentence! Punk.


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## hXcChic22

Are you sure it's a crack? Our snails got crack-looking things too but I assumed it was from shell growth, almost like rings in a tree.


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## egoreise

I suppose that could be what it is! Neat...


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## chronoboy

LOL... rev you had me going too for the first few secs of reading it, sad thing is if you didnt say you where joking i would of bought into it and maybe tried it, since my tank has had snails just pop up out of the blue, never having snails in my life i am baffeled as to how they got into my tank.


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## Corwin

Snails will develop cracks in their shell for two reasons: the first is if they get damaged by something crushing them a bit etc, and second would be if there isnt enough calcium in the water for them to properly develop their shell.

As far as I know if there is enough calcium the shell should repair itself within reason, however Im not 100% sure about that.


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## egoreise

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a calcium deficiancy, either. It seems pretty thin in some areas. Has been since the day I got him. How do I go about adding calcium to the water?


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## Revolution1221

egoreise said:


> I wouldn't be surprised if it's a calcium deficiancy, either. It seems pretty thin in some areas. Has been since the day I got him. How do I go about adding calcium to the water?


I know i like to screw around a lot but im being serious about this one. In order to get calcium into your tank you have to slam a needle deep into the bone in your arm and extract bone marrow and squeeze it out into the tank.


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## egoreise

(insert foul language here)

:chair:


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## Corwin

You could try buying some snail shells (larger ones, like small or even regular sized conch shells) cleaning them and putting them into the tank, however if your going to do that ensure that they dont have a glaze on them as that can be toxic to the fish.


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## egoreise

There's an idea! Isn't there also a liquid calcium on the market that doesn't increase the pH in the water?


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## Corwin

Possibly im not 100% sure, our water already has calcium in it so I never really had to look into it too much.


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## egoreise

Thank you for the help, Corwin. I see you have several snails, and this is my first.


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## fishloverzj

Napoleon, my most recent snail, has had these cracks, before he went through a growth spurt. Look for some calcium rich bottom feeder pellets. Or, as an alternative, spinach.


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## emc7

I read, put in cuttlebone (sold for birds)


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## egoreise

fishloverzj said:


> Napoleon, my most recent snail, has had these cracks, before he went through a growth spurt. Look for some calcium rich bottom feeder pellets. Or, as an alternative, spinach.


I just now found this. Thank you!

The crack has sinse healed. But I can clearly see where the edge of the shell was when I got him, and see that he's grown like crazy sinse. The shell must look a bit different because the water ph is different or something.

I also got three other apple snails in my 40 gallon. And they are breeding now.  Just got my first batch of eggs tonight.


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