Nerite Shell Damage - Natural or Man-made?

[JChristophersAdventures]

I have been looking around the internet at the various on-line stores that sell Nerite snails and I have noticed something very curious, so I thought I would toss it out there for thoughts and comments here in the forum.

There are, of course, a lot of vendors selling the numerous variations and yet they almost all seem to have something in common. Nearly all the pictures they post show damaged shells... all in the same place on the snail. The damage is to the apex of the shell. Interestingly enough this is also where critical reproductive tissue is located (namely, part of the organs that allow the male snail to fertilize the eggs... the testis).

This begs the question... is this damage: (1) natural due to low mineral levels in the water (calcium in particular), (2) due to source breeders extracting sperm from the snails to in turn mass breed them and then selling the "damaged goods" to the public, (3) due to wild caught collectors maliciously damaging the snails to limit breeding in captivity to maintain their "market" at the expense of you, me and the snails?

Yes, I know fish/invertebrate pics get swiped and reused all over the internet because people are lazy (and sometimes worse), but you'd think they would swipe pics with healthy looking stock, rather than proliferating pics of damaged snails...right?

I am not suggesting an answer... I am not sure which way to lean on this one.

Who out there has experience with Nerites, especially ordering them and having them arrive with this kind of damage? Thanks.

(I would post sample pics, but I don't have any of my own and I don't want to be seen as accusing a particular seller or be in violation of forum rules)

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

If the damage is in the center of the whorl it is an indicator of poor nutrition early on.  This could be due to the babies being in with the adults, and the adults are outcompeting them for food.  An interesting thing about nerites is they reproduce only in brackish water. Sometimes they are sold at my LFS with living barnacles on them.  Pretty cool, actually!  Fun to watch.  But the barnacles don't tend to live that long in freshwater. @Guppysnail has so. many. nerites!  So I'm tagging her in case she has anything to add.

[JChristophersAdventures]

Thanks, @Chick-In-Of-TheSea ! I didn't know if the apex of the snail shell might be the most vulnerable part or not. I know a lot of times in mystery snails you see damage along the opening where the snail ducks in and out. Thanks, again.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/19/2023 at 3:08 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

in mystery snails you see damage along the opening where the snail ducks in and out

Temperature and calcium intake play roles in the shell thickness at the edge, where new growth occurs in mystery snails.

[Guppysnail]

Damage to the point is often man. If the points are sharp they get filed or I’ve even heard nipped. I heard this was to prevent poking through bags. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/19/2023 at 3:23 PM, Guppysnail said:

Damage to the point is often man. If the points are sharp they get filed or I’ve even heard nipped. I heard this was to prevent poking through bags. 

I know that's the case for rabbit snails too.  Didn't realize they were doing it to our little nerite friends too!  That's awful!

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Guppysnail Very interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Since some variations of the Nerite are apparently only found in very specific places in Southeast Asia, it would be to the hobby's advantage as a whole to have them widely bred in captivity. Unfortunately, it seems many of these are only being wild harvested. I just wondered if it was an attempt to keep them from being widely bred. Thanks.

[Guppysnail]

On 7/19/2023 at 3:25 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I know that's the case for rabbit snails too.  Didn't realize they were doing it to our little nerite friends too!  That's awful!

I cannot guarantee it but that’s what I was told. 

On 7/19/2023 at 3:30 PM, JChristophersAdventures said:

@Guppysnail Very interesting. I hadn't thought about that. Since some variations of the Nerite are apparently only found in very specific places in Southeast Asia, it would be to the hobby's advantage as a whole to have them widely bred in captivity. Unfortunately, it seems many of these are only being wild harvested. I just wondered if it was an attempt to keep them from being widely bred. Thanks.

As far as I know they are all wild collected. I’m sure someone has figured out how to breed them in captivity but not on a hobby level that I know of. 
The eggs need laid in salt/brackish and their larval stage develops in salt/brackish then moved to fresh. 

Im not really versed on the breeding of nerites only loosely. 

[JChristophersAdventures]

@Guppysnail @Chick-In-Of-TheSea Right now I am still working on my first tank (display tank), but breeding brackish water snails for acclimation to freshwater sounds like it would be interesting and fun. That might be one of my first breeding projects. I wonder if they could be kept/raised with mollies, since they seem to like brackish water, too... or maybe the mollies would snack on them?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

That sounds like a cool project @JChristophersAdventures!

The nerites lay eggs everywhere, it would be hard to collect them to protect the babies from fish. You may want to have a dedicated tank to start them out in. They will need lots of food on the walls because they don’t eat commercial foods like algae wafers, etc.