White Deposit on Nerite Snail

[Plursa]

I just purchased a little Horned Nerite Snail. It has a large white deposit on its shell. The snail is less than 1/2 " across. The LFS said it was a calcium deposit. Will this eventually wear off or is she marked for life?

[Mmiller2001]

Shell is broken. Time will tell if it replenishes the area. I’m not sure how snails go though.

[MattyM]

All my green olive nerites have some sort of shell damage, which I mitigate by supplying calcium in the food and water. Cory covers it all here:

 

[Tony s]

I'd want to know ph, and gh of your water. it's very easily a calcium deficiency. But to know that you'd need those numbers. Then we could adjust accordingly

[Plursa]

She was like this when I got her only 3 days ago.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Definitely a broken or worn away shell. To the best of my knowledge, nerites are wild caught, and they often get damaged in shipping around the world. That, or the shell was worn away. Sorry the store you bought it from led you astray. 
 

As the others have said, your pH and gH will be important to ensuring the shell doesn’t continue to erode, and instead you can help strengthen it. 

[Plursa]

pH is 8.2, total hardness is 25 ppm and carbonates around 240 ppm

[Tony s]

Does the water go through a softener? That’s a low gh compared to the kh. For snails. Ph is good. The gh needs to be higher. That’s the source of calcium for his shell. Several ways to do it. Crushed coral either in substrate or in mesh bag in flowing water. Near sponge or back of hob. Wondershell in tank. Or Seachem makes a product called equilibrium that you can target a certain gh without raising your kh farther. I use a lot of that for ro water. 
 

if the water goes through a softener, use the bypass and use unsoftened water straight. 
 

you’re probably not going to get any regrowth of the shell. But hopefully fortify it and keep it together. 

[Plursa]

Yes. We have a water softener. I'm reluctant to introduce anything that will raise the pH any higher than it already is. 

I can use bypass water. I'll try that. I have 4 other nerites that are very happy and have perfect shells. They just deposited eggs on the spider wood the other day.

[Lennie]

On 5/21/2024 at 7:17 AM, Plursa said:

Yes. We have a water softener. I'm reluctant to introduce anything that will raise the pH any higher than it already is. 

I can use bypass water. I'll try that. I have 4 other nerites that are very happy and have perfect shells. They just deposited eggs on the spider wood the other day.

I have water softener too. I use gh+ products to increase my gh. They dont have an effect on ph and kh this way

[Tony s]

On 5/21/2024 at 12:17 AM, Plursa said:

I'm reluctant to introduce anything that will raise the pH any higher than it already is

You may have perfect snail water coming straight from the bypass. If not, seachem equilibrium isn’t supposed to raise ph. They sell buffers that do, but you won’t need them.

 

On 5/21/2024 at 1:23 AM, Lennie said:

I use gh+ products to increase my gh

Ok. Never heard of that one. Where does it come from.?

Salty bee?

Edited May 21 by Tony s

[Lennie]

On 5/21/2024 at 9:19 AM, Tony s said:

Ok. Never heard of that one. Where does it come from.?

Salty bee?

salty bee is a reputable one from what Ive heard. I have never tried it tho.

 

I use a product of a local company in my country. It is called "Shrimps Forever Powder GH Plus"

[Cinnebuns]

On 5/20/2024 at 4:30 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Shell is broken. Time will tell if it replenishes the area. I’m not sure how snails go though.

Yes the shell is broken but no it will not grow back. You can only prevent further damage. 

All nerites are wild caught so they sometimes come with damage from the wild.