hole in apple snail shell HELP!??!

[Loopy]

I found one of my apple snails had fallen out of the tank and cracked it shell it is still alive but is very unhappy. I put into my baby platy tank and it got hassled by the apples in there so now it is floating in a container by itself. when it was getting hassled (the other snails were crawling all over it and pushing it round) the crack has now become a holejust a bit smaller than a 5 cent piece. I am really quite fond of my apple snails and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions to do with treating it or i was wondering has anyone ever heard of "patching up" a snail?? what would you use??

[Alan]

Put some bondi over it.

Alan 104

[Loopy]

Wow i just ran a search on apple snails and found www.applesnail.net and have found this info

So what to do once a snail has gaping holes and or a detoriated shell surface?

First of all, check the water quality: is the pH at 7 or more? (keep it between 7-8). How about the water hardness? (keep the kH and GH high).

A good way to regulate the water quality is to add a source of calcium in the form of crushed egg shells, specialized preparated, crushed sea-shells, marble or something similar.

Once you are sure that the water is well enough to halt further detoriation, one has to decide if the shell should be repaired or not.

If the snail is active, one can assume that the snail does not suffer from the damage. In such case a repair should be rather considerd a protective measurement to prevent other snails from attacking the exposed tissues. If however, there are no possible tissue eaters like fish and snails around, or if the holes are that small that the tissue stays out or reach, one can choose to leave the situation like it is. The snail will calcify the vulnerable tissues anyway as reaction to the exposition to water.

If however, a large amount of shell is absent or if there is a real treat for the snail to become eaten alive, once can choose to repair the holes by glueing pieces of snail shell, eggs shells or even pieces of plastic over them. The best glue for this is medical superglue, although common household superglue will do as well, but is toxic until it's dried. In such case (household glue) one needs to make absolutely sure that the glue does not come in contact with the snail tissues.

Pits and detoriated surfaces can be repaired by covering them with strong nail polish (make sure to use water resistant polish), epoxy resin or even better super glue. The latter dries quickly and even hardens more when in contact with water.

i might go crack an egg and see what i can do to fix my snail!

[Caryl]

That is a great site isn't it? Check your pH. Smails need it to be alkaline or their shells rot.

[Loopy]

well job is done and the poor snail still looks rather unhappy. we'll see how it looks tomorrow.

i hope that the patch job works, i send about as much time watching the snails as i do watching all the rest of our fish.

[boatmaster]

i had one crack its shell and used some of mums clear nail polish before with great sucsess

ps dont tell my mum pless

[Ira]

haha, I kinda like that idea, superglue a piece of another snail's shell over it. Like an organ transplant or cadaver skin for burn victims.

[Interfecus]

It might be an idea to go to the supermarket or pet store and get a "cuttlebone" (used for birds). One of these in the tank (they float and need to be buried or weighted down) will keep the calcium levels high enough and keep the pH alkaline. The snails will be much less likely to break their shell if they have the calcium to keep it strong. Now that you've had one break this is even more important as regenerated shell tends to lose calcium to the water faster than intact shell. The only way to stop this is to keep calcium leves in the water up.