Why are my Aquarium Snails Turning White?

Why are my Aquarium Snails Turning White?

If your aquarium snail is changing color and turning white, you should know the main cause of this problem.

Why are my Aquarium Snails Turning White? Aquarium snails can turn white due to poor water quality, improper diet, increased calcium and copper levels, disturbance in CO2, potassium, and water ph levels. Snail shell changes color when they get a new shell or when snails are old.

Why are my Aquarium Snails Turning White?

The aquarium snail increases the appearance due to its beautiful movements. With time, you observe that the snail shell color deteriorates due to malfunction.

Sometimes you add different quality water like distilled water, soft water. The algae can grow on the snail shell, which erodes their shell color and makes some white spots.

You keep noticing that when and how the color change and which factor affect it most. Here are the following reasons, which discuss one by one in detail.

An improper diet that affects the snail health

Health is essential for everyone, either tiny things or humans. When some drastic changes occur, it affects first to their health. Your snail’s health disturbs through many factors like improper feeding or gives food with low nutrients.

Snails have a good appetite and eat a sufficient amount frequently. They can eat twice a day or more their color remains normal and maintain for prolong time. You have to add some other nutrients to their diet like zucchini, broccoli, and many others.

If you give them an insufficient amount or enough food, it consumes by another aquatic inhabitant, which causes some changes in it.

If adverse changes happen, it leads to its health disruption. The adverse changes that affect their health include stress, bullies by other aquarium inhabitants. 

Direct Light exposure

You have to place aquarium snails in diffuse or dim light. Direct sunlight exposure is not suitable for them. You have to protect them from bright light or artificial light because they love the shady area or the dark places.

When direct light falls on the water tank, it is responsible increase the water temperature above the required normal range.

You find that when direct sunlight exposure occurs, they try to move or hide under the shades of plants or stick themselves at the aquarium wall so that light not touches them. You keep ensuring that complete light absence causes a problem for their health.

You have to provide them the sufficient light that is suitable for them and not cause health problems or makes color changes in it. 

In this way, UV light is best to make them healthy, active, and maintain their color. You provide them the best resource and keep observing that any best changes occur in them or not.

Improper calcium quantity in the aquarium

Calcium elements are the best source for the snail shell body, and it is mostly present in the Mollusk shell-like gastropods, which helps prevent the shell from dehydration and predators attack. Calcium exerts a beneficial role that enhances the growth rate, snail survival and maintains snail color.  

If your snail loses its shell color or discoloration occurs, calcium is the main factor for it. Calcium is useful to enhance the growth of the shell and make it strong and thick.

If shell damage through some reasons, then calcium becomes a remedy for it and makes the snail shell stable and recover it.

Calcium deficiency leads to adverse changes like discoloration makes the shell thin and vulnerable to the predator’s attack, which results in the erosion of the snail shell. Sometimes these deficiencies cause the death of snails.

You can fulfill the calcium requirements by addition the cuttlebone, calcium carbonate, and crushed powder form of the egg, which dissolves in water with ease.

Algae growth on the snail shell

It is common for aquarists that algae growth on the snail shell is a common thing. The algae growth is not a big problem for you because most snail creatures can carry it on its back.

Aquarium snails are algae lovers, and some assassin snails love to eat meat, but the most favorite food for them is algae.

Coralline algae are red with a branched formation that can present on most of the species. It is available in different colors, so you keep focusing on these types of algae make some consideration like it is a normal process that they grow on the snail shell surface.

Sometimes for the algae growth, aquarists add such snail species that can carry the algae like the mystery snail. For them, stable parameters necessary for it like temperature, water conditions, and lightning in the aquarium.

If you find out that the snail hell changes its color, then first focus on the algae growth and confirm, either it is algae growth or the discoloration of the snail shell.

In most cases, you find that snail shell is healthy and perfectly fine, and the color changes are only the reason of algae which crust its surface. 

Older snails

Snail shell discoloration mostly happens when the age of the snail is increasing. Older snail face this type of problem, such as the Ramshorns snail have that ability.

The shell erodes with older age, and it is a normal thing for you. When the snail is young or adult, their shell skin color distorts, make some remedial measures.

Snail has a new shell

When the shell becomes grow or the new form, then the old one goes to disrupt in which either spot appears on the skin or the complete color change which leads to the formation of the new Mollusc shell.

Water quality

Water quality affects the snail shell color and its growth. If you add the soft, distill, RO water in your aquarium can result in snail color distortion.

Soft water or other such types makes the shell thin, vulnerable because it has low minerals content or insufficient amount is present in them.

Fresh pond water with the proper mineral quantity or the optimum range of tap water is best for them because improper mineral content leads to the snail’s shell erosion and mineral deposit on the shell, which makes discoloration.

Acidic water

Acidic water causes some adverse problems in the snails. It can affect snail health, shell growth, shell erosion.

If you use the acidic water, it weakens them and juvenile to the predator attack and causes embryonic abnormalities. If you cannot make some measures, leads to severe complication, like the mortality rate increases with time.

CO2 and potassium level

When the level of CO2 is high, it leads to an increase in the carbonic acid production level, which affects the snail shell body and makes the color change turn into white.

If the K ion concentration enhances in water or an imbalance occurs leads, to increase Ca ion uptake problems, which are an essential component of the snail shell.

You have to purchase the titration test kit, which checks the K ion level and changes the water parameters by adding water with proper requirements. You maintain the CO2 level of approximately 15-20ppm.

Demineralized water

Water with low minerals weakens the snail shell and delicate for other tankmates to attack. It includes distilling water, soft water, RO water with low mineral contents.

You have to add sufficient quantity of mineral to make the water hard because snail requires hard water for the shell survival and recovery from the white spots or discoloration.

Imbalance of Water Ph, GH, KH

pH leads to normalize or stable the aquarium water. You have to make the stable parameter for your snail health.

Low pH affects the water quality, makes it soft leads to acidic or basic water, which is not suitable for the snail shell.

Make the pH neutral so that shell maintains their color and remain healthy and active. Maintain the pH by addition the Chalk, sea, and eggshells, which are also the source of calcium and other suitable minerals. 

Increased levels of Copper

Copper is a toxic element for your snail and affects the water quality.

You add the copper through the tap water, decorative rocks, and other copper sources. In the end, the copper deposit on the snail shell, which leads to the white color, appears on the snail shell.

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