Worried about my snails

Hey i have a 5 foot tank with peaceful fish + shrimp + snails + plants. I have 4 brown apple snails, 3 golden apple snails, 2 jade apple snails, 1 pink striped apple snail and some assasins.

Recently all of my big apple snails have been moving around less, and spend most of the time inside their shell.

I feed them cucumber/ leafy food/ algea tablets/ vegetable tablets. ( not every day).They eat but they dont move like they used to.

I do 25% water changes weekly and i regularly test my water. Yesterdays results were:

ph 7.5
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 15
gh 180
kh 180

Temperature is around 24.


Im worried as i havnt seen them surf through the water on leafs for a couple of weeks now I have had them 5-6 months ish and they were always so lively.

Also they have grown quite fast and are slightly flaky in parts. They are still full of colour just not as full of life anymore.

Also wondering whether apple snail eggs need to be under water or can still hatch above it.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

How recently did you add the assassin snails? Tbh I never knew you could keep them with apple snails, maybe they are attacking them?
What are the peaceful fish?
All your stats seem great for snails, so the flaky shell sounds a bit suspicious. If it's only very slightly flaky, it's nothing to worry about, as this can happen as they get old. Can you post a pic?

The only time I've seen apple snail eggs underwater they were rotting, so I'd be inclined to believe they can only hatch above the water line.

The fish i have in this tank are:

Mollies
Swordtails
Guppies
Corydoras
1 Albino plec
Glass catfish
Golden dojo
Laughing catfish


I added assasin snails a few weeks ago and they are still very small. I only see some now and then as they hide alot. I havnt seen anything vicious happen to my apple snails, but then i am not watching at night time.

The flakes are only slight and in lines. Only some of them have them and they are not very noticable. The snails are about 6 months old.

My camera is playing up at the moment but i will try and fix it then post a picture.

These are the 3 worst.

Jade Apple snail


Same Jade and Golden apple


Golden apple



Didnt wipe the glass before so sorry for that, hope you can see well enough. Was the fist time i have taken pictures in a while.
My golden dojo kept following me about.

Do you add a calcium supplement? That might be a problem.

The Assassin snail with Apple Snails is a question I have asked on another thread so that will hopefully be cleared up soon.

I hope your snails will be alright.

I havnt added any calcium supplement to the tank.. this may be why.

I just tried to look up online for what i can use. All i can find out is that i should have a cuttlefish bone in the tank. Is this the only way to give them calcium?

The Snail Shop sell some stuff in a bottle that you add to the water? I've not used it as I don't have any pet snails of my own yet but I'm guessing thats what you need.

Thankyou On my next order i will get some. I think it may help my blue crayfish in my other tank. He's looking fine atm but i should get a big bottle incase

One of your snails actually has a cracked shell, which would suggest something has attacked it...what species is your 'laughing catfish'? If you don't know can you take a pic? If it's one of these or similar I would say it could be pestering the snails a lot, I've seen them try to eat apple snails before. They usually come out at night to do this, so if that's the case you will probably of not seen in happening. And it may only have started to have had an affect on the snails since the catfish has grown over the past months if you got it when it was smaller.

If you want a calcium supplement for multiple tanks I would buy a large bottle of the Kent Marine stuff, as it works out cheaper : ).

Though TBH I don't think it will help much, with those water stats your water should have well more than enough calcium in it. I used to use calcium supplement for my nerite snails but stopped when the bottle ran out and have not noticed a difference, and my water has much less calcium than yours does.

Calcium supplements are really only useful IMO if you are keeping an excessive number of snails in one tank (like a small tank full of growing apple snails), or if you have soft water around neutral (yours is medium hard and a bit alkaline - already perfect).

As a side note, theplants shown in the third pic are non-aquatic Dracaena sanderiana plants, they will do much better in a pot on your windowsill . Eventually they will just get covered in algae and/or start to rot if kept underwater.

Thankyou for your answer

The link you gave me is my catfish, a Platydoras costatus. (I got muddled up thinking he was called a laughing catfish, sorry. I call him Joker because it always looks like he's smiling).

I have had the catfish for about 7 months. I dont watch him at night time, though randomly he is awake during the day. A few months back i seen him trying to eat a dead fish, so i realise he loves meat.

I feed my fish blood worm once a week and dried daphinia/ algea tablets/ flake/ vegetable matter during the week. Do you think extra meat for my catfish would stop the pestering? Ill have to think of somthing, I only have two tanks. I'm sure if i put him with my crayfish he would get pinched alot.

Thanks for telling me about the plants. I am still learning about them and noticed they were the only plant that never got eaten. I am hoping to buy a bigger tank soon and turn it into a planted aquarium.

Don't think that would work really, those catfish are bottomless pits! Combined with the fact that it's up all night just swimming around, when it bumps into the snails it's bound to try eat them. If the catfish has grown since you've had it, I'd say it's certainly whats going after the snails.

He most likely would get piched to bits by the crayfish. If the cray tank is large with lots of hiding places, and it's a mature cray (preferably a female) it might work, but of course it's a gamble, so I wouldn't recommend it.

No problem, luckily they have tough leaves, so not many fish or snails can eat the, they are supposed to be toxic to other household pets, so it's probably just as well, though I doubt they would affect fish too much .

Its good to know you probably have enough calcium in your tank as I have the same parameters in mine!

I'm quite surprised that the catfish would have the right equipment to crack an Apple snails shell...unless it was already damaged somehow? how big is the catfish approx?

When you get into having a bigger planted tank you'll love it btw...and want more

I would say he is around 17cm long. Its only been in the past few weeks i have noticed how shy and damaged my snails are.

I am hoping when i get the new tank and add loads of plants my catfish might not be able to find them. I will be getting a tank twice the size.

My crayfish is a boy ( called Pinchy) so putting him in may not work. I am getting a 5 foot tank for him soon which i need a stand for ( he's in a 3 foot tank atm). Even with more space i still think my catfish would get snipped

I hope i find the tank i want second hand quick.

I'm guessing your ctafish would still be pinched even at the size he is.

Good luck finding your tank Mannequin, it will all work out right in the end.