Calcium for snails/shrimps

[LauraL]

Do NOT use jello. Look for unflavored gelatin powder. If you can't find it, ask your grocery store people - just don't use the sweetened stuff.

 

[EOD]

Snello
Clear gelatin - grocery stores almost always carry it since you use it to make cheesecake and certain desserts
ground up fish flakes
baby food (green beans)
ground cuttle bone or tums

 

[BettaFishMommy]

look for the Knox brand gelatin powder in the baking aisle of your grocery store.

i use the butternut squash flavour baby food. when i had briggs they loved it!

 

[wanabedriver]

I asked much the same question not long ago, and a wise invertibrate expert told me to go to the nearest Wal-mart or whatever and pick up a cuttlefish bone - the kind you give parakeets and etc. to wear down their beak. They're super-cheap - maybe a buck or two.

Buy one, remove the metal clip, break it into chunks (they break really easily) and drop a piece in the tank. It won't do anything to your pH - it's pretty much non-reactive - but the snails and shrimp *will* visit it.

I have a small tank just for ramshorns, and I've had really good luck with this. One day, I hope to have time to try to make snail jello. But for now, slices of cucumber and pieces of cuttlefish bone seem to fill the bill just fine. My snails look great.

Do your snails and shrimp actually munch on them? I was reading earlier to throw cuttlefish bone into the filter so the calcium would dissolve in the water, not as a dietary supplement.

 

[LauraL]

No, they actually do eat it - they climb right up on it. I'm sure it dissolves into the water to some extent too, but it hasn't caused a problem yet aside from a little clouding if the piece gets too old.