# Snail shell decomposition???



## Playing God (Dec 13, 2012)

Good day,

My assassin snail is doing its job- keeping my MTS, ramshorn and pond snail populations in check. He loves a good meal; however, he doesn't dispose of his containers! The empty shell population is growing rapidly. 

Does anyone know how long it takes an empty snail shell to decompose? I know it depends on the pH of the water but just looking for a rough estimate. They gradually fall beneath the moss so it's not a big issue, more of an interest.

I do only infrequent small water changes and mostly just top ups with R/O water so I'd like to keep all the calcium, etc in tank that I can. Plus I'd rather leave the shells in case my shrimp would benefit somehow....


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

It takes awhile. Small ones go faster, and pond snails go faster most others, I think because their shells are very thin. I've found one or two pond snail shells that were half gone, and I suspect that took several months at least. 

Mystery and Zebra nerite snails take forever, unless the water is fairly acidic. My water is hard, and I've yet to find any mystery snails or nerites showing any sign of damage after death, even if they've been there for a couple of months. MTS snails take a long time to decay too, their shells are fairly thick, but I often see signs of damage right at the points of their shells, even when the snails are still alive and kicking. 

Ramshorns are somewhere in the middle, taking longer than pond snails but less time than Mystery or Nerite snails.


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## Playing God (Dec 13, 2012)

Thanks!! All my MTS that are bigger than 1/2" already have white on tips while living so erosion is happening. If the shells start bothering me too much I'll take a few minutes sometime and just crush all of them.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

It's funny this came up when it did.. I had to clean out my QT and also rescape one of the 30G tanks.. I found a lot of deceased snail shells. Ivory mystery snails and golden ones were in perfect shape, no sign of decomp.. burgundy ones on the other hand were half gone already, and because I know when I acquired the burgundy ones, I know they were not in the tank very long, less than four months in total. So either the shell colour makes a difference, or the burgundy shelled snails had a problem of some kind.
MTS shells seem to last a long time, found only one or two with noticeable decomp.. ramshorns for the most part were pretty much eaten away.
Some of those gold mysteries were my oldest snails and largest, but the burgundy one that was badly eaten was almost as large. Had a gorgeous purple snail inside.. hope I can get another one. I also found many baby snail shells, about half and half for decomp, I would guess the difference being how long they'd been there. But lots more of them than the big ones.. I had not realized baby snail mortality was that high.
Overall, I doubt I'd worry about them unless I found them unsightly.

And I do notice many of the MTS snails have some damage to the tips of their cones.. though it does not seem to have any noticeable effect on them. They appear to be very hardy creatures, more so than most other snails.


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