I hatched a couple clutches on a paper towel, inside of a ziplock bag. Well now that they are hatched, they are a pile of little egg pieces, and snails. They aren't really moving much either. I've gotten some into the water, but am having trouble separating the rest from their shell mess. How do I go about getting all these little snails out of the mess without getting it all into their new water? Also, what is the best thing to feed baby snails? Can they tolerate liquid calcium at this age? Please help. I want to give these snails the best start that I can, so they will be healthy.

Woo-Hoo Congrats!!! What's your normal ph readings? I ususally just swirl the eggs around until they come falling out of the egg shells-never really worried about the pieces falling into the water.I guess I've always had other snails/fish that would take care of any left-over stuff. You can take a little tank water and place it in a bowl I guess,and do the same kind of thing-pour excess water out when done.Baby snails can pretty much eat what their parents eat. I semi-cook my veggies for them-they tend to be more responsive to that method.Anything high in Calcium is great.There's a food list pinned in the main snail section. As for the liquid calcium,I pour it in my regular tanks,and there are babies in those,and they've been fine. Good luck with them all!

Thanks for all the help Devs! I'll go swirl them now. The ph is at 7.0. Is that ok? The little ones that I have gotten in the water so far, hit the tank bottom running! In just 2 days some of them have doubled in size!!! I will add some calcium to their water. Would a cuttle bone help, for a small tank. I have a couple in a 1 gallon. These are not the canas, but some little rams horns, and a pond snail. I like to keep them in the kitchen to watch. This is so exciting! I can't wait to see how big these guys get! Their mom, or dad is around the size of a good plum.

Preferred Ph for snails,should really be higher than 7.I've had a battle with that myself for my tap water readings come out with a ph between 6.8,and 7. I ended up using crushed corals in some of the filter media to up my ph to at least 7.4.And in fact,some of my smaller tanks-ten gals.and under, I actually use the crushed coral as part of the substrate.I would guess by my experience that keeping your ph at 7 will eventually have your snails showing signs of erosion.You'd be surprised on how fast that can happen. I have heard of many people using a cuttle bone in their tank for calcium,but I've never done it myself.Good luck with the babies!

Are there different kinds of the crushed coral, or is there just one? How much do I need per gallon? I want get a start on this quick, so none of them suffer from not having what they need. I want them to all have pretty shells.

I just went to my LFS and purchased a bag of crushed coral.It's in the Salt Water/Marine section.I layered the bottom of my tanks with it the same way you'd do regular gravel,maybe an inch or two thick? One tank has Sand in it,and I just took a couple cups of it and mixed it into the sand.One thing about crushed coral is that you have to rinse it really well or it makes your tank kind of a cloudy , milky white color.The bag I got said "Pre-rinsed",and said only minimal rinsing required,but they were wrong.

I have to go get some this weekend, and try it out. Thanks for the help Devs.

Which calcium would you get Devs? There are too many to choose from.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/search/search_results.jsp

I use Kent's Liquid CAlcium.I'm not sure if it's listed on PetSmart or not.You can usually find it at any LFS in the Marine/Saltwater section. I use 1 drop per 5 gals. on a daily basis. If I'm not mistaken,if you go by their directions,you want to cut the dosage in half.Don't quote me on that,I don't have a bottle close by to read! By the way,that bottle lasts forever.

Thanks Devs!

I got the Kents calcium, and a 20lb bag of crushed coral. The guy at the pet store said the coral would dissolve. How quickly will it do this, and do I need to replace it before it happens? Do I need to put all 20lbs in my 55 gal? Sorry for all the questions, this is a little new and confusing to me. I really appreciate all the help you have given me.

Heya Ruff! Don't forget no matter what you do --- really rinse it well,or you'll have this milky like water from it. What size/Type of filter do you have on that tank?Since your PH starts out at 7,you may be able to use the coral in your filter media to up it where you need it.On my 75,I have an Aquaclear 500 & An Emperor that I put coral in the filter media area,and it does a realy decent job at keeping my tank at a decent ph. It erodes away,but at a pretty small rate so it seems, which is a good thing. It's rather up to you ,as to whether you mix it in your substrate.By the way,what kind of substrate do you have?

The only thing I didn't like about using crushed coral as a substrate is that the baby snails would hide in it, and it'd be impossible for me to do water changes without sucking some up I ended up just keeping it the media baskets like Devs said, and it works just fine. I use cuttlebones in my filter as well... they erode away much faster than the coral but I'll assume that's a good thing? I dunno.

I have to whisper filters on my 55. One is a 300, and the other is a 150. I just have the snails and one algae eater in there. I do not have anything on the bottom. I like keeping a bare bottom tank. I do have a bubble wand too. If the coral doesn't fit in the filter, can I put it in an old pair of pantyhose? I could cut the foot off one, and put some coral in it. Is there any way of this coral overdoing my PH? Will it be ok when I put 2 of my Goldie's in there, or will they not like the ph?

Yeah, you can use pantyhose, just secure it under the filter output and it should work fine. I've used coral for about a year now in my goldfish tanks, and I've never had it do anything massive to the ph. Goldies should be fine.

I added a half capful of calcium. It said to add a cap to every 50 gallons, so I think that is right. I add this daily, right? I had an old water plant basket that I put about 2 inches of crushed coral in. Does that all sound right?