Tums for Snails... and fish?

C

CrazedAce

New Member
So today I threw a tums in my tank with all my purple mystery snails, as I've read and been told it helps them strengthen their shells with the calcium it provide. A few hours later and I can't see it anymore. I was just wondering if anyone else feeds these and how often they do it? I have a crapload of these snails, and I'm not sure how often I should add tums, or if every snail was able to grab a bite or not. I also have porthole cats and bristlenose plecos that are the other main bottom feeders, does anyone know if these guys eat the tums, or if its harmful to them or not? Do shrimp like tums?
 
lloyd378

lloyd378

Administrator
Staff member
Contributing Member Level III
never heard of feeding them to fish, but i do enjoy them from time to time
 
C

CrazedAce

New Member
I've had to rely on them quite a bit myself. My stomach gets pretty acidy and I haven't found a better way to fix it than with Tums and water! Lol
 
G

Gryphon

New Member
I've heard the weekend feeder blocks (White pyramids) are also good for helping snails with their shells.
 
C

CrazedAce

New Member
PokeSephiroth said:
I've heard of people using tums with their snails and have had successful stories about it. But I don't know... I mean, the flavored times, like mint and whatnot, seems a bit sketchy to me still :\

If anything, my snails and other bottom feeders go CRAZY for this stuff:
http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-supplies/fish-food-feeders/kens-premium-veggie-micro-sticks-with-calcium.html
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I have this in a mixed bag with other products from Ken's, but I feed it more as a conditioning food rather than a calcium additive. Just never order the veggie wafers if you are feeding bristlenose, they hate it, though common ones love it and so do cichlids! Lol
 
PokeSephiroth

PokeSephiroth

Member
my BNs LOVE the veggie sticks from Ken's Fish. They tend to ignore the hikari veggie wafers for some odd reason though. lol
 
C

CrazedAce

New Member
PokeSephiroth said:
my BNs LOVE the veggie sticks from Ken's Fish. They tend to ignore the hikari veggie wafers for some odd reason though. lol
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I used to feed TetraVeggie wafers and they would scarf them down. I was surprised they didn't like Ken's though, as they actually smell better in my opinion. I ordered about $120 worth of fish food from his site, and that is the only food I will never buy again, well that and the betta pellets that sink instantly...
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
I'm boosting my GH to 10+ dGH with Seachem equilibrium in my mystery snail tanks now.  I also add some pure, powered calcium carbonate that I bought on Amazon.  $12 will buy you 1lb of the stuff with none of the additives that tums have (flavor, sugar, etc.).  

Hopefully this does the trick and they actually stay alive long term for me.  Crushed coral and cuttle bone didn't help.
 
C

CrazedAce

New Member
I fed them Tums twice a week for two weeks but got tired of the fact that it created a huge mess by melting into the gravel and becoming a sticky mess. So now I just let them grow in my cichlid tanks, Africans aren't eating them so their shells are probably pretty healthy. Of course I've also been using my mix pellet/wafer bag of kensfish food that has the calcium, so not sure if Tums are necessary at all. :D
 
V

VernalPond

New Member
I had not heard of using tums so I looked up the ingredients...whoa.

Calcium Carbonate USP, Sucrose, Calcium Carbonate, Corn Starch, Talc, Mineral Oil, Natural & Artificial Flavors, Adipic Acid, Sodium Polyphosphate, Red 40 Lake, Yellow 6 Lake, FD&C Yellow 5 Lake (Tartrazine), Blue 1 Lake

I would definitely not put this in my tanks. Good for you for looking into novel solutions though.
 
pbmax

pbmax

Active Member
That was my thought on tums, which is why I bought CaCO3 powder instead when I made snail-o a long while back.
 
Cory

Cory

Administrator
Staff member
Tums is tried and true in the snail world. I have used it with fish, shrimp and snails before. They do help but as to how much who knows. I prefer to use zoo med's plankton blocks, but tums are super cheap and available to anyone around.
 
Cory

Cory

Administrator
Staff member
It was never sticky for me. But it did kind of melt down on the gravel. Kind of like when you put say equilibrium first into a tank directly and it sinks down and has to dissolve into the water.
 
L

LuminousAphid

New Member
CrazedAce said:
I've had to rely on them quite a bit myself. My stomach gets pretty acidy and I haven't found a better way to fix it than with Tums and water! Lol
Click to expand...
I had this problem for a long time, then finally went to the doctor when I got health insurance... try over-the-counter Prilosec (Omeprazole) once a day for about a week, and see if it helps. It has made my life so much better.

Edit: as for tums, haven't tried it, but my mystery snail had quite a thin shell when I first got him. After a while I put some crushed coral in, and also started feeding the plankton blocks that cory mentioned. I never really see anything eating on the plankton blocks, but they always seem to disappear pretty quickly, so something must be eating them. Also, since the crushed coral has gone in, mystery snail's shell has gotten much better looking and thicker, even better than when I first got him from petsmart :roll: :roll: 

I never think he is getting enough food, because he is constantly speeding around my little tank, but he must be since he seems happy and looks healthy.
 
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