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My snails have damage on their shells. I think they had a calcium deficiency, and ate each other's shells to make up for it. I've changed their diet, and things seem to be getting better. Now I'm concerned that their eaten shells are too weak and may leave them vulnerable.
Is there a way that I can repair the shells? Something that I can put on the shells to reinforce them, or at the least, protect them from being eaten further?
The simplest and easiest way to repair the shell is to make sure your water contains calcium in the right amount.
Most snails living in water need hard water (water containing dissolved minerals and calcium salts); one way to do this is to add GH salt, another is to add crushed sea shells.
If the mineral content of your water is good the snails will repair their shell damage by themselves - and this does not take long, you will see great improvement within a few weeks. This is the case if the damage is at the opening of the snail's shell, so if the damage is in the older part of the shell in an area where the snail cannot reach it, you need to do the repair yourself.
More information can be found here under the section "water". Be sure the water have a low content of metals, as they are toxic to snails and most other life in your tank.
If there is damage to the older part of the shell or at the top of the shell, you need to do the repair yourself by cleaning the area and then applying some form of clear nail varnish or fast hardening epoxy glue. The important thing when you do this is to avoid the chemicals coming in contact with the snail's body. This can be done by putting a part of an eggshell on the snail shell before you apply the epoxy or nail varnish on top.
You can find more information about this here. This link was provided by James Jenkins; credit to him for this.
You may try this, a very effective way to patch the shell is to use a fast drying Marine Epoxy. You want to get the fast drying kind since the shorter the time the snail is out of the water the better. The brand I got has a set up time of 15 minutes with total dry time of 1 hour. I went to my local hardware store and bought the kind that looks like play dough in a tube green outside with white inside you simply blend it all together until it is solid white and gently put in on the bad spot.
