I stumbled onto this article while I was looking for food for my snails and I wanted to share it. The article is from www.petfish.net and was written by Susan Mast

This is a list of vegetables and fruits along with the amount of calcium in each 100 gram portion.

They are ranked in order from the ones that contain the most calcium to the ones that contain the least.

I would caution us all to remember when feeding these foods that the phosphorous contained in these foods can have an ill effect on your water quality and may cause an algae bloom if the levels of phosphorous become too high.

In my experience, it is best not to feed too much nor too often. I usually feed these types of foods the evening before a 25% water change. However, the choice, as always, is yours.

Calcium Rich Foods For Aquatic Snails
Vegetables Calcium per 100 gram
Dill Weed 208 mg
Turnip Greens 190 mg
Collards 145 mg
Parsley 138 mg
Kale 135 mg
Watercress 120 mg
Beet Greens 119 mg
Chinese Cabbage 105 mg
Mustard Greens 103 mg
Chicory Greens 100 mg
Spinach 99 mg
Okra 81 mg
Leaf Lettuce 68 mg
Cilantro 67 mg
Purslane 65 mg
Endive 52 mg
Swiss Chard 51 mg
Broccoli 48 mg
Cabbage 47 mg
Rutabaga 47 mg
Brussels Sprouts 42 mg
Celery 40 mg
Sweet Potato Leaves 37 mg
Green Beans 37 mg
Romaine Lettuce 36 mg
Parsnips 36 mg
Head Lettuce 32 mg
Alfalfa Sprouts 32 mg
Squash (winter, all varieties) 31 mg
Turnip 30 mg
Carrots 27 mg
Kohlrabi 24 mg
Sweet Potato 22 mg
Cauliflower 22 mg
Asparagus 21 mg
Pumpkin 21 mg
Squash (summer, all varieties) 20 mg
Beets 16 mg
Cucumber (with skin) 14 mg
Red and Green Peppers 9 mg
Tomato 5 mg
White Corn 2 mg


Fruits Calcium per 100 gram
Seedless Raisins 49 mg
Orange 40 mg
Lime 33 mg
Blackberries 32 mg
Kiwi 26 mg
Lemon (no peel) 26 mg
Papaya 24 mg
Raspberries 22 mg
Sweet Cherries 15 mg
Strawberries 14 mg
Tangerine 14 mg
Apricots 14 mg
Grapefruit, White 12 mg
Grapefruit, Red & Pink 11 mg Pear 11 mg
Cantaloupe 11 mg
Grapes 11 mg
Mango 10 mg
Watermelon 8 mg
Persimmon, Japanese 8 mg
Pineapple 7 mg
Apple (with skin) 7 mg
Cranberries 7 mg
Banana 6 mg
Honeydew Melon 6 mg
Blueberries 6 mg
Casaba Melon 5 mg
Nectarine 5 mg
Peach 5 mg
Plum 4 mg

Proper feeding will result in a happy healthy snail.

Wow..cool!

Thats what I thought! I have alot of that stuff in my house so I don't have to worry about what to feed my snails. Does anyone know where I can get snail jello?

If you get an algae bloom it means you don't have enough snails.

In the past I've made snail jello with knox unflavored gelatin and baby food veggies. (We had some left over) I'd cut out the water based on how much baby food was going in and they'd turn out the consistency of Jello Jigglers.

I'm not sure if it applies to anyone else. All I have are Apple Snails and since they could give a crap less what they eat, I've been taking the ends of veggies for the torts, like the core of the romaine lettuce and just toss it whole in the tank. I don't bother boiling them, I don't bother doing any prep work at all. The veg chunks hardly foul the water, and they've never lasted long enough to go bad.

I have cuttle bones in all my turtle tanks as well. When the cuttle bones get full of algae I swap them into the snail tank. The snails munch off all the algae and get fistfuls of calcium in the process. I'm guessing it's working out good. The snails are getting huge and leaving egg clusters all over the tank.

You could probably get away with just putting in a cuttle bone by it self in with the snails depending on type. The apples will totally eat an entire cuttlebone if I leave one in there long enough. They eat sponge filters too, so maybe they're not the best example.

Woah Thank you ladyblues! I'm going to try this out!!

Thanks for the lists and the idea of the cuttle bone! Has anyone else done this?? I have a tank of briggs snails and some ramhorns.

I've used the snail jello and the snails love it. So do the fish for that matter.

My snails love it but I found that the jello tend's make a mess

Whoa, this is a REAL old thread. Just cruising around the forum and came across this thread. But another suggestion for calcium for apples is an actual calcium tablet. People supplement. Preferably without vitamind D in it. They will eat the tablets and what they don't eat dissolves (a little) in water. I also use calcium liquid, the kind for salt water tanks, in the water. I try to do it weekly.

Never tried the jellow, but like MikeD said, it seems rather messy. And doesn't it just dissolve in the water? As I said, I don't know, never made it or used it. I would think it would dissolve, but that doesn't make any sense if you all are using it for food! Then you would just dump the gelatin in the water! LOL.

Cuttlebone is essentially all calcium. It's normally mounted on something or other for birds to chew on.

I'm not sure what makes for a cheaper option.

Granted the cuttlebone is more pure calcium and probably is more cost effective than calcium pills. My thinking was that more people have calcium in the house than cuttle bone and the tablets will do in a pinch. I do need to get some cuttle bone though. Does that dissolve in water? Never used it before, but always plan to.

Nope, it doesn't dissolve in water. They will float though, but they weight down pretty easy if that sort of thing bothers you. Some of them do come with a plastic backing, since they're meant for birds, to keep them from breaking.

For snails, I don't think the backing would matter all that much, but anything else bigger would be a problem if they ate it I would think. I certainly wouldn't want to pass a hunk of plastic at the very least.

Just bought some cuttlebone the other day. You aren't kidding it floats! LOL! Its weighed down under some rocks, but so far the snails don't seem to be interested. Either that, or there isn't enough of it sticking out and the snails can't find it. So, if they don't eat it, it won't dissolve into the water? I'm gonna have to come up with some other way to use it in the tank. Gonna probably use a veggie clip tonite and see what happens.

What I do with cuttlebone is I float one in the aquatic turtle tubs here. The turtles will nibble on it when they feel like it. After a while, the cuttle bone will get algae growing on it. So what I do is swap out the algae covered cuttlebone with a clean one, and stick it into the tank with the goldfish and snails.

Usually after a week, they'll clean it off, and I can play swaparoo again.