Aquarium snails

Question
I bought a gold mystery snail and it had babies and then jumped out of my tank a week later.  I had 22 babies and am now down to about 13.  It seems they die off and I find their shells while cleaning.  Anyway, my question is.....it looks like their shells are turning white....is that because of hard water or acidic water or is that just what happens as they get older?  The two adult snails I had before both had orange shells, but these babies all have a green color or dark brown color to them, but now seem to be turning white.  I recently cleaned the tank and the temperature has dropped from 72 to 68, could that be the problem?  I do not have a heater because we keep gold fish and I did not think that they needed one.
Thank you for any help you can give.

Answer
Dear Lauri,
Mystery Snails generally don't need heated water. I don't think the temperature change would be related to the loss of the babies.

The shell color of turning white can often be related to acidic water or not enough calcium or nutrition in their diet. Make sure the water isn't becoming too acidic by decaying plant or other organic matter or driftwood naturally releasing tannins into your water. Make sure to do frequent large water changes because goldfish and snails naturally produce a lot of waste and that natural decomposing waste tends to produce acidic compounds. Driftwood is ok to have in your aquarium as long as you do those vital large water changes.

Make sure your snails are well-fed. They need large amounts of vegetable foods. Many times, goldfish can eat all the food away and any snails are left with nothing. Offer yours sliced zuchinni attached to a river rock with a rubberband and Romain lettuce and spinach are relished by snails and provides them with greens and calcium they need. Algae wafers are also eaten by mystery snails also. As well as all other fish foods as long as the goldfish don't snap it all up from them.

Please make sure your snails cannot climb out of their aquarium. Make sure to cover any holes with material such as Crafting mesh found at most stores. Use tape or small stoned to weight down a cut to size piece over any spaces that your snails can crawl out of.

I really hope this helps and best of luck with your Mystery snails!
Karen~