Dead things and ammonia spikes...

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Would it be safe to assume that if a nerite snail died and was left in the tank, that there would definitely be an ammonia 'spike'?

I ask because I've lost track of a couple of mine, in spite of them being 1/2" across. My tank is well planted, with plenty of bogwood, nooks and crannies and I'm currently reluctant to go digging around to find them, if they're simply hiding away and doing their mollusky mojo.
So far, my water parameters are stable, with no suggestion of ammonia, nitrite or even nitrate, so I'm hoping that all's well...

 

[Essjay]

It depends how quickly your tank can get rid of an ammonia spike. With a lot of plants, they would be capable of removing it pretty quickly.

Nerites are superb at hiding. I once completely emptied a tank and failed to find a nerite only for it to turn up on the front glass a couple of days later. (That's easy to do when all the plants are attached to decor or floating)

 

[Byron]

I concur with @Essjay. In a biologically-balanced and established aquarium, with growing plants, the death of fish or snails will not have any impact whatsoever on ammonia. Notice, I did use several provisos. [Obviously an over-loaded tank on the verge of collapse is a different story, but that is not going to apply here I'm sure, but just so no one gets the wrong idea.]

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I do like to hear such encouraging noises!
So either the nerites are alive and well and are doing their thing...which is good, or the tank is so well balanced that their sad passing doesn't affect the water chemistry...which is also good and would sort-of compensate for the 'sad passing'.