Have I Killed My Apple Snail?

[vcmtik]

Hi there

I am new to the apple snail species. Yesterday when I arrived home, I noticed one of my snails was floating at the waters surface. As I did not know at the time that this was normal behaviour - I panicked and picked the snail out of the aquarium to have a closer look. This was a bad idea because it slipped from my hand onto our hard floor and now has a hole in the middle of it's shell! I put it back in to the tank. This morning, it is still floating at the top of the water. The snail is slightly open, but doesn't close in tightly when I touch it. There is a sort of mucus emerging from the damage on it's shell. Can anyone advise me?

 

[vcmtik]

Anyone? Please help!

 

[Truck]

take it out the tank and smell it...if it smells like rotten eggs its dead

 

[Littlemonkey]

Yep, they don't last long with that type of damage, I lost a beautiful purple one when I was alittle heavy handed when cleaning the bit of glass he was on and when I knocked him off he lost his trap door, he floated for quite a while then dissapeared, when I found him there was just a shell left.

 

[vcmtik]

take it out the tank and smell it...if it smells like rotten eggs its dead

It doesn't smell yet. It doesn't respond when i touch the "trap door" either.

Yep, they don't last long with that type of damage, I lost a beautiful purple one when I was alittle heavy handed when cleaning the bit of glass he was on and when I knocked him off he lost his trap door, he floated for quite a while then dissapeared, when I found him there was just a shell left.

I am worried that I will be getting rid of an alive snail. I'm sorry to hear about your purple snail. What specie is that?

 

[pippoodle]

just leave him or her for a few days - they can heal holes in their shells if they are young enough - they cant survive without the trapdoor though - i have a few that i adopted that have holes shells - some had very bad erosion of their shells and are now healing - person who had them kept them in water of ph5 and it ate the poor little things shells

 

[vcmtik]

just leave him or her for a few days - they can heal holes in their shells if they are young enough - they cant survive without the trapdoor though - i have a few that i adopted that have holes shells - some had very bad erosion of their shells and are now healing - person who had them kept them in water of ph5 and it ate the poor little things shells


Hi pippoodle,

I have tested my water it is a constant 7.4 ph level. The water hardness is 90ppm. Is that high enough for a snail. I have taken out the snail, and placed him on his own in the aquarium water from the tank. Is this a good idea?

 

[Littlemonkey]

Hi, I've heard of people putting cuttlefish in with snails to help with their shell's health, my purple snail was an Apple snail, I was sad to lose him, but have the offspring which are growing nicely. I hope your snail improves.

 

[mattlee]

i had an apple snail that was fine one day but floating about the next... i was told it could have air in the shell so i left it and it sank after a day or two! it did like sitting in the bubble stream from the air pump so maybe this is how the air got in, who knows! also when dead as said above they really do smell bad