Snail Troubles

[JoeGuzzo]

about a month ago i went and bought a blue mystery snail. he was already quite growm not to big though a good size. a few weeks after i got him i switched tanks i transfered my fish to a 55 gallon i had set jup and cycling for like 2 weeks. also the old tank was gravel and the new one has sand in it. at first he was doing fine he was all over the place the sand kept sticking too his goo trail and he would try to get it off of him actually pretty amusing.

after a while thought he just started to sit in one spot most of the day but everytime i would leave for a few hours and come back he would just be in a diferrent spot just chillin inside his shell. now the past few days he has been upside down in his shell in the same spot..obviously im curious to know if he is dead or not..how can you tell if a snail is dead??

also how do snails breed? i ask because the other dy i was doing a water change and there waas alittle spot above the water line as i was taking out water..i didnt think anything of it at first i just thought it was a water drop on the inside. i continued to look at it and thought to myself more and more that it was a water drop so i went and took a closer look at it and saw that it was a little baby snail.

i wasnt sure exactly how snails do outof water let alone baby snails so i hurried with the water change to put water back in seeing as how he was a bove the water line. after i put the water back in he kept climbing up the glass and brought himself out of the water line again, except he kept going up all the way to the top of the tank above the black where i couldnt see him anymore unless i opened the top of the tank and looked underneath. since thenn i have no idea where he has gone obviously they are hard to spot but should i be worried? i dont want him to keep himself out of the water too long and die nor want him to climb out of the tank

 

[FishBlast]

about a month ago i went and bought a blue mystery snail. he was already quite growm not to big though a good size. a few weeks after i got him i switched tanks i transfered my fish to a 55 gallon i had set jup and cycling for like 2 weeks. also the old tank was gravel and the new one has sand in it. at first he was doing fine he was all over the place the sand kept sticking too his goo trail and he would try to get it off of him actually pretty amusing.

after a while thought he just started to sit in one spot most of the day but everytime i would leave for a few hours and come back he would just be in a diferrent spot just chillin inside his shell. now the past few days he has been upside down in his shell in the same spot..obviously im curious to know if he is dead or not..how can you tell if a snail is dead??

also how do snails breed? i ask because the other dy i was doing a water change and there waas alittle spot above the water line as i was taking out water..i didnt think anything of it at first i just thought it was a water drop on the inside. i continued to look at it and thought to myself more and more that it was a water drop so i went and took a closer look at it and saw that it was a little baby snail.

i wasnt sure exactly how snails do outof water let alone baby snails so i hurried with the water change to put water back in seeing as how he was a bove the water line. after i put the water back in he kept climbing up the glass and brought himself out of the water line again, except he kept going up all the way to the top of the tank above the black where i couldnt see him anymore unless i opened the top of the tank and looked underneath. since thenn i have no idea where he has gone obviously they are hard to spot but should i be worried? i dont want him to keep himself out of the water too long and die nor want him to climb out of the tank

Did you feed him anything? I feed my apple snails with boiled carrots once every other day (when I see them out and about, hungry).

Not sure about mystery snails but blue one could be an apple snail, which lays eggs above the water line and they are pink and huge, so easy to spot. If it is a true mystery snail, it would give birth to live young.
Was the snail you saw above the water line with a flat shell? Those are ramshorns.

When snails die, they will hang out of the shell and no longer move, maybe even look pale and grow fungus over their body.

 

[JoeGuzzo]

nah i never really fed him anything alonmg just let him crawl around the tank figured he was eating algea thats growna round plus the food that the fish miss and fall to the bottom never really anything to him alone.

well he was really small so it was hard to tell but from what i did see it looked more like a round shell and i still have yet to see him again..im sure he is doing fine somewhere in the tank but i just cant find him.

and if it was the blue mystery snail that gave birth to him would that mean he would be a blue mystery snail too??

 

[FishBlast]

nah i never really fed him anything alonmg just let him crawl around the tank figured he was eating algea thats growna round plus the food that the fish miss and fall to the bottom never really anything to him alone.

well he was really small so it was hard to tell but from what i did see it looked more like a round shell and i still have yet to see him again..im sure he is doing fine somewhere in the tank but i just cant find him.

and if it was the blue mystery snail that gave birth to him would that mean he would be a blue mystery snail too??

Well, if you don't feed him and other fish might eat everything off the bottom (as in my case, I have one actual bottom feeder but pretty much all my fish feed at the bottom), he might one day just die or lose pieces of his shell.
He needs vegetables and algae is not enough.
In my case, I can't even grow algae, and my lights are on overkill... My apples would starve to death or eat all my good plants.

Depends what the other parent snail was. If his shell looks black or blue, high chances he's a blue snail too. If it is transparent and more like flat, he's a common pest snail.

 

[JoeGuzzo]

ahh well it seems i have poorly taken care of my snail as sad as that makes me now it seems he still hasnt moved from that one spot for about 3 days now but he isnt falling out of his shell at all i dont know what i should do just leave him see if he eventually comes out?

plus if he is dead i dont really want him sitting the tank.. any advice?

 

[FishBlast]

ahh well it seems i have poorly taken care of my snail as sad as that makes me now it seems he still hasnt moved from that one spot for about 3 days now but he isnt falling out of his shell at all i dont know what i should do just leave him see if he eventually comes out?

plus if he is dead i dont really want him sitting the tank.. any advice?

You could try taking him out of the tank a bit and gently poke the lid. If he retreats, he is still alive. But he might have already sealed tight so may not move anyway...
Another way would be to watch for the heartbeat, but not sure it will show through yours' shell. My golden ones are quite transparent, so I can see their heartbeat. (or maybe it's a gill movement... not sure exactly, but something pulses under their shells).

 

[JoeGuzzo]

i just took him out and poked him a little bit with the thermometer i use to checkthe temp of the water i put in for a water change and he didnt really move but he was already inside his shell though. but im pretty sure he was hanging out of it more earlier in the day because i was looking at him and hes gone further into his shell since then. should i try putting a cucumber or piece of lettuce in the maybe he will come out?

 

[FishBlast]

i just took him out and poked him a little bit with the thermometer i use to checkthe temp of the water i put in for a water change and he didnt really move but he was already inside his shell though. but im pretty sure he was hanging out of it more earlier in the day because i was looking at him and hes gone further into his shell since then. should i try putting a cucumber or piece of lettuce in the maybe he will come out?

Cucumber attracts them, lettuce on the other hand seems to repel them. Mine just run away from it like it's going to kill them. Oddly, my catfish loves it.
Boiled carrot would be better though, less water pollution.

 

[JoeGuzzo]

lol alright ill try that but just to be clear even though this may be a dumb question..how big of a piece of carrot? the whole carrot? multiple carrots? lol and hmm maybe ill put some lettuce in for my new corys i just got.. theyll like it right?

 

[JoeGuzzo]

oh is that your snails on the carrot? i didnt see that picture the first time i saw your reply alright i think im going to try it and hopefully it will bring the baby snail out of hiding as well but about the lettuc for my corys? they should like it ?? and if so should the lettuce be boiled aswell?

 

[FishBlast]

oh is that your snails on the carrot? i didnt see that picture the first time i saw your reply alright i think im going to try it and hopefully it will bring the baby snail out of hiding as well but about the lettuc for my corys? they should like it ?? and if so should the lettuce be boiled aswell?

The carrot should be the size of your index's first segment at least, but can be bigger if you have more snails.
One problem is that carrots do not lure snails to them, you will have to place the snail next to the carrot, with his face to it (the direction the snail moves forward, not with his lid at it).

The salad / lettuce must not be boiled, just washed with hot water and then cut to tiny pieces for the cories. They cannot tear salad leaf, neither can my hoplo. So I cut them into bite-sized pieces and he picks them from the surface.

Just as a warning: wash it very well. Any pesticides it may have can hurt aquarium residents.

 

[BlueDragon]

I keep Giant African Land Snails and the best way to tell if they're dead is to smell them. If they're dead they'll stink of rotten Fish. Don't know if it's the same with water snails, but I imagine it is.

 

[FishBlast]

I keep Giant African Land Snails and the best way to tell if they're dead is to smell them. If they're dead they'll stink of rotten Fish. Don't know if it's the same with water snails, but I imagine it is.

According to the smell of wild snails I've found dead in the lake, the smell is so horrible that you start tearing with just a sniff. X))
I wonder what those snails were, they sure looked like my apple snails in shape, but their shells were striped with white and brown.

 

[JoeGuzzo]

thats what i did i put the carrot right next to him until the water flow eventually rolled it a few inches away but i put it in there last night around 7 oclock in the evening it is now 11:37 in the morning and i assume he came out because he was now on the other side of the carrot right next to it touching it pretty much but he was in his shell again.

i just moved them both back to where they were more in an open space and i put him right in front of the carrot again

 

[FishBlast]

thats what i did i put the carrot right next to him until the water flow eventually rolled it a few inches away but i put it in there last night around 7 oclock in the evening it is now 11:37 in the morning and i assume he came out because he was now on the other side of the carrot right next to it touching it pretty much but he was in his shell again.

i just moved them both back to where they were more in an open space and i put him right in front of the carrot again

Sniff the shell and see.