UGHHHH: Not something ELSE!

[foxgirl158]

So I lost my neon mickey mouse platy, Eve, today. No clue what happened. The a couple hours later I look in the tank and my tiger nerite snail, Tigger, has fallen off the inside of the little house and is laying upside down. I flip him over as quick as I can, and leave him to his own devices. Come to now, about two hours later, and he hasn't moved. I picked him up with the net, which I think is a bad sign because he wasn't suctioned at all. He looks all closed up, like the dead ones you see at a bad pet store. How do I tell if he's dead? If he's not, how can I help him? I am going to be so sad if I lost two of my pets in one day, on top of everything else that's going on in my life rn. Thanks for any help you can give.
PS: Sorry about the blue substrate, that's what I get for asking my mom to pick up a small bag of gravel for my quarantine tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Have you got a blue light on the tank?
If yes, change it to normal white light when photographing things. We can't identify anything under blue light.

To see if the snail is alive, try to put your finger nail under the edge of the operculum (trap door they use to close their shell). A healthy snail will pull back on the operculum, whereas a sick snail will allow the operculum to come away from the shell.

If you ever have any concerns about sick fish, snails or shrimp, and can't get help straight away, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. This will reduce nutrients and disease organisms in the water and buy you some time to find out what is wrong.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

So I lost my neon mickey mouse platy, Eve, today. No clue what happened.

Talk to us about your water.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Any sign of trouble in my tanks I always test my water and then do a big water change.

I noticed my fish behaving oddly a couple of days ago, hanging around the filter outlet. After having a quick look in the tank to see anything obvious I tested my water and checked parameters. Even though the tests came back as reading optimal I still did a water change...and while doing so I found my own deceased snail. It must have died over night as I'd seen it the day before but it was long enough to upset the fish. Thankfully I found and removed it before it created a problem!

 

[Essjay]

Lift the snail out of the water and very carefully take a small sniff. Dead snails smell appalling (and a big sniff will leave that smell in your nose for hours).

Nerites do sometimes end up upside down on the substrate. If they can get hold of something they can pull themselves over, but fish in the tank take this opportunity to pick at the snail sending it back into its shell. I usually help them out by flipping them back over using a long stick.

 

[foxgirl158]

He's ok I woke up this morning and he was crawling up the side of the tank. And the platy had been being weird for 4-5 days before she died. I did test my water a couple of times while she was sick, and everything came back normal. I posted about it on my pregnant platy thread, because EmeraldKing said that they looked healthy, so I asked what was wrong with Eve because she was so much smaller.