oneidkat

Hey Y'all.

On the 17th of last month my snail Blanche laid her eggs and they hatched 2 weeks later as we had hoped... Since laying the eggs she had been less active but I assumed this to be normal (what new mum isn't feeling a bit run down)... Today we found her opened up at the botton of the tank unmoving... I few little pokes didn't wake her so I shifted her and placed her on top of a sppon shaped ornament thinking that if she had not moved by the time I returned from work it'd be a clear assurance she had passed away. Well she still hadn't moved, we poked a little more but it seems our Blanche really is dead. Has anyone else had this happen? Our water is ok, it was tested on sunday by my LFS... Any ideas, suggestion or shared experiences would be MUCH appreciated.

sirdarksol

First of all, there's an easy way to tell if snails are dead. Pull her from the tank and take a whiff. The shell will either be completely empty or will smell horrible, like rotting eggs.
As far as what happened, I'm not sure. I'm really bad at keeping snails (other than trumpet snails) alive. The fish in my community tank like eating snail antennae, which might have something to do with this.

I have had something similar to this happen, however. I had a Japanese trapdoor snail that gave birth to two snails and died a day later. I'm guessing that, for whatever reason, the snail was already weak, and the resources to make eggs/babies took too much out of her.