Amanda

Ok, I have an ivory mystery snail in a 10 gallon tank - and he hasn't moved all day. This is very odd as he is usually very active. yesterday night he was floating at the top of the tank, but I could see that he was still alive. How do I know if he died?

Dino

Once the foot, the part he moves on, no longer retracts when you touch it, the snail is dead.

Amanda

The foot is still tight up in the shell. Is he just hiding out?

Butterfly

Mystery snails will sometimes sit for hours at a time in one spot, Then be all over the place. I have five and they do this also. I think they are sleeping
Carol

Amanda

I hope so - I've gotten attached to the little guy!

joy613

You can always take him out and smell him. Dead snails stink!! You probably won't even have to get it up to your face if he is dead.

Amanda

Ok - next day: now he's floating. He'll be open in the water, but when I take him out, he sucks himself back in.

Butterfly

Cool that means he's alive.
Carol

Amanda

I'm really confused my this snail. He hasn't moved in 3 days. When I net him, a lot of stuff will be around him/on him. I took him out today b/c I thought he was dead, I had himm out on the table - he wasn't pulling back in when I touched him. Then I walked out to feed my other animals, came back, touched him & he pulled back in. What is going on with this snail?!?!?! He can't possibly live much longer if he hasn't eaten in 3 days - hasn't even come out of his shell.

voiceless_kat

when I first got snails, one of them was bobbing on the top for 2 days. I thught he was dead ( his trap door was shut) so I threw him away. Dahhhhhhhh several days later I read how they do this bobbing - closed up thing all the time. So basically, I killed him.

Maybe yours is eating at night

Val

Amanda

Now he's just laying at the bottom of the tank hanging out of his shell. When something touches him he kind of twitches but that's about it. I'm never getting a snail again - oh wait! Petsmart gave me a baby snail in the bag accidentaly - so I have ANOTHER snail. That one is fine, what could have hurt the adult one?

jsw

Hi folks,
My wife and I just bought a freshwater tank & love watching the two ivory mystery snails, but a couple of the fish in the tank seem to be gong after them. What fish can't you have with ivory mystery snails?

Alessa

whats wrong with everyones's snails? mines have been doing the same for two weeks almost.. but I touch them and they are still alive

Butterfly

Loaches will nip at and eat snails.
What kind of fish do you have?
Carol

Ghostfish

My fish nip at the snails occassionally. It really annoys them. I have also seen that stuff that sort of oozes out of them. It seems perfectly healthy right now. My snails have recently deposited like 4 clutches of eggs. So if anyone needs mystery snails...

rainman

The stuff that "oozes" out of them (assuming that the stuff you are talking about is a clear jelly-like substance) is excess flem that they use as a defense against the fish that nibble them, which is also used as a protective layer for healing wounds, or adapting to different water chemistries (like when you first buy them and put them in your tank).

Ghostfish

Ah. Good info to know. It was probably being used as a defense. I had a couple angels that nipped at him sometimes.

jsw

Carol,
We have 14 fish in the tank, and only a couple of the same species nip at the snails. I have to go back to the store to find out their names ... but we are going to move those two fish that bother the snails to my wife's tank at school. I'm putting my human sensibilities onto the fish. The fish are just doing what they do. If it was me nipping, I would feel like what the Nobel Prize poet winner Wizlava Symborska said, but the "bad" fish nippers do this:
In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself

The buzzard never says it is to blame.
The panther wouldn’t know what scruples mean.
When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame.
If snakes had hands, they’d claim their hands were clean.

A jackal doesn’t understand remorse.
Lions and lice don’t waver in their course.
Why should they, when they know they’re right?

Though hearts of killer whales may weigh a ton,
In every other way they’re light.

On this third planet of the sun
Among the signs of bestiality
A clear conscience is Number One.