Is a dead snail helpful?

So I'm like 99% sure this nerite snail died, it doesn't smell *horrible* but close to my nose it's fishy. But the fleshy part is hard as rock. He hasn't moved for 3 days. I kept finding him flipped upside down and he's HUGE so I think he's just old. But my question is, should I leave it in the tank? Weird, I know, but isn't the shell calcium, and would slowly release calcium for my other snails as it degrades?

 

Welp, I kept poking it's hard little body and I'm pretty sure the darn thing moved! So he's back in the tank now. But for future reference you can still answer the question! thanks xD

 

If you want to put the shell in the tank, put it outside first for a couple of weeks and let the ants and flies clean the dead animal out of it for you. Don't leave a decaying snail in your tank ew ew ewwwww

 

Well, I have ramshorn, I don't feed them because there is plenty of decaying plant matter/algae ect. but sometimes they die, and I rarely remove them from the tank because they are pretty small, the tank is super understocked (just a bunch of tiny and a few adult ramhorns, and one betta) and the baby snails do the work well, the shell is super clean is a few days, and the parameters stay exactly the same, no spikes of anything or change in general. It's well planted btw, with a sponge filter.

That tank is so clean (parameter wise, but I still have dead leaves and hair algae on the plants) I can let nature tank it's course without having to worry. In those kinds of tanks setup in a similar way, you can usually let it.

 

Well, that 1 percent became true!!! xd

 

Well, I have ramshorn, I don't feed them because there is plenty of decaying plant matter/algae ect. but sometimes they die, and I rarely remove them from the tank because they are pretty small, the tank is super understocked (just a bunch of tiny and a few adult ramhorns, and one betta) and the baby snails do the work well, the shell is super clean is a few days, and the parameters stay exactly the same, no spikes of anything or change in general. It's well planted btw, with a sponge filter.

That tank is so clean (parameter wise, but I still have dead leaves and hair algae on the plants) I can let nature tank it's course without having to worry. In those kinds of tanks setup in a similar way, you can usually let it.

True...a 1/2" ramshorn dying in a large amount of water is NBD. I'd still remove it if I saw it was dead tho.

 

Haha, it still hasn’t moved from that one spot in the tank though. Been 5 days now I think?

 

I had a nerite that died the other day. First, my assassin snails both went to the corpse and forced their way passed the trapdoor. After both ate their fill there was still a chunck of mussel left. This chunck was feasted upon by the shrimp colony for hours. Eventually the mussel may loosen enough that the shrimp will be able to remove the trapdoor. My assassins were only able to do this on the second day the snail was dead. During this time the shrimp tried multiple times to get to the meat inside but couldn’t. The snail shut itself in when it died.

 

Not sure if true but I heard that snails don't sleep daily like our fish, often they'll be active for a few days then sleep for a few days. So if it doesn't move for a few days it's probably best not to just assume that it's dead and throw it in the bin.

 

Snail is officially dead! See I knew it was dying! It still hadn't moved so I decided to check again and OH MY the smell! And the hard part covering the hole fell right off. So I wasn't completely wrong, just a little early in calling the death time haha.

 

I wouldn't leave my dead snails in the tank... but then again my mystery snail is quite large hilarious They can actually produce a significant amount of ammonia and quite a nasty snail, so just be careful if you have other creatures in there.