Is my rabbit snail dying (or dead)?

It kind of looks like my snail is coming out of its shell.

A couple of days ago it was like this, and I thought it was a film on part of the snail's shell, and wondered if it was babies or something. But then I googled around and it doesn't look like other rabbit snails with babies.



It was a few days like this that I've noticed that it does move around a bit, but seems to always end up on its back, and I am not sure if it is there because it got stuck and doesn't have the strength to turn over, or if it is choosing to be like this for some reason. I did try to turn it sometimes but it always ended back on its back.

I changed some of the water. After that it retreated more into its shell - but not fully... kinda sticking out, foot scrunched up:





Yesterday it seems a bit more retreated (but I have seen it move, and also it was in a slightly different part of the tank - but it was hard to get a good picture because of the position.

Today it is like this..




There is another snail (also a rabbit snail) in the tank and that one is doing fine, climbing all over the glass, etc. I confess to being a very hands-off snail parent. I inherited them from a friend and they are both about 5 years old. Guess I just need to know whether to wait it out with this one, do something, or remove it from the tank asap.

Thanks for any help!

 

Rabbit snails are weird. They do strange things. Put a algae wafer in and see what he does. They will stay in a position for a long time. Mine sat for over a day with just his head sticking out of the sand. He will smell super bad if he's dead.

 

I put in an algae wafer last night, although it didn't land that close to that snail :/ I'll move it over a bit.

 

My rabbit snails lay on their "back" sometimes 2-3 days at a time almost. I wouldn't worry just yet.

 

Thank you both, this has been a little reassuring! I do know that if the little black thing falls off then it's a sign they died... I'll try to check later and see if I can see if that is there for sure or not.

It was only after I learnt that a year or so ago that I began to wonder if we'd misdiagnosed a snail as dead before that - a friend was house/snail-sitting and mentioned that one of the snails wasn't normal (I forget the details) and the then-owner of the snails had told the friend to get it out the tank quickly as if it was dead it'd pollute the water for everything else (there were also tetras at the time).

So now I do worry about declaring a snail dead too early or too late

 

Soo... just thought I'd update. It's been a week. Snail moved position in the tank but I think more from being jostled by the active snail. It ended more inside the shell, but I think that was to do with the body shrinking? Getting jostled more inside?

The black circle thing didn't end up falling off... the last snail that died, it had?

I ended up taking the snail out today... it smelt fishy, but not awful? Didn't move at all. I didn't try sniffing the alive snail for a comparison...

But anyway, no motion at all, no little feelers moving around. Quite squished in on itself... I gently used some tissue to pull it out of the shell... no reaction at all. Sooo... I guess it was dead. I'm not mistaken, right? (Too late if I am, but feel free to reassure me - I'm so scared someone is going to tell me it was still alive and I murdered it though... )

Goodbye... you lived long little guy. (I lost track of their names once they all got really big and around the same size...)

Did a fair amount of water change in case there'd been pollution in the tank if that snail had been dead or dying these past few days. But the active snail still seems right as rain, going all over the place. Climbing the walls and falling off again. Getting a back massage by going near the filter. He's alone now... I'd hoped I'd end up with babies from these ones before they died off, but I guess it's not to be.

 

Soo... just thought I'd update. It's been a week. Snail moved position in the tank but I think more from being jostled by the active snail. It ended more inside the shell, but I think that was to do with the body shrinking? Getting jostled more inside?

The black circle thing didn't end up falling off... the last snail that died, it had?

I ended up taking the snail out today... it smelt fishy, but not awful? Didn't move at all. I didn't try sniffing the alive snail for a comparison...

But anyway, no motion at all, no little feelers moving around. Quite squished in on itself... I gently used some tissue to pull it out of the shell... no reaction at all. Sooo... I guess it was dead. I'm not mistaken, right? (Too late if I am, but feel free to reassure me - I'm so scared someone is going to tell me it was still alive and I murdered it though... )

Goodbye... you lived long little guy. (I lost track of their names once they all got really big and around the same size...)

Did a fair amount of water change in case there'd been pollution in the tank if that snail had been dead or dying these past few days. But the active snail still seems right as rain, going all over the place. Climbing the walls and falling off again. Getting a back massage by going near the filter. He's alone now... I'd hoped I'd end up with babies from these ones before they died off, but I guess it's not to be.

You didn’t murder him, you did everything you could. Sometimes snails aren’t in the best condition when purchased. Unfortunately most people consider snails pests or unimportant and they are mistreated in fish stores so when we get them they are already at a disadvantage

 

You didn’t murder him, you did everything you could. Sometimes snails aren’t in the best condition when purchased. Unfortunately most people consider snails pests or unimportant and they are mistreated in fish stores so when we get them they are already at a disadvantage

Hehe, thanks. This one was about 5 years old (apparently old for a rabbit snail) and was born in my tank. Lived a long life, so I don't feel awful about it. Just don't want to have misdiagnosed him in my ignorance - but fairly certain it was dead.

I think it is pretty clear it was dead, seeing as it was kind of falling out of the shell at points, and then was just lying on its back, and later kind of shrunk and was easy to take out the shell. The only thing is the smell was not *that* strong. Maybe I am just not sensitive to it. It may have been in there dead for a while so I hope my other snail does okay.