Mystery Of Dead Mystery Snail

Hi. I've got a question.

See, I've bought some mystery snails, have them for two weeks now. They are young, still tiny and very active. Two days ago one of them disappeared. I looked for it, didn't find it. I thought, maybe it managed to crawl out through opening for cables. I looked for it around the aquarium, didn't find it.

Today evening I did find it. Turns out, it got stuck between glass and a rock. Took it out. Snail wasn't smelling but it's foot would not retract on touch and was... loose. Other than that, no visible damage. What's more, another snail pretty much tried to eat it. I have put it in separate container, so it has fighting chance but I don't think it's alive anymore.

My question here is: what exactly killed it? Water parameters are fine. Tank is cycled. It ate fresh carrot evening before disappearance. So it can't be water quality nor hunger. Any ideas?

 

HI there and welcome to Fishlore!

The snail getting stuck between the glass and the rock is what probably killed it. When scaping your aquarium make sure animals cannot get stuck in any crevices that may exist.

 

Thank you, it's nice to meet you!

It's too late to do such things now but in the morning I'll take leftover gravel and get rid of that crevice. To be honest, when I scaped my tank it didn't look like anything could possibly squeeze in there. Way to prove me wrong.
So, just to make sure I'm interpreting you correctly, snail died because it was stressed out from being stuck? I'm sorry if I'm being stupid here but I'm absolute novice to snail- and fishkeeping and... well, you know.

 

I had one die after a week or so, not sure why...I still have 2 left, but sometimes they do get stuck from what I've read, keep an eye on them and maybe flip them over if they look stuck?

 

Mystery snails have a lung and need to go to the top periodically to get air. He probably drowned.

 

Oh, wow. I didn't know they can drown. That's probably it, thank you!

 

Mystery snails like most aquatic snails have both lungs and gills, so they cannot drown. But getting stuck in a crevice could have put it in a position to get picked on. Do you have other tank inhabitants? My bettas really enjoy killing snails, so I keep them with zebra nerite snails, because they cannot get under the shell. Sometimes baby snails are just very sensitive and die or are not fed well at the store. These things just happen. I have a friend who is an amazing fish keeper but for the life of her cannot keep nerite snails alive.

 

Well, I have a small plecko, one zebra nerite and a male betta but after experience with pest bladder snails I knew he does not kill snails, even if they were to fit in his mouth. Sometimes he decides to nip at the antennae but other than that, he doesn't care about them and snails don't seem to fear him.

 

If they do kill a snail or is by biting it's antenna and then continually nipping at it and pulling out chunks. Sorry that it's so graphic. One of my female bettas took about 1 month to figure out that it's the soft part she needs to nip on. Does the snail look like it has a chunk missing? Bettas do love eating mistery snails because of their huge antennae and big exposed fleshy parts

 

It might not be your betta, but my betta tanks are the only ones that I never have larger snail colonies in. And one of my females has killed snails larger than her before

 

It looked like head was retracted in shell in the moment of death. Can't exactly check for sure now, snail started smelling, so I threw it away. The other two don't seem to be under attack though and you would think that would be the case if betta figured it out.

 

From Black Mystery Snail

The Black Mystery Snail will tolerate quite a broad pH range and will do well as long as the pH is kept between 6.5 and 8.0. The KH should be in the 12-18 range and the water temperature from 68 to 85° F. As mentioned above, the Black Mystery Snail needs to breath oxygen from the air and will drown if prevented from this. You should therefore leave at least 2 inches of open air space between the water's surface and any aquarium lid.

They can stay submerged for a long time but will die if they are prevented from reaching the surface periodically. They wouldn't have that siphon/snorkel if they didn't need it.

My Betta is fine with my Mystery snail. He never attacks it but he does follow it around when the snail is searching for food. When the snail finds food in the form of a shrimp pellet or piece of Pleco wafer, the Betta tries to steal it. He uses the snail like a bloodhound.

 

Snails have lungs in addition to gills because often they live in hot mucky water with almost no dissolved oxygen and insane amounts of ammonia. In that case they need the extra oxygen from outside but not in a well airated aquarium

 

But if I'm just wrong and you have a scientific source I would be happy to be corrected. I couldn't find any reliable source.

 

But if I'm just wrong and you have a scientific source I would be happy to be corrected. I couldn't find any reliable source.

My source is not reliable? Not all snails have a lung from what I have read. My tank is well aerated and my Mystery still goes to the top a few times a day. I can see him breathing when he's up there.