Mystery Snail Care/sickness Guide

I realize this thread is old…but I just want to say thank you! I’ve been worried about my snail for the past few days but didn’t know what to do. I followed your advice and floated him (or her?!) into a small Tupperware in the tank…within less than a minute he was sticking his snorkel out and taking a breath! Poor guy has been on and off laying upside down in the plants for a few days! I hope his swelling goes down and he gets back to snailin’ around soon.

 

I have an Ivory Mystery Snail in a 5 gal. with three male guppies and two ghost shrimp, I feed them fish flakes (specifically Tetra goldfish flakes but they get other kinds of food so is that ok?), homemade gel food (ingredients: cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, peas, red bell pepper, paprika and salmon) along with occasional supplements of Tetra Weekend feeding blocks (ingredients: too many to list but no copper anywhere on the list) if I'm going somewhere, is this a good diet for my mystery snail? Everyone seems to love all the food but I'm not quite sure if that's a good diet, I also don't know if my snail is getting any of the food, I've had him for about 4 days now but he seems rather healthy. He's very active, and has long flowing antennae the guppies thankfully ignore, thank you in advance for your help!

 

Hey Pringlethesnail, thanks for doing this!

Are Mystery snails particularly delicate compared to other snails? I have Rams Horns, Pond and Nerites that all do fine, but on the 2 occassions that I put mystery snails in my tanks, they never even move and are dead within a few days. I've tried just dropping them in and I've tried acclimating them. I've stopped buying them.

pH 7.5-8 depending on the tank
KH 5 in two tanks 12 in another
GH 4 in two tanks 12 in another

 

I've been having similar issues with mystery snails. I still have one that I raised from about dime-sized and he's huge now, had him for only about 3 months. I bought another snail with him and she just passed away today. Before BOTH of them, I had tried three other snails that got rather large but never made it past 4 to 6 months. I figured one of them must have been older already (huge when I bought him), but the other two confused me. I had hoped to get a year out of them, at least, and instead I'm on my fifth snail and four of them have already died.

They definitely eat and grow, and their shells are in great shape. KH 10, GH used to be 10 but my municipal water switched wells this season (one of the wells in town has almost 0 calcium), so I supplement with cuttlebone and wondershells to get GH to stick around a stable 5 to 6. I'm at a loss.

 

Poor little guy! Very very swollen. This could be really bad water quality, a chemical in the water the snail is reacting to, or trauma like falling out of the tank or having a rock fall on him. Change the water if it is a water problem, either way you should put him in a container floating in the tank with only enough water to cover him. Lay him in his side, spiral side down so that the breathing tube is right below the surface.

Is this just to make the snail more comfortable while he inevitably dieing? My Gold Inca has a swollen foot and has barely moved for 3 - 4 days. I think it is due to a drastic PH change after I added cuttlebone and eggshell powder to increase calcium. I have done two 40% water changes, but I'm afraid I've made him too sick to recover. I am broken hearted! Gary is my first snail.

 

Is this just to make the snail more comfortable while he inevitably dieing? My Gold Inca has a swollen foot and has barely moved for 3 - 4 days. I think it is due to a drastic PH change after I added cuttlebone and eggshell powder to increase calcium. I have done two 40% water changes, but I'm afraid I've made him too sick to recover. I am broken hearted! Gary is my first snail.

It's so the snail doesn't have to exert as much energy and has a better chance of recovery. Was wondering how much the ph changed eggshells and cuttlebone usually buffer pH slowly. Have you tested the water they can be more sensitive to water parameters.

 

It's so the snail doesn't have to exert as much energy and has a better chance of recovery. Was wondering how much the ph changed eggshells and cuttlebone usually buffer pH slowly. Have you tested the water they can be more sensitive to water parameters.

I put Gary in a small plastic container with just enough water to cover his shell and floated him on the surface of his tank water. He immediately became active, sticking his little snorkel out to breathe and extending his foot to suck onto the side of the container. I did another partial water change and after about an hour, while adding small amounts of tank water to Gary's little sick bay, the water parameters were back to normal, with a PH of about 7.5 as opposed to well over 8. I am happy to say that Gary is back in his aquarium, actively cruising around and eating! I was trying to increase the water hardness and add needed calcium to my tap water by adding the cuttlebone & eggshell powder, but Gary was doing great and had no signs of shell deterioration. I am learning that if nothing seems wrong, don't try to fix it! So happy to have my Gary back!