Mystery snails having problems?

I've got two mystery snails that don't seem to be doing well. For over a week now I've not seen them move much. I've placed them both in one corner of the tank and they stay put.

One keeps laying over on his side and every morning they both have smaller snails all over their shell and the guy on his side has them on the bottom of his trap door closure. I'm also finding egg globs on their shells from the smaller nuisance snails.

I was worried about calcium levels, so I tried adding a fruit tums over the last couple days. Both partially open and seem curious about the tums, but don't seem to ingest any of it. The little nuisance snails are all over them however.

They're certainly not dead, but they don't seem to be living much either. Up until a week or so ago they were both all over the tank. It's a 20 long planted and ammonia nitrites and nitrates are all perfect.

Anyone have any input?

 

What foods do you feed them? The mystery snails I buy sometimes seem dead, but then in a day or two the will be adjusted. What is your pH? Snails can be very sensitive to their water, basically if your water is around 7.6 it should be ok. pH is the acidity of water, and the tap varies from place to place. Is there any fish in the tank that might be bothering them? They might be closed up from other fish pecking / scaring them.

 

Or maybe they are just taking a while to adjust. I am just throwing stuff out there

 

They've been in the tank for a couple months now. Serpaea, albino corys, glo tetras and a few guppies. No one seems to bother them other than the little snails, who have only recently started climbing in them. I feed frozen brine and flake to the fish. Drop shrimp pellets, algae wagers and catfish wafers for the bottom feeders. Ph is steady at 7.3

 

What is the water temperature and do you use a water conditioner that removes metals like copper too?

 

Water is 78. I use ApI stress coat to condition, flourish and flourish excel. It can't be copper because I have a few ghost shrimp that are doing fine.

Shells are almost a dark brown stripped pattern, and recently started showing off white around the bottom edge. This made me think possibly a calcium deficiency.

 

My snail had recently taken ill, due to an unforeseen reaction to Melafix and Pimafix. He has a serious shell deformity from mating that I was sure would have claimed his life as it did his girlfriend. My third mystery snail had recently died from a collapsed lung. This was all after using Melafix and Pimafix, actually.

Water changes and the removal of the medicine did nothing for any of them. Water parameters were fine. Nothing changed, until earlier this week.

I did two things for my last surviving snail...................................

I began to "spoon feed" my snail. On the occasions when he would come to the waterline, I would give him a small piece of food. He completely ignored fresh vegetables, so I gave him a bit of tubifex worms. Dear gods, he loves tubifex worms, as well as this high-quality brine shrimp flake from my LFS. I ended up buying some long feeder tongs to make it easier to put the food directly by his mouth. He wouldn't eat any other food, except for these.

I bought a calcium and magnesium block from the LFS. It was intended for turtles, but instead of dissolving the entire thing in the tank, I broke off a tiny piece. I never saw him go after it.

I combined them..........................................

I began to gently rub the tubifex worms on the calcium block before feeding. He gobbled up the first bleb, but shunned the rest. I don't think he liked the taste. Failure.

I resumed feeding with the tongs...............................

He became more energetic, and would come to the top of the aquarium whenever I'd feed my other critters. I always feed my critters their various foods in the same order so that they can establish a routine. Here he was, about half an hour ago. (Thanksgiving guarantees an extra treat.)

He was feeling so great, this morning, that he pulled up half of my pygmy sword chains! @_@ Argh!

...................................

If your snails become ill, they are like you or I. They don't feel like going out and getting food. Hunger further weakens them, and whatever was bothering them in the beginning overwhelms and subsequently kills. (Based on my limited observations.)

Gently holding food by their mouths helps them. They will move slightly to feed, growing more ravenous as the days go by.

I do not know rightly what is wrong with your snails, so this is BY NO MEANS a guarantee of success. However, after losing two snails and seemingly saving my third, this is the best advice I can offer.

My snail still has a major shell deformity, but it doesn't seem to be having an effect on him, presently. My attempts at a shell patch failed miserably and just terrified my snail.

UGH! I ALMOST FORGOT! For the sake of this "experiment", I must include that I added a piece of mopanI wood and a small bit of Indian almond leaf to the tank. Neither has had any measurable effect upon my pH. I mostly got them for my tetras. I dare say it is a coincidence that the tannins are aiding the snail, because he remained sickly and lethargic until I began the direct-feedings. In fact, the addition of calcium was because I was worried that the tannic acid could erode his shell. (This was employed as a preventative measure that was not necessary, at least with regards to the ambient pH of the tank; the calcium added did not change this value.) ALSOOOOOOOO, snails are basically pure protein, wrapped in a tidy calcium wrapper. This is why gastropods are so delicious! While they do eat high-quality algae wafers and sometimes blanched vegetables, from my observations they also enjoy raw protein.

SO, IN SUMMARY, get your snails some food and vitamins, and spoon-feed them until they are strong enough to move around to the wafers you drop down for them. If they continue to come to the surface for feedings, indulge your little invertebrate puppy!

 

The copper content in the water killed our snails

 

That sucks. I am so sorry for your loss!