How horrible! My sick apple snail

I woke up this morning and found the little guy completely out of his shell. He didn't move since late Tuesday night. I wanted to give him all day yesterday incase he was just resting. It was horrible. Not only was it sad because hes my favorite but it was just gross looking. I thought that maybe posting here about it would help get the image out of my head. I hope that the clutch that he and my other snail made hatches ok. I would love some of his babies. I had planned to bury him under a pretty bush if he did die but after seeing his body out of his shell, I couldn't go near it and had to have my husband take care of it. I know its frowned upon to flush fish and snails but theres no way I would have been able too look at him again and hubby wouldn't retreive him from the water since he thinks its silly to get upset over a snail. I wonder though if something else was wrong with him. I've seen pictures of apple snails with worse cracks and they have lived. Then again he wasn't eating. I didn't see him eat for about 5 days. How long can an apple snail go without eating?
Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent.

Thanks.

dixienut said:

i have 3 that are playing dead, its been over a week,.. keep smelling the nothing,

changed the water in thank last night and added buffer as i always do to raise the ph a bit , and the "dead one " got up and ran up the glass and said yuck, and then went back down and continued to play dead,.. (?)

but i assume they are getting older and probable are waiting to die,.. only a guess as they are very large ,

at least 2 that i know are the females and were getting tired as they were laying incomplete clutches ,..

still waiting to see if they are going or resting,... i feel your pain,...

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I wish I knew how old mine are. I bought them back in november from the LFS. They were already adults, they have grown a little bit and my male had just reached his sexualy maturity. I know that he was a virgin before jan because his shell was perfect. After that the V was made in his shell and his shell started flaking a bit and then broke.