interesting snail behavior

fishcatch22

fishcatch22

The Picotoper
Jun 13, 2006
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Morris, Illinois
okay, so I went to petco yesterday, and picked up a ramshorn snail for tank, since they were on sale, and I though, "eh, why not?" well, I bought him and took him home and I floated him for a bit, then plopped him in, and he started crawling around, you know, doing snaily things. then, out of nowhere, he started digging into the gravel. now this was very odd to me, as it has never been mentioned to me that RHS are burrowers. and you know what? after he got about 2 inches down, he popped back up, with an old, decaying algae disc my pleco had buried a long time ago! he then proceeded to eat it. wow, they must have a very good sense of smell! have you seen your snails doing similar things?
 
anyone? i'm asking a question.
 
Ah those lovely snails

I am no expert, but from my experiences with my apple snail they seem to have an excellent sense of "smell" or more accurately taste. Sailor moon (that's my snail's name) reacts within seconds of me placing food in his tank. He will go from having his trapdoor almost completely shut to tentacles waving wildly about "speeding" towards his food. He can be quite entertaining, which is something I never thought I would say about a snail.
As for the digging, I really can't say if that is or isn't normal. Sailor Moon has his own tank and none of the food stays around long enough to get buried. I'm sure, however, if he was hungry and knew there was food under the gravel he would go digging.
I've been told that snails are essentially a giant tongue because the surface of their foot is covered with snail taste buds which would explain their sensitivity.
 
yeah. I feed mine veggie fish flakes, and I just put it right in front of him, and he engulfs 3-4 of them in 2 seconds flat. he's one hungry little bugger.
 
Fishcatch,

my golden apple did bury hiself the first time I got him..but he stayed that way for like 4 to 5 hours, so much so i started to get worried.
but he soon perked up and started cleanning up the glass and stuff.
 
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