kuhlie loach killed in freak accident

fballguy

yum
Feb 27, 2006
1,561
0
0
39
Everett, WA
www.freshwaterfanatics.com
My snail for some reason likes to climb up the front of the glass then let go and fall to the bottom, well this morning I look in the tank, just as the snail does his falling thing again, and he falls right on top of of of my kuhlies. :( I put the kuhlie is QT so he wouldn't be bothered but he died after about an hour.
 
scary! my snails like to do the same thing! But I always thought the other fish would be able to get out of the way fast enough--I never thought about the force of the snail falling. I don't know why snails do this--is yours an apple snail--the ones that get to be really big? Mine are mystery snails which don't get *quite* as big--but I bet they could knock out a slow moving fish.
 
Wow, that's too bad. Poor kuhlii. At least he went pretty quickly and didn't suffer over several days. I'm surprised the kuhli didn't get out of the way, but I imagine the force of the snail was enough to do damage.
 
It's odd that the snail landed with enough force to crush your loach. They glide to the bottom of the tank by releasing the air from their lungs (think of a deflating balloon). I've seen snails drop hundreds of times but never hard enough to hurt a fish. Snails don't weigh much either, especially in water. I think you must have just had a freak accident!
 
That is what I thought--in fact I'd seen bubbles come up from my snails when they'd floated down. In fact I'd thought of asking someone if that was normal--maybe it isn't--but it would make sense to see bubbles if they are releasing air.
 
Yea normally I see those bubbles, but this time I didn't. He fell a faster than usual when he hit the kuhlie. He didn't actually crush it, he still had normal shape, but the kuhlie was swimming normally before that, and could not move after getting hit. He tried to swim using just hit pectoral fins, but just didn't have the strength.
 
AquariaCentral.com