"Mystery" mystery snail deaths

Sometimes they might eat each other. Happened to my friend's snail. His other snails teamed up on it and ate it!

How big is the Pleco and Goldfish? If they darted at one point, they might have hit the snail or ran into it.

Do you use ferts? Have you treated with meds lately? what is your nitrate reading, you said your last water change was a month ago, sometimes inverts are more sensitive to nitrates. Regardless, sorry to hear about your snails. Are they doing okay now that they are in different tanks?

Hi kj5kb,

Sorry to hear about your snails. Do you know what your nitrates are in the tank? That would be my first guess as to what happened to them. But if you have any left that look like they can't right themselves or seem too heavy to turn themselves over and crawl, try taking them out and putting them in a container with fresh dechlorinated water just enough to cover their shells and leave them for a while. Try to make the temp close to what it is in the tank. You might have to do this a couple times to get the nitrate poisoning out of them if that is the case. I hope this helps save the ones you have left. You can also put them on a damp paper towel for about 10 minutes and see if that helps but most of the time the dechlorinated water in a container works better I think.

Another thing can be injury from the goldfish knocking them off the glass but I don't think it would affect all of them that fast. I have a feeling that after the big snail died either the goldfish or the pleco ate it as that is a common occurance.

This happened to someone else before so I checked on applesnail.net as to why the snail couldn't seem to right itself and was told that it is a common occurance due to ammonia/nitrite poisoning, nitrate poisoning, other poisoning, tankmates harrassing the snail, and a few other reasons but I really do think it is come kind of poisoning since it is affecting all of them and not just one or two.

I had 3 smaller fancy goldfish in my 40 gallon tank with my snails and never had a problem although I did partial water changes twice a week and had two big aquaclear filters on the tank since goldfish are "piggies" lol. From having had goldfish I wonder if doing partial water changes once a month is going to be enough to keep your nitrates in the safe range for snails.

I hope this helps to figure out what happened to them.

Barb

I always battled nitrates when I had my goldfish and snails in my 40 gallon that is why I did so many water changes. Good filtration keeps nitrites and ammonia in check but water changes are the only way to get rid of nitrates I think. If it is nitrates at least you know what it was that did this and you won't lose any more snails.

Goldfish, pleco's, and snails are all big ummm...poopers so I am betting on it being a nitrate problem. But I don't use any ferts except Leaf Zone and the ones you put in the substrate (can't remember what they are called at the moment) so I really don't know a whole lot about them.

I am sure now that the snails are in different water they will be fine.

Good Luck!


Barb

You don't want your nitrAtes to be at zero. But you do want them below 20ppm. A nitrate reading of zero would inditicate a tank that hasnt yet been cycled. As far as the snails go... they are more sensitive to water problems like ammonia ect... you might check the date on your test kit. If it is over a year old, then you should get a new one. I have Aquarium Pharmecuticals test kit and it tests for nitrates.

Anyway... loss just after shipment and high stress really isn't that uncommon. It happens. But snails don't attack each other as one poster said. They will eat the remains of a dead snail though. If you didn't already know... you do need to feed your snails veggies and such. They can't just live on the leftover fish food if you want them to be healthy. Although I doubt that yours starved. It was more likely a stress or water related issue. Oh, and if you have ever used any copper medicines in the tank, it may be causing your problem as snails are more related to parasites than they are fish and those medicines are harmful to them.