bizzare snail behavior....

[fishcatch22]

for some in inexplicable reason, my trapdoor snail keeps climbing to the surface of my aquarium and tries to get out of the tank.... as far as I know they are fully aquatic and do not breathe air, and my params are perfectly fine. my MTSs, shrimp, and fish are all behaving normally. params are 0/0/5 with a pH of 7.8 (my water gets pretty hard and alkaline this time of year for some reason). the only reasons I can think of are a lack of foodand too high a water temp.... she used to live in my 30G CW, but I decided to move her to my tropical tank since im going for a native theme in my 30G and they are not native snails. I thought that this would be OK since they live in tropical SE asia as well and temperate east asia, and as such should be fine in tropical temps. the water isn't even that warm; its only 74 degrees. I was thinking hunger since they eat mostly glassbound algae and there isn't any im my 10G that I can see, but i've been supplementing her diet with fresh greens, thought im not sure if shes eating them or not, I never see her on them. maybe I should move her back to my 30G where theres plenty of algae to eat and the waters cooler? im realy perplexed about this and id appreciate any advice any snail experts out there can give me.

 

[Flaringshutter]

Well, I can't think of anything. Vivs are definitely fully aquatic - gilled - unlike apple snails, so there shouldn't be any reason they would climb out of the aquarium. Try microwaving the vegetables in a wet paper towel for a few seconds before putting it in the tank. I'm not a viv expert, but I believe they are like brigs in that they only eat dead or decaying plant matter. Perhaps he is going looking for food?
Algae wafers are always a big hit with my snails, too. I always hand-deliver them to each snail to be sure they eat them and don't just foul up my water, but some people just drop a few in the tank and leave it be.
Other than that everything sounds fine. :huh:

 

[fishcatch22]

Well, I can't think of anything. Vivs are definitely fully aquatic - gilled - unlike apple snails, so there shouldn't be any reason they would climb out of the aquarium. Try microwaving the vegetables in a wet paper towel for a few seconds before putting it in the tank. I'm not a viv expert, but I believe they are like brigs in that they only eat dead or decaying plant matter. Perhaps he is going looking for food?
Algae wafers are always a big hit with my snails, too. I always hand-deliver them to each snail to be sure they eat them and don't just foul up my water, but some people just drop a few in the tank and leave it be.
Other than that everything sounds fine. :huh:

the leaves are skeletonized alright, but im not sure if shes the culprit... my amanos have a taste for lettuce too. I don't own a microwave (my mother thinks they're evil XD) and I leave them in there for a while so they do get pretty soft. I do feed algae wafers, but again IDK if my amanos are doing the eating or her since I never see her on them.

 

[Flaringshutter]

It could be the amanos, but that's an awful lot of food for such itty bitty shrimp!
If you don't have a microwave, a good alternative is to just boil up a small pot of water, drop in the veggies for 5-10 seconds, and pull them right out again. It serves the same purpose.

To encourage her to stay in the aquarium, you might try putting a shallow dish of soil (I'd use the soil meant for a substrate for aquarium plants) in the tank. Vivs love to bury themselves in mud. If nothing else she might enjoy it enough to quit climbing out of the tank.