Help! Attack of the antenna-eating Betta!

[Kaiyah]

Help! Attack of the antenna-eating Betta! (Poor snail!)

Oh, I feel so bad. It's been three days now and my Betta, 2 dwarf frogs and snail have been cohabiting just fine.
After doing a bit more reading about bettas and filters, I adapted mine a bit so the "waterfall" isn't quite as strong and now Darby can swim around without getting swept away and seems very happy and curious now.

Anyway, my mystery snail was happily cleaning the tank, minding his own business when he decided to clean the heater in the back of the tank (Darby's favorite place to hang out, I might add). His antenna were out and suddenly Darby took a keen interest in those waving appendages. Before I could do anything to try to stop him (aside from a useless "don't you dare..."), Darby struck the snail, snapping off the antenna with a sickening snap!
The poor little guy fell down to the gravel, but shortly after, he was crawling again and climbed near the top of the water behind the filter intake. I was watching him closely and it looks like his shell may be missing a small chunk near the aperture and he has some sort of round... hard looking oval-ly thing on the top of his foot now below the shell. I thought maybe this is something that used to attach the foot to the shell- but I can't remember if he had it before or not...
Anyway, he lost his grip and took another ride down to the gravel and sat there for a bit, Darby still keeping an eye on him.
I thought since the antenna looked so much like a blood worm (something he got PLENTY of this morning) it was a simple case of mistaken identity. But when he took another curious nip of the snail's foot when it came out, I knew I couldn't leave him in there.

So I put the poor little guy in a cup of his own and put him in a dark room where he won't be accosted. Now I don't know what to do! Should I worry about my frogs? Is there anything I can do to help my poor little snail? Should I be as worried as I am? I feel so bad, I'm starting to think I should have gone with guppies.

 

[jm1212]

bettas are knwon to eat inverts such as shrimp. he mightve mistaken the antenna as a blood worm as you suggested, just as some bettas mistake male guppies and toher live bearers for other bettas because of their colors.

 

[Kaiyah]

Will the antenna grow back? Should I add some sea salt to the snail's cup?
Do you have any idea whether the hard-looking ovally thing might be the "door" that they seal themselves in with? I noticed when I plucked him out of there that it seemed to be the same color.

I never noticed him taking an interest in the snail before. Do you think it was some sort of territorial thing? I thought lots of people had snails with their Betta, I never expected this!

Edit: I did some research and it seems the oval-thing may be the "operculum" or the shell's "door". Strange that I've never noticed it before... is it normal to be able to see it when the snail is out?

 

[kuhliloach]

the shrimp will win the battle!

 

[Kaiyah]

Well, it's now been a day and Darby has a home of his very own. Yes, I'm such a softy, I couldn't stand the thought of my snail and froggies being harassed by my betta, so I spent another handful of cash and got an eclipse system 3 for him that sits right next to my computer. Little bugger spends all day displaying at his reflection on the sides of the tank and following me around to beg for food.

Little Bento (which I named my snail after this occurrence) seems to be doing much better, although he is quite shy now. Here's hoping that he'll continue to recover just fine and has learned a valuable lesson. I finally found a tiny bit of information thanks to google and learned that they are pretty quick healers and the antenna should grow back.

This is turning out to be a more expensive hobby than I thought!

 

[Kyohti]

Good thing you did that. If Darby decided he liked the taste of escargots, your little snail might've been in for some serious trouble!!

 

[Kaiyah]

Lol! I know, I think he'd already decided that pale pink flesh was pretty tasty. He was certainly overly interested in poor Bento after that. When he started eyeballing the froggie's little toes, I thought that was enough.

Since you posted Kyohti, and I know you own bettas, is it normal for Darby to be so enamored of his reflection? He swims frantically up and down sometimes, watching himself. I get so frustrated for him that sometimes I just turn the light off to give him a break. Is that normal?

 

[Flaringshutter]

Applesnail.net is a GREAT source of information. Head on over to the website. You can find their forum in the "Discussions" section too.

As a bytheway, definitely DO NOT add sea salt to his cup!

 

[Kaiyah]

Thanks flaringshutter, I did check out applesnail.net, but I didn't realize they have a forum. Thanks for the advice.
On a happy note though, Bento has since gone back to his original tank and seems to be coming out of his shell, so to speak. I just did my first tank cleaning and he was in snail heaven thanks to all the debris floating around. His antenna seems to be growing back already. Or maybe Darby didn't get the whole thing...