Possible Second Casualty

A

aklaum

AC Members
Dec 31, 2005
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Hasn't been a good week with the tank. This morning we came down to find the mystery snail stuck to the intake of the filter (Aqua-Clear 50). This had happened before and we turned off the filter and removed him. This time though a significant portion of his body was sucked through the slats and into the tube including a long clear portion that I had never seen before. All in all about 2 inches of snail were sucked up into the tube. Pretty grim. I turned off the filter and he sucked most of himself back into the shell. Now he is laying on his side kind of part way out of his shell. He is moving but I think he's in a bad way. Anything I should do or just hope for the best?

Also is there anything I can do to the filter intake to prevent this from happening again?

I know the snails and shrimp are kind of the cheap secondary critters in a tank, but their cost means nothing to my 7 year old and the snail is one of the things he was most excited about. Plus to me a living critter is a living critter regardless of what price tag the LFS slaps on it. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Well thats rather unfortunate about the snail, I assume its a largeish snail (ala apple snails?). I have quite a few small snails in my tanks, but its the part that I manage the least of all. If your son will grow very attached to that one snail or one shrimp, just realize that they arent the longest lived. What I like about my snails is that they're malaysian so they have a pointed screw-like shell. They're attractive along my substrate and they reproduce without any thought to habitat.

I also know that snails are very resilient so it makes me think your snail will bounce back yet, although his injuries may be severe. I was rounding up a bunch of snails from my tank to cull the numbers and seed my friends tank with them. I used a clear pop bottle and cucumber. At about 3 am I turned the tank lights on and found a huddled mass of snails on the cucumber. After wrangling them all up, I put the cap on the bottle and let it sit for a whole day until my friend would take them. When I brought them to him, it looked as if the cucumber had fermented and killed the snails. We thought the shells were cool enough to put the corpses into the tank. The next day, the place we had dumped the snails had up and walked away. I was SURE they were dead.
 
You could buy a sponge filter and cut out the middle until it covers the intake slots. This will prevent the snail from getting sucked out of the shell, but still let the water filter.

Only downside is bigger particles stick to it so it needs to be washed sometimes.

But an upside is I believe it gives more room for benefical bacteria to grow.
 
Thanks for the glimmer of hope Isthan and for the idea IceH20. I think I may try the sponge filter idea if it doesn't cut back on the efficiency of the filter too badly.

I'm giving him until this evening. I have not seen any movement at all in the past few hours. They Platys are showing an...umm...unnatural interest in the snail now. I think perhaps they know something I don't.

My son is very understanding and we have been over the whole circle of life thing before. It just kind of sux that we had a perfectly healthy snail that got eviscerated by the filter. I felt really bad, it must have suffered from the looks of it.
 
I actually had the same thing happen with one of my Mystery snails a few weeks ago. Quite a large portion of his body was through the slats of the intake tube. I turned the filter off but he didn't pull himself out. I actually had to remove the tube and bump him off. It was an Aqua clear 110. He laid motionless for 3 days and then he started moving around. You may want to give it a little longer than just tonight. I picked mine up every day and gave him a sniff to make sure he was still alive.

I also picked up a small sponge and now have the intake covered. He just cruises right over the sponge now.
 
Boohoo I'm glad I read your post. Not 10 minutes ago we had wrapped him in a plastic bag and given him a burial via the basement garbage. After reading your post I pulled him back out and gave him a sniff. No bad odor. I dropped him back in the tank and am going to give him as long as he still smells good.

I was hoping that being very simple creatures they would have some pretty hefty regenertive powers. Sounds like they may based on your experience. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
Signs of life!!

When I put the snail back in the tank it kind of fell open. The fish and the shrimp had been molesting it pretty bad which was one of the reasons I ruled it dead before.

Well one of the Gouramis decided to get a nip of some snail and low and behold the snail snapped shut! Not quickly mind you but enough to deter the Gourami.

So I put the snail inside a small glass baby bottle with some nylon stocking around the mouth and submerged it back in the tank. I figure it will give him some time to heal unmolested. Hope this wasn't a bad idea.
 
That sounds like a pretty good idea, since the others were picking on him. Glad that he pulled himself in, at least he is able to. Hope things turn out good, keep us posted.
 
The snail gave in to his fate. Pulled him out this morning and he had quite a stench about him. Off to snail heaven for the second time. Thanks for your help everyone.
 
The sponge filter idea is great, but if you want another idea/ temperary solution you could put nylon stocking or fine netting over the filter intake.
 
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