Time to Heal? (Snail with Hole)

DGalt

DGalt

AC Members
Jun 1, 2008
703
0
0
Connecticut
So I posted a little while ago about my apple snail who had somehow gotten a hole in the top part of his shell.

Well...he's still alive. Besides that I haven't seen any progress. However, I'm not too sure what I should be looking for. Is the shell itself going to seal up or will he just create a layer under the hole? All I can see right now is something black inside the hole (I'm assuming that's his body, since his skin is black).

I tried giving him some food in the form of algae wafers and some calcium from Tums. He didn't really seem to care for either. I'm just a bit concerned since I don't actually do anything special to feed the snails. I just assume they pick at the things I put in for the other fish (in particular, the vegetables and algae wafers I put in the tank for the plecos). However, I move the injured snail to another tank (my gf's 6 gallon betta tank) because my albino BN pleco was sucking on the snail where the hole is. Not sure what he was doing...trying to get at the slime coat I would assume. I had to take out the algae wafer and the Tums tablet because they were fowling up the water (since they weren't being touched).

How long should I expect him to take to heal up to a level where I can put him back into my regular tank? I know water temp is probably an important factor - the tank he's in right now is at about 75 F give or take a degree.

Not sure what I should do...

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks :)
 
i would isolate on its own especially not with a betta as it may distress the snail even more by nipping at its tenticals.
 
After putting a betta in with my nerite snail the next morning my snail had a hole in his shell which i assume came from mr betta. So i got mr betta a new home so my snail could heal and after about 3 months he has healed up perfectly i didn't do anything special just made sure i did plenty of water changes. The lesson i learnt from this is betta's eat snails and shrimp he managed to scoff all my glass shrimp too greedy thing.
 
The shell should heal from the inside. The betta may bother him. I use a breeder trap to isolate. The temp is good for heaing. You dont see him eating at all? Any chance you can get a pic of thehelo? thanks
 
I may move him to a small (I think it's like a 1 or 1.5 gallon) tank to get him away from the betta. The smaller tank seems to get colder, though, (around 70 F), which is why I moved him into the 6 gallon (he was originally in the 1.5).

As for the betta being aggressive, I've yet to see anything. I have a betta in my 15 gallon (where the snail originally resided) and I never had any issues. Betta personalities vary so much from one fish to another it's rather difficult to guess how they're going to act until you actually put them in a situation with other creatues. But as I said, the betta in the 6 gallon hasn't even noticed the snail, let alone shown any aggression towards it.

I'll try to get a picture up after work.
 
here's a couple rather poor quality pictures:

Tank011.jpg


Tank012.jpg


His activity level has gone way down...to the point that I'm not sure if he's still alive. I'll move him to the smaller tank when I get home tonight
 
yea...it's actually gotten worse since the original hole formed. seems like smaller pieces keep chipping off the edges where the original hole originally was, making the hole bigger

is it something that has to be patched or will it eventually heal? He can live in the smaller tank for as long as he wants so he won't have to deal with the other fish picking at him
 
Last edited:
I would think a hole like that would benefit from being patched.

edit: hopefully flaringshutter will take a look at this as well and let us know what she thinks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom