What happened to the snail?

[Ozma]

I have a planted tank with a few guppies in it and one fairly big snail. Don't know what kind of snail - I got him out of someone's planted tank because he was very cute and active. I did a partial water change this afternoon and a light vacuum of the gravel and noticed he was around then.....but now I noticed his shell is empty. I don't see him anywhere. Is he lurking around, and if so...with a new shell, or shell-less? I couldn't have vacuumed him out of his shell, could I?

 

[tetra_girl]

Are you sure he's not in his shell?

Sometimes they will curl up in their shell and hole up for a few days or so and be completely inactive.

I've heard that if after 4-5 days of 'inactivity', the sure way to tell if they're dead is by scooping them up and giving them a good smell. If it smells to high heavens, it's dead (supposedly dead snails just reak).

Here is a good snail site on care, Q&A etc (maybe you can id your little guy too).http://www.applesnail.net

I'm sure you didn't suck the little guy up.

 

[Ozma]

Wow - thanks for the web site! Of course he was in there all the time with his door closed (don't I feel like a dufus!). I think I scared him with the gravel cleaning and now he is out and about and happily munching away.