How to wake up a sleeping mystery snail :)

[joannde]

My nitrates never go above 20ppm and are usually in the 10ppm range even just before a water change, so I know its not the tank parameters that have the snails just lazing around, but I've noticed that they all come to life after a water change. Since I match the temp within 1 degree it can't be the temperature change either.
Maybe THAT'S why they call them "mystery" snails - its a mystery to me why they all "wake up" after a PWC.

 

[plecoperson]

Mine do too-OH, the mating and egg-laying and general cruising around with antennae waving.....I dunno!! I just give them their weekly 40% and let 'em have at it....

 

[joannde]

Surprisingly I haven't had any egglaying ... I'm pretty sure I've seen mating ... or they could just be hitching rides (the funniest is when one hangs onto another during a float)

 

[hc8719]

i ramshorn would stay in his shell for an hour after being nudged or anything

considering he's on the bottom of the food chain, i'd be scarred too

unfortuantly i found him sucked into the filter intake this morning, he didnt make it... (i had taken the thing that prevents fish getting sucked up, because my clawed frog was too big, and so was the snail...shell

if you dont understand it yet, snail got sucked up, shell didnt

 

[joannde]

ewwwwwwwwwwwwww .... not pretty. actually, the snail was probably dead already - the muscle that holds a snail into its shell is very strong but once the snail dies they come out pretty easily

 

[JeffreyL]

snail

Could be a lot of things, Joannde. Some fish react to very minor water changes. A small change can stimulate spawning, making the fish think it is a change in season. Or after a heavy rain, if they spawn in flooded shallows. Many of mine simply like (I think) to swim in the current I pour in. *G* Or in the case of your snail, perhaps he thinks it is now nite and time to scavenge. Or possibly you have somehow trained him that food shows up with a PWC. If our Bruce can be trained, anything with a couple of brain cells can. LOL Like 'why is the sky blue and the grass green', it is just one of the many mysteries of life. Oh, wait. I know those two!!

 

[joannde]

Hm, I like the nighttime theory since the light is off during the water changes. But when they wake up they stay active for several hours afterward. Its not the food thing since the tank is bottomless so there's nothing being kicked up from the non-existant substrate.
It COULD be the current change - I like that theory alot too.
I really get a kick out of all the antenna waving, siphon peaking, and general walk-abouts ... who would have thought that snails could be FUN ! ?

 

[JeffreyL]

snails

I think you have trained them to 'entertain the mistress'. Perhaps it time to reward their behavior. Now what the heck would a reward be for a snail??