Snail dead or alive?

[MoonCat]

Hello!
I have a 10 gallon tank with two small goldfish. I don't have a heater so it's usually cool in the winter and warm in the summer. The goldfish always seemed healthy enough, no problems that I can see. They are pretty active and hang out being fish.

Yesterday my neighbor gave me several small red snails and a larger one (about 1.5 inches) he called ramshorns. I don't think they're all the same species-the larger one is different. All the smaller ones seem happy and fine but the larger one has closed up and stopped moving. Is it dead or just in shock? I'm worried my snail might have died. It's a pretty cool snail so I'm a little sad it seems to have stopped moving. The other snails are going to town on the large rocks and lettuce leaf I gave them.

Anybody know anything about these kinds of snails? My neighbor told me they were very hearty, like goldfish, so I'm disappointed in myself if I managed to kill the big snail in less than 24 hours.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Ramshorns can look quite different and come in various colors from Brown to Red. If they are white then normally they have a deficiency of calcium (for their shell).

It could be he died, what I would do is move him to somewhere in the tank and remember where you put him. They breathe air so if he is still there tomorrow then he probably is dead.

Don't worry, as long as the goldfish don't eat them these snails will breed well depending on how much food you give them.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Also give him a wiff if he stinks then he is deaad

 

[MoonCat]

Thanks all! I'm going to wait and see. The trap door seems tightly shut so maybe it's still alive.
Does anyone know why the shells might be turning white? Should I add something to the water to prevent further whitening? Maybe the calcium is low, I'm not sure. I'm very new with snails. If I added something would that harm my goldfish? I can put my snails in a different aquarium if it's going to harm the fish.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

As I said above whitening on Ramshorns is indeed a calcium problem. They can live with it but will be in their best condition with some calcium. Don't know enough about Goldfish to advise what it would do to them, sorry.

 

[MoonCat]

thank you for your replies! I think he was just very cold. I put in a new heater last night and heated the tank up to 70 F and he's out snailing around. Hopefully he's just fine.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

I'm sure he's fine. Well done for being patient with him.

 

[MoonCat]

He's not as active as he was in my neighbor's tank but let's hope he's fine. I gave him the 'sick tank' or auxiliary tank so it's nice and calm in there. I figure he'll get used to being over here and then maybe he can go over to the big tank later.
Cucumber dinner tonight!

 

[dkpate]

Ramshorns don't have trap doors. Can you post a pic?

 

[MoonCat]

It's one of those "giant ramshorns" which I know is not technically a ramshorn-sometimes called "Columbian Ramshorn". That's all my neighbor told me when he gave it to me. It's got a lovely red shell and basically looks like a huge version of my little bitty ramshorns.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

In that case, the white might be normal on the shell. Sorry didn't think to check that.