Zombie snail!!!

[Freshie In Disguise]

Terribly baffled here.

The larger of my two striped mystery snails, Bjorn, was found torn and dead at the bottom of my tank about 5 days ago. Why? Boyfriend thought his dojo loach would be happier in my big tropical tank. Moved loach back into his PROPER tank, and moved dead snail into my "BB tub" which is a large sterilite tub full of old tank water, gravel, small (ugly) decorations, dead plants, old filter cartridges etc. which is super handy for cycling new tanks or transplanting algae into tanks with algae-loving critters, etc. I figured Bjorn would be a nice ammonia source and feed the algae. For three days he sat in the same position at the bottom of the tank (because he was dead, of course) and I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't begun to get fuzzy or decompose at all. I deliberately dumped a heavy stream of tank water onto him when doing my daily PWC, to move him, and he flew to the other side of the tank and sank back down (still dead, of course). For two more days he was in the same spot (obviously, because he was dead). I just went in to feed and do a PWC on my tank, and low and behold, Bjorn was climbing up the side of my BB tub!!!

I put him back in the big tank, and he immediately started climbing the wall.... And he still has a rip, but it actually looks like it's healing, and he is able to eat.

Can someone explain to me how this is?! I don't think I will ever be able to discard a dead animal ever again!!! He was DEAD! I held him in my hand and POKED him!!!

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Wow, lucky snail! Maybe he was in a coma?? Lol!
I have a mystery snail that 'died'. He was floating for well over a week, hanging out of his shell. I poked him and he didn't move. Still mot moving i chucked him in the water change bucket during a PWC. Dumped the water down the drain and turned to hot tap on to clean out the laundry tub. He moved! So I grabbed him and threw him in my tank. He rolled over and crawled away. I thought I cooked him with the hot water but he's still alive today.
They must be tough little buggers!

 

[VioletEmber]

Wow, that is hilarious and awesome! I panic whenever my snail closes up shop and takes a nap, so I obviously should relax! He's not dead yet... He's getting better...

 

[KaylNeko]

If they don't stink, they're not dead. That's the rule I learned about mystery snails *lol* Apparently, it doesn't take them long at all after death to start stinking to high heaven.

 

[Freshie In Disguise]

Well... Now he is in the process of breeding with my smaller snail, Jesper. Haven't a clue which one is playing the male/female because I had always referred to them both as males. I almost hope they make babies that survive because I'm having some serious algae invasion issues... Because Bjorn was dead.

I don't think I will ever be able to discard a dead critter ever again. I will wait until they get fuzzy... And even then I will look very closely, LOL.

Is there any sort of medication I can give him to speed up his healing? I know snails can be sensitive to some meds as well as salt treatments. Would a piece of aloe do him any good? I have an aloe plant.

 

[KaylNeko]

I recently found out that rooibos tea (get it in the tea section of most grocery stores) helps fish heal (and helps get rid of algae)--I wonder if it would do the same for snails. I know it doesn't bother them. Aloe, I'm not so sure about--I saw a reference to someone using aloe in the tank, but they didn't specify why or how. Considering it's properties, I'm not sure it would help much with an injured snail.

 

[Freshie In Disguise]

Rooibos tea?
Definitely going to look for that. I have a banged up snail AND algae! Will it bother my plants?

 

[KaylNeko]

Nope. Folks actually save the tea bags and use the grounds to fertilize their outside plants. No caffeine, lots of flavoids and other good stuffs.

You can either dose it--boil a cup of water, let a tea bag sit overnight, then put in 5 ml (1 tsp) per ten gallons in every day, or....

You can do what I'm doing in both my hospital tank and my 55 gallon and just hang a tea bag in there.

It will stain your water with tannins, just to warn you. That's why it's not in the betta tank. I'm told if you dose it rather than hang the bag in, you'll get tannin-colored water for a bit then it will dissipate.

 

[LyndaB]

If they don't stink, they're not dead.

So very true......

 

[Freshie In Disguise]

DEFINITELY going to try it out! It would probably benefit the whole tank. Hope I can find it at my tiny grocery store! Thanks a bunch!

 

[KaylNeko]

You're welcome ^_^ Let us know if it helps!