Floating Apple Snail

[HOLLIEO]

I have two apple snails in my freswater 20 gallon. I am not sure if this is normal, since I have never owned this type of animal, but one of them is just floating on the surface of the water. Is it dead? How do I know if one of these guys is dead or not?

 

[Punkymom]

Er....Poke poke poke...I guess you could smell it...hee hee...if you wanna risk getting a nose full of stinkiness...LOL I don't know any other way of knowing.

 

[HOLLIEO]

ha, ha... Yeah. I tried poking it a little and I think it moved a bit?!?!?
Not much. I am afraid to take him out of the water if he really isn't dead. How do I really know????

 

[William]

Reach inside and touch the fleshy part?

if it twitches hes alive..

 

[HOLLIEO]

Okay, thanks William. I will poke him a little when I get home. I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Allivymar]

If the fleshy part at the opening is firm, its alive. He may have managed to get an airbubble in there (and I have NO idea how to get it out LOL).

If its mooshy? Like, nasty gooey mooshy? Its most likely dead.

 

[HOLLIEO]

I was hoping you would answer allivymar!! You always seem to know the answers!! ha, ha
When you say fleshy part, do you mean the part like when he comes out of his shell? or more like that flat door thing that will allow him to completely close?

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, scary isn't it

The flat bit of muscle he uses when he shuts his "door"; it should be firm. It means his "foot" muscle is working, and consequently he's alive *grin*

 

[HOLLIEO]

Ahhhh. I got ya now. Well, when I touched it yesterday (to see if he would move) it was firm. Hopefully he has stopped floating around on the surface and is alive when I get home. I will do the touch test again... if he is still floating around.

 

[Allivymar]

Aha! Came across this line in my research: "Mystery snails may "play dead" for days or even weeks by floating on the surface or laying still on the bottom"

You can read the rest here (just scroll down to Mystery Snails): http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rrhudy1/snail2.htm#apple

 

[HOLLIEO]

Leave it to you Allivymar to find an awesome link!!! Kudos to you!
Thanks. I will check him (or her,.... I have no idea) when I get home and fill ya' in. Thanks again!!!

 

[William]

Arn't snails hermaphrodites?


as in, reproducing on their own without need of another?


*waits for someone to post " Wheres the fun in that?! " *

 

[HOLLIEO]

The apple snail needs a male and a female. It is not 'asexual' (both sexes). a great site on apple snails.. that I got from Allivymar is WWW.applesnail.com

 

[HOLLIEO]

Okay, so I did a little more poking on my little apple snail friends (have two playing possum).... The fleshy part is still firm, but when i touch them they do not move. Do you think they are starving? I clean my tank way too much for there to be any algae, so they are having to eat food flake scraps. Maybe I should try and put them in my other tank with the turtle and friends. There is tons of algae on porus bricks in there??? Any thoughts???
Oh yeah.. and I did take a whiff of both and they didn't smell unusual at all.
I did get a strange look from my husband while I was taking a whiff of the snails... ha, ha
LOL

 

[HOLLIEO]

Okay, so I did a little more poking on my little apple snail friends (have two playing possum).... The fleshy part is still firm, but when i touch them they do not move. Do you think they are starving? I clean my tank way too much for there to be any algae, so they are having to eat food flake scraps. Maybe I should try and put them in my other tank with the turtle and friends. There is tons of algae on porus bricks in there??? Any thoughts???
Oh yeah.. and I did take a whiff of both and they didn't smell unusual at all.
I did get a strange look from my husband while I was taking a whiff of the snails... ha, ha
LOL

 

[Allivymar]

They're probably hibernating (or whatever it is they do when they decide to hole up in their shell and not move for a while). Not unusual for the bigger snails (heh, remember, they're known to "hibernate" for a few days/weeks). As long as they aren't dead (and it sure appears they're not, or your husband would have been picking you up from the floor after that whiff LOL) don't worry.

 

[HOLLIEO]

Well, these snails are quite small .... they are about 1"-1.5" ??
Do you think they might be happpier in the tank with mish mosh of aquatic animals? Its the 50 gallon turtle/goldfish/whitecloud tank?

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, I have a feeling living with such dirty creatures is probably as close to heaven for a snail as it gets down here.

 

[HOLLIEO]

Well, I put the snails in the 50 gallon tank and already the yellow one is crawling around. I have not seen the brown/black one move yet.... I will keep a look out. I have my fingers crossed. I guess I will just take another whiff in a few days.. ha, ha

 

[HOLLIEO]

Okay, strange thing... the snail that was in the black shell is gone?!?!? The shell is there, but no snail anywhere. The only thing I can think of is he was sick, so emerged from his shell and was eaten by the jumbo goldfish (he eats everything!!)
On the other hand.. the yellow snail is roaming around the tank and doing quite well. He (or she??) loves it in there. Hmmm..
I just ordered some more snails on ebay (i love the snails).. so, i guess we will try this again... ha, ha