Snails not getting along

[phredum]

I have had two snails (one apple and one batik) in a 1 gallon tank (I know it is small, but I do ¼ water changes every one or two days, they seem pretty happy and I don’t have room for a bigger tank) for just over two months now. They got along pretty well and had no problems (they even seemed to like each other). But now the batik is getting aggressive… Over the past three days I have caught him attached to the apple snail, and it looks like he’s trying to eat him. It would be one thing if it was just the shell (this happened a few times when I first got them before I started putting eggshells in the tank for calcium) but he attaches to the actual body, and the apple snail has started hiding most of the time. I have them separated now, with the batik in my ½ gallon quarantine tank. Since the separation the apple snail has opened up and is his normal active self again (almost instantly). I don’t really want to keep the batik in that smaller tank for too long, but I don’t want to risk hurting either snail.

Do snails get territorial? I always thought they were pretty peaceful creatures… I don't think he is hungry- I feed them separately so no one can steal food (zucchini once every two weeks) and drop a bit of an algae pellet every few days. But they never finish the zucchini (I usually give them pretty big chunks and let them go at it for about 6-8 hours before a water change). Would doing the zucchini feedings more often be helpful? I'm at a bit of a loss..
Could it have to do with the apple snail's growth? He used to be smaller than the batik but now is a little bit bigger.

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Besides assassin snails I've never heard of a violent or territorial snail. Definitely following.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[evil Nick]

you sure theyre just not eating bacteria and algae off each others shells?

 

[shellyx]

I've had the same problem before, but it was my cana snail, every time I added a apple snail baby too my tank she would grab it by the shell and munch down on it, she did this repeatedly until I actually caught her doing it. Off course they died and I never added anymore.
I'm a member on Applesnail.net and sometimes if a snail is acting this way it can be down to space or they are lacking calcium and choose to eat the shells off other snail's.

Are Batik snail's nerites? If they are then it's possible it's cleaning.
55 gallon elephant nose tank.
16 gallon vampire shrimp, green lace shrimp and snails.

 

[phredum]

If it were just the shells, I wouldn't be worried. But he latches on and will not let go of the apple's body even though it looks like he's trying to throw him off.. But that wouldn't even worry me too much except that now when they are together the apple just hides all day (very unlike him. He's usually the most active snail I've seen).

I guess it could be a space thing? I have friends with larger aquariums who might be willing to add a new member, but I'm so attached to them so I'd rather not give one away

I'll start adding more crushed eggshells in case its a calcium thing.


Batiks are nerites, yeah. Basically just a fancy zebra