Woah - What in the world is wrong with my snail?

[mandy2936]

Hi,
I have three Zebra Nerite Snails. They don't have names, so I'll just refer to them as numbers to make things a little easier.

#1 Was placed into the 20g first. Then, after about a week, #1 was moved into my 5g Betta tank. He's there right now.
#2 and #3 were purchased together at another time, separate from #1. They were both placed into my 20g.

#2 and #3 were doing great, relatively active and they seem fine. Today, #2 was getting a little too close to the top of the tank for comfort (worried that he might crawl out), so before I could block off any holes I attempted to very very gently pick him off the wall and place #2 at the bottom of the tank. I immediately stopped pulling, because even though I was super gentle, I could tell something was wrong. For lack of better terms, please excuse the description about to follow:

The slimy part of the snail, like the gooey part that is under the shell and used to stick to the glass, seemed to be separating from the shell! It felt so weak and detached as if it could have spilt the snail in two! Obviously I stopped right away, alarmed at the gooey part appearing to be ripping off if I pulled any harder.

While #1 was in the 20 gallon I never experienced this. I was able to gently (and I mean very very gently and slowly) pull him off the glass without any problem. His 'gooey part' was always perfectly attached to his shell.

Curious if #2 was the only one with this problem, I tried to gently pull #3 off a wall, too. The same thing happened, the 'gooey part' looked as though I was gonna detach it from the shell! Ahh!

I don't know why this is, and I find it quite concerning. I have cuttlebones readily available because I have pet birds, too. However, I didn't think calcium was an issue here, i thought it only had to do with their shells, not the gooey part.

Other than the alarming experience w/ the gooey part, they are acting normal as usual. They are moving around fine, but I know something must be wrong.

Also, I have not recently added any medication or chemicals to the tank, so copper could not be it, either.

Any clues? Has this ever happened to you?

Thanks so much! Sorry for the novel.
P.S. I hope my constant use of the term "gooey part" doesn't sound too ridiculous, it's only because I don't know how to better describe what I'm talking about. Lol.

 

[Shadowraven]

I wouldn't worry too much about it unless they start acting unusual. You know barely move, don't eat, change in movement.

Snails are pretty resilient creatures, so I doubt if you hurt them too much, if at all. They can appear to pull pretty far out of their shells before it becomes a problem. That doesn't mean you should experiment to see how far though!

The other two probably had a good hold on the glass and didn't want to come off. If you have a lid on the tank I wouldn't worry too much about them crawling out. They don't want to get too far from the water anyway.

BTW, if you were curious, the "gooey" part as you so aptly described it is usually referred to as the fleshy part of the snail.

 

[mandy2936]

I wouldn't worry too much about it unless they start acting unusual. You know barely move, don't eat, change in movement.

Snails are pretty resilient creatures, so I doubt if you hurt them too much, if at all. They can appear to pull pretty far out of their shells before it becomes a problem. That doesn't mean you should experiment to see how far though!

The other two probably had a good hold on the glass and didn't want to come off. If you have a lid on the tank I wouldn't worry too much about them crawling out. They don't want to get too far from the water anyway.

Okay, thank you! Good to know. I'll watch for behavior then.

BTW, if you were curious, the "gooey" part as you so aptly described it is usually referred to as the fleshy part of the snail.

LOL thank you