Aging/sick mystery snail?

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gs86

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 27, 2022
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I got a somewhat large mystery snail 2 or 3 months ago. He changed genders to a girl to mate and has been producing eggs nonstop. It seems to me that the egg laying takes up a lot of her formally his energy and I noticed he has shrunk in size a bit as well as his breathing siphon has changed from a translucent cream colour with orange dots to a dark melted butter yellow colour. Does anyone know if she’s getting old or dying and this is a sign? I’d like to prepare if so so the eventual remains do not make the other fish sick. It’s hard to see but it’s about the colour of the darkest part of the shell and it used to be the colour of the body near the tail
 

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A few things maybe to know would be the water parameters, ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PH
If you can test for
GH / KH
TDS

Temperature

Are there any fish bothering the snail?

Also what is the snail eating? You might try Hikari Crab Cuisine which has minerals for shell growth and what would be better because of the snail laying so many eggs.
 
The color changes are probably due to being in an active mating cycle. I've had many mysteries live then die but I've never seen one change color as it approached the end of its life.

On the other hand, the large size may indicate that your snail won't be with you for many happy years to come. Like you and me, they're small when young and large when older.

When they die it goes one of two ways: either they hang out of their shell and stink, so you'll smell it and remove it; or they'll slam their door shut (the foot at the bottom) and never move again. In the latter case, when given a nudge a month or two later the foot will float off, and dead dust, not smelly, will float out. Either way, no one else dies from their death, as 1-You remove it quickly, or 2-It's sealed.

All that active egg laying sounds more like a snail in its prime. What are you doing about the eggs? Do you hunt around the rim every morning and remove them? Does this snail have a mate, therefore the eggs are fertilized and you're aiming to have a snail farm?
 
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