Rescued A Mystery Snail

[Trickerie]

Hey all,

I was at the LFS, and saw a miserable looking blue mystery snail. His shell looks very brittle, and even may have chipped/broken off a piece on the front rim, since instead of being a smooth opening, it is jagged. He is a very pale/white blue color, and the normal black skin, but I cant make out his eyes at all, usually they appear red :|

When I brought him home, he refused to come out of his shell at all. Finally yesterday I saw him cruising and eating a cucumber with my ivory mystery snail. Though, today, he was back to simply sitting in his shell. My other snail cruises all day long, rarely sitting still for more than a few minutes. This guy has his trapdoor closed nearly all day. What can I do for him? Is he stressed, injured, etc? He is also very slow, compared to my other snail. As I write this, he is sitting near the water line of the tank.

 

[MABJ]

Well.. He is probably sick/injured/recovering. You need calcium for him to rebuild his shell.

I'd recommend cuttlebone.

On top of that? Love and hope. Not to sound corny.

 

[Trickerie]

Soon after writing this, I noticed he went from sitting near the water line to floating around for a while. Now he's back on the bottom but still closed up. I have a large piece of cuttlebone that's for parrots. What should I do with it?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

You can break a bit off and pop it in your filter or in the substrate.

 

[hcourts]

oh i love the blue ones!!! my blue one is really shy for some reason. i didnt see her come out for a week when i first got her!! good luck and good for you for giving yours a chance!! and i also use cuttlebone in both of my tanks!!! my hatchlings(??) love to hang out on it

 

[Trickerie]

Well, he didn't make it. I never found out what he was suffering from, but he was in very poor condition when I got him. I kept the water parameters in a good range, and added some cuttlebone, but it didn't help. Today, I found him out of his shell :| My other snail is still perfectly fine, as are my betta and frog.

 

[docbree]

I am so sorry that he didn't make it At least you had the kind heart to give him a chance.

I recently rescued a yellow and a blue with badly damaged shells. The yellow one has done very well, but the blue one is not nearly as active and does not seem to be growing. Maybe blues are a little more fragile.