Dead snail - anyone see a cause here?

[SteveM]

I found my Black Mystery snail dead in my 75G tank today. Actually, he's been dead a few days but it took me a while to realize since they often sit dormant for days at a time. Everyone else in the tank (4 GF, 2 BN plec, lightly planted) seems fine.

I've had the snail a little over a year - maybe he just got old, but I figured I'd see if there's anything I'm doing that isn't snail friendly before I consider replacing him.

Water params seem fine, measured right after removing the dead snail:
NH3 = 0
NO2 = 0
N03 = 7.5ppm
PO4 = 0.25ppm
pH = 7.2
KH = 60ppm
temp = 73F (unheated - seasonally cycles 71-75F)

I've made the following changes over the past few months - anyone see a possible cause of death here?

Added 12" driftwood
Added some plants
Started dosing Flourish, recommended dose once a week
Started dosing Fleet Enema for PO4, maintaining 0.5ppm
Started adding Seachem Equilibruim at water changes to maintain GH=4
Added a BN plec
Started dosing Flourish Excel, recommended dose every other day

The Flourish Excel is the most recent change - I started that less than 2 weeks ago.

Anything obvious?

 

[Devilishturtles]

I don't have a clue about the dosing of the things you mentioned , and how they effect snails, sorry.

When you got the snail, was/is it pretty big? Chance are it just died on it's own, and has nothing to do with anything you are doing.

Also, I didn't see it mentioned, but do you add salt to your water?

Sorry about the snail.

 

[savga]

Yes, it was probably just old age. Snails only live a year or so. If he was large when you got him, he was already a few months old. My snail did the sitting dormant thing near the end also.

 

[Jchillin]

I've had some snail deaths and some mysterious behavior as well (see my sig). Gary2 was a weird situation. He would stay at the top of the tank for days. We would send him back down...only to have him come up and resume the same dormant position. On more than one occassion, we found him in the filter basket.

Then we found him dormant on the bottom...thinking he was doing the same thing as he did on the top...we ignored it. I decided to investigate...flipped him over and saw part of his body distended (antennae and connecting parts)...I nudged him...prodded him...nothing. Took him out of the tank and he withdrew into the shell. Thought he was alive...put him in a separate container...but it didn't work.

To this day...I have no idea of what happened. No salt in tank...parameters always the same...mystery. Other than old age...there is no way to know.

 

[SteveM]

Thanks for the feedback. To answer the questions, there was no salt added, and he was about 3/4" when I got him about a year ago - probably about 1.5" now. Another snail I got at the same time is doing great, but in a different tank that is probably more hospitable (i.e. no big goldfish harassing it)

I kinda figured it was just his time, but with all the changes I've been making in that tank over the past few months I figured I'd see if anyone saw something that he might not have liked.

From what I had read, as long as they are still closed up in their shell they are still alive. Its when they start sticking out of the shell that you know they are dead. I had been suspecting something for a couple days, but I knew it was over when I found one of the plecos munching on him 8O

Thanks again - now I just have to convince my daughter that I didn't kill it