Injured apple snail

[malloc]

About 2 weeks ago I posted here asking for help with an ich problem. I've now had the tank at about 87* for about 2 weeks. Based on info I some of the info posted here I also dropped the water level a little & turned up my filter (AC30) to agitate the water more. My apple snail regularly eats algae off the filter tube and he has always been just fine crawling over some of the intake holes. The suction must have been much stronger since I turned it up, but I came home about 10 days ago to find the poor little guy stuck to the intake with his little head pulled all the way through one of the small holes & unable to pull it out because of the suction. He was pulled pretty far out of his shell. I yanked the filter plug out of the wall & he fell off right away.
I moved him to the front of the tank so I could keep an eye on him. He sort of goes back & forth between sealing himself all the way back in his shell & cracking it part way open to hang out a little. One morning I found him around the corner of a rock, but I can't rule out a fish pushing him. Other than that he has not been out of his shell at all, no crawling at all. A couple times I've seen him waving a feeler around for a few minutes. He is obviously hurt pretty badly, as I have never seen him hold still for more than a few hours at most. So far he has not come out for any food I've placed next to him either -- although I have seen some poop falling out of his shell.

He's always been my favorite member of the tank, I would really hate to lose him. Is there anything at all I can do for him?

On a side note, the ich seems to be gone, so I will be dropping the temp back to normal in a few days.

Thanks in advance,
Bryan

 

[malloc]

Well he is still alive, but barely. He comes part way out of his shell now & then, but is unable to crawl. The other night he came pretty far out of his shell & I was able to see that some of his "skin" was torn from the inside of his shell & I could see way up inside there.

It kills me, but I think I need to end his suffering. What would be the best way to do it with a snail? In the past I have dropped dying fish into freezing cups of water to shock them. Would this work for a snail, or would that be too slow since they are thicker & have the insulation of their shell? I'd like it to be as fast & painless as possible.

Thanks

 

[LandGhoti]

Oh, the poor thing. I'm sorry you're going to have to do this. I've never had to euthanize a snail, so I'll let someone else speak to that. But I've used the freezing water method for fish.

I feel bad for your little guy.

 

[2cvbloke]

I read here http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=76451 that you can use Clove oil to anaesthetise fish (and hence put them to sleep with an overdose, this is much kinder and pain free than freezing), but I'm not sure if it would work with a snail...

To make the solution you have to make a sort of clove oil mayonaise by mixing it with some water until the oil has emulsified into the water, then add it to the container the fish is kept in...

 

[LandGhoti]

I think he was talking about putting the fish in freezing water, not actually into the freezer (which I agree would be very slow and painful). The freezing water method takes 1 second, which is pretty darn quick.

 

[An t-iasg]

Have you tried this website? http://www.applesnail.net/

I remember someone saying that their snail's shell was cracked and they were able to help the snail by reading tips on this site. I don't remember to what extent their snail was injured, though, but it's worth browsing this site if you haven't already.