My snail had an accident

[Boogety48]

I got up today and one of my snails was found behind my tank on the floor. A lot of its shell is broken and cracked. When I picked it up it moved so I know its still alive. Its still laying in the same place that I put in it when I put it back in the tank. It fell on carpet so I'm shocked by the amount of damage it has done to itself. I guess what I'm asking is, will it be ok? I've got some egg shells and sea shells in there so my snails can repair their shells, will that be enough?

 

[gabysapha]

This is a mystery snail right? There's a popular apple snail site online, im sure youll find it easily if you google how to repair a mystery snail shell. They and other sites have instructions for how to repair shells, just google it.

Make sure the snail doesn't get harassed by fish or other snails, a hospital tank would be a good idea! Poor thing.

 

[Boogety48]

Thank you for replying so fast. So far nothing is messing with it. I keep checking on it to make sure. I have other fish in my QT right now or it would have been put in it when I found it on the floor.

 

[BarleyBear]

Any idea how this happened? I have three, and I wouldn't want it to happen to them.

I'll be following the tread to see what the advice is.

Keep us posted, and good luck.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I have read you can repair their shells with super glue. You have to REALLY careful not to get any on the snail itself. What you do is break up an old empty shell and glue the pieces on over any large holes. The snail will eventually build a layer of calcium to cover the hole from the inside. Is the shell just cracked or is it missing bits?

 

[Boogety48]

It's got big peices broken off and it's cracked in other places. The snail got up and moved around the tank. It was moving along the water line sitting half in and half out of the water. Now its sitting on the bottom again and looks like its swollen up or puffed up its body. BarleyBear, It likes to climb the filter and come out of the water,sometimes it falls, it does it all the time. This time I found it though the shell was all smashed up. I don't think it will make it through this.

The first pic is how swollen it is and if you look at the darker part of the shell you can see one crack.

The second pic is more shell damage. That dark spot is a piece of sand stuck to snail that is poking out of a piece missing on its shell.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Oh dear. It's done a number on itself! It may still recover. They are pretty tough. Maybe try and get some mesh or something and cover the hole to prevent future breakouts.

 

[Boogety48]

Yea I'm trying to figure out what to do with it now. My husband is trying to design me something like a mesh cover and a little net so if he does get out of it he'll fall into the net. Its on my tank that doesn't have a lid yet. I didn't think about him falling out of it so I feel really bad because I caused this but after this the problem will be fixed.

 

[Boogety48]

We made a mesh cover for the tank so hopefully that will keep everyone in tonight. I read somewhere that its hard to tell when snails die, only that they smell really bad, is there a way to tell if he dies before he stinks up the place? Just in case he doesn't make it through the night.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Their 'foot' and 'trapdoor' are loose. They don't respond to touch. Sometimes they do this but are still alive. The only sure fire way to know is the smell

 

[Boogety48]

I was afraid of that

 

[Boogety48]

Sorry I haven't given any updates. My mother passed away so I've been a little busy. My snail died on Sunday. My husband took over taking care of my tanks while I'm dealing with plans and other things and he said the snail was covered in white fuzz and when he pulled it out it smelled horrible.

 

[Hholly]

Sorry for your losses.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I'm sorry for your losses!

 

[Boogety48]

Thank you both. I don't know what happened to the snail. It was fine last Friday. It was crawling around and eating but with everything that happened I really didn't pay much attention after that. My husband said he was alive on Saturday and Sunday evening he found it covered in fuzz. He said he poked it and it didn't move and when he pulled it out, it smelled. Poor little guy. I wish I could have done more for it but with the damage it had there was no way I could have put super glue on it and not get it on the inside of its shell and on him.