Mysterious mystery snail death

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Patty1980

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jan 21, 2014
Messages
565
Location
Oklahoma
We found our Goldie floating out of his shell yesterday morning. Pristine tank. My ivory snail is fine. Didn't even know Goldie was sick, very active both of them. How long do they typically live? Its a betta tank waiting on my betta to arrive from Thailand. We have 2 ADF in the tank as well. Thoughts?

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Is this a stupid question? Maybe the silence means "Google it dummy". Ok then.

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Sorry it has taken you so long to get an answer. Most of us do not check this forum often. Mystery snails live an average of 2-4 years. Warmer water shortens their life though. At temps of 80 degrees or more the life span is around 2 years. Here is a great site about mystery snails for more information. applesnail.net
 
Thanks a bunch! My tank is always a steady 78. I'm thinking my ADF are at fault. I have two males and I've caught them nipping at my ivory snail. Am I crazy or could that be it?

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It is possible. I do not know to much about ADF's but anything that harasses a snail can cause it to die. However, do you know for sure it was dead? This may sound strange but I have heard of people throwing their snails in the trash and coming back and finding them crawling around. The only way to know if they are dead is if they hang out of their shell. Their body will fall out and only be attached by a little piece of skin. They also stink. Mystery snails will close up for days and then start crawling around again. They will also float for long periods of time.
 
It was completely detached from its shell and floating. It didn't look "injured" other than just being dead. Who knows how old it even was.

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Mine have die off sometimes. And it usually happens in winter when our water company changes from the normal lake we get our water from, to the reservoir where the water is harder as it sits in a stone encrusted location it has been in all year long. pH, and carbonate hardness, you can check kh/gh if you have the test kits. Changes seem to affect them.
 
Kh and gh are great. Too bad I don't have a calcium test. Do you feed yours specifically or just assume they get what they need from the tank?

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Actually the KH test is a measure of how much calcium carbonate is in the water. The higher the number the more calcium available for invertebrates. Snails like a higher KH.
 
I have slightly acidic water for most of the year and it is tough on the snails. I use Cuttlebone and just let if float in the tank until it sinks shell part up. Then I stick it into the substrate like a surfboard in the sand on the beach. That way the water erodes the Cuttlebone (and it makes cool patterns so I don't always hide it in the back of the tank) and the snails seem to munch on it periodically.

Hikari Shrimp Cuisine and Crab Cuisine are what I give them regularly, mostly Crab Cuisine because it is about less than half the price of the Shrimp Cuisine. That has minerals to support shell formulation. They like it. I also think they like the Hikari Bottom Feeder wafers, in the orange-ish color accent package. so I will feed an extra wafer of that once in awhile to make sure they get some. They also get some blanched spinach and Kale occasionally, they are still learning to like it. I have started growing my own yearly.

They also liked some Kale that I over cooked in the microwave, (in a bowl with a little water) by mistake, and it dried out. I crunched it up into little bits and they raced for it, along with many other tank inhabitants!!!
 
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Oh great suggestions! My Kh is high. Good to know, thanks!

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My snails will eat anything. Even catnip. LOL Sounds like the snails should be fine with all the variety in their diet. I found that all my aquatic pets seem to do better with a varied diet.

My water is sometimes acidic and sometimes not. The water company usually puts so much lime in it that my PH stays around 7.8. However, they made a change a few months ago and now my PH struggles to stay at 7. It had dropped down to 6 before I noticed something seemed wrong and checked it.
 
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