Feeding and Nutrition :: Snail care

[industrial_girl_2000]

Ok all,

Quick question for ya: is there any kind of special care that snails need in the tank? Reason why I ask is because I had a nice 1" golden snail in Siobhan's tank & it just died the other day. Literally. And the turtle wasn't even nipping at it or anything.

I have been doing some frequent partial water changes recently (to help keep the tank clean from all the plant debris & fish poop....easy to do since the tank is right next to the kitchen sink!). Is it possible that the water was too clean? There was no algae in the tank at all since the tank was still very new so maybe next time I should just wait until I start to get some algae and then maybe put a snail in? Just curious.

[jenaero]

Well the snails will eat the plants so maybe that was his source of food? I used to give my snails romaine lettuce. I don't know how quick they'd die from not eating tho. I never really 'cared' for them. Never looked anything up. I kept them in a tank with my feeder fish.

[mkoby]

Hey Kristin! I found this website. Seems like there could have been several reasons. Hope this sheds some light.

http://www.applesnail.net/content/care.php

The snail might have been the one that destroyed your anacharis too!

[industrial_girl_2000]

Wow, great website mkoby! I think based on that, I am just going to not get any more snails from now on. It seems like too much of a bother.

I still think the baby turt had the upper hand in the destruction of the anacharis since the plant seemed to have "moved" from one spot to another in the tank daily....! Oh well, baby likes it, so who am I to argue? I'll just buy another plant for him.

[daredevilgirl013]

With my apple snail I had one that died on me. I think that the turtle was harassing it because I would see her constantly batting this one around. So it is possible that they die from stress. Usually if there isn't enough food they'll go into hibernation where they float around the top of the tank or lay at the bottom. And they can go that way for months.

Mine doesn't get anything special. He eats the dead ghost shrimp that die, he eats fish food, he eats the algae..so he's fine. He's a big bugger and just makes his rounds in the tank doing his thing.

[industrial_girl_2000]

With my apple snail I had one that died on me. I think that the turtle was harassing it because I would see her constantly batting this one around. So it is possible that they die from stress. Usually if there isn't enough food they'll go into hibernation where they float around the top of the tank or lay at the bottom. And they can go that way for months.

Mine doesn't get anything special. He eats the dead ghost shrimp that die, he eats fish food, he eats the algae..so he's fine. He's a big bugger and just makes his rounds in the tank doing his thing.

Wow, they can go into hibernation in the tank? Even when the tank is warm (78 degrees)? Do they keep the trapdoor closed when they do this? Reason why I ask is because the snail I had was partially out of the shell when I found him.....he definitely looked dead & wouldn't move, even when I poked at him (normally they pull into the shell & close the door). It was strange.

[daredevilgirl013]

Sometimes they will sometimes they won't. If they smell like rotten eggs, they're dead. And even if the tank is warm they'll go into hibernation if there isn't enough food. I've seen mine go into hibernation for just a few minutes because he felt threatened so he just floated around the tank, and other times he'll stay at the bottom in one spot for days on end. But if they smell like rotten eggs they're dead. That's the easy way to tell.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Good to know. Thanks! I'll keep it in mind for future.