Snail problem : floating snails??

**selfs_echo** · 03-04-2006, 05:28 PM

I'm not sure where else to place this, but I'll try here.

I'm going through my first cycling, and am currently going through my fourth week, almost fifth week of waiting for my tank to cycle through. I have three danios (leopard) helping me cycle, along with four decently sized plants, a small java fern, and a huge floater sort of plant (can't remember the name off the top of my head. ><). My tank is currently in the kind of hazy area, and I am waiting for my bacteria to grow in. I try and only give the plants 8 hours of light so that they bacteria has more time to grow. I'm human, though, and sometimes forget to turn off the light. :(
Along with the entrance of my now biggest floater and two of my medium sized plants, I had a huge snail and apparently a small myraid of snails introduced to my tank. At first, I was irritated to have such a huge number of pests brought into my tank. This cleared after they ate away the alge, so I don't mind them so much any longer. :D

Lately, though, I have had a few of my bigger snails (they have all grown rather quickly) so float around the tank. I was afraid at first that they were dead, but after a while they usually tend to sink and go back to crawling around on the gravel/rocks/plants.
Here comes my question:
Is this normal??? And, can anyone give me any clues as to why this is happening? I don't dislike them as much as I did before, and wouldn't mind keeping the biggest snail I have, as he's at killing off my algae.

**William** · 03-05-2006, 08:45 AM

Yes that is normal.

**flgirl06** · 11-20-2006, 05:22 AM

I have snails too and I was told they do that when they want to be lazy. Now the snails that you find on plants when you buy them keep an eye out on your tank cause they multiply like crazy they arent the same type of snail as the ivory,or mystery or even the apple snail they go above water to make cluster of eggs. I know the ramshorn lay thier eggs underwater as do the little critter snails that you get on plants when you buy them.
I put 2 of the criiter snails in 2 of my tanks and ended up with hundereds and I had to totally tear down my tanks and scrub just to get the eggs out as they are a gel stuff.
I hope all this makes sense and I have not confused you at all.

**gwenkat** · 11-23-2006, 01:05 PM

I had the same thing happen with snails. Bought a big pretty one and ended up with hundreds. They are mostly gone none thanks to my dojo and DPs. Now I only have one large one and two small. It is perfectly normal for them to float.

**lle1180** · 11-28-2006, 09:51 PM

I just bought my first pair of snails and when one of them started to do that I thought for sure it was dead. But it turned out it was just fine. There is a wonderful little site dedicated to apple snails at www.applesnails.net where I found this information:

My snail is floating around for a day now. Is he/she dead or what? What should/can I do?
Well, apple snails can be very inactive for days (see answer above this one) and if they have a lot of air in their lung, they float (sounds logical isn't it?). Floating of an apple snail doesn't indicate that there is something wrong or that he/she is dead.
To check if the snail is alive, take it out of the water and see if you can get it moving by touching the shell door. If the shell is closed completely, then you can be sure that the snail is alive because once the snail is dead, the muscles are relaxed and the shell door stays at least partly open.
Another way to check the snails is by looking at the heartbeat (only possible with young snails and snails with a thin shell). To do this, keep the snail in front of a strong light source so the light shines through it and look at the heartbeat.

Everything you could ever want to know about snails and how to care for them is on this website. Hope that helps!