Apple Snail Emergency

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 08:42 PM

Holy crap. I have been looking in my tank for my Apple Snail for the past 30 minutes. I found it on the floor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been there for at least 5 hours. It is up in its shell, is there any chance that it's alive????

**Cliff** · 12-29-2012, 08:45 PM

Take a container of tank water and put him in it, there might be a chance

They certainly can be little escape artists if you leave the top open on the tank

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 08:47 PM

I got it in a specimen container now. I have tile, and I'm surprised the shell isn't broken. That's a good 4.5' fall from the top of the tank.

I didn't have the cover off. I guess it found a route.

**jeffs99dime** · 12-29-2012, 08:58 PM

If their shell can fit through the hole they will get out of the tank. All snails are escape artists.

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 09:04 PM

I just did some quick research and it seems that Apple Snails can live out of the water for a week, or so...

I guess I'm going to drop it back in there and hope for the best. At least I can look at it's shell until it breaks down. :/

Quick story about this dilemma... This morning, the cat was playing with something that was up under my CFL light fixture that I had laying on the ground. (The tank was outside with the paint drying)

My fiance was like, "the cat has something, and is going to wake the baby playing with it." I got up and checked, and I saw the cat looking under the light fixture. I didn't think anything of it... Maybe it was a piece of food or something. Shooed the cat out of the room, and that was it.

About 30 minutes before this thread, I'm recording the little nuisance snails in my aquarium to get a timelapse video. Hmmm...where is the Apple Snail? HOLY CRAP WHERE IS IT????

Looking..... searching..... wondering wtf....

THE CAT.

I raise up the fixture...

There it lay. Covered in a mixture of dust and cat hair. Dry as a bone.

MUST GET IT TO WATER.

I go to the sink in the bathroom, get the water lukewarm. Get off the hair and dust. Fill up my specimen container with tank water. Drop the snail in.

And here I sit... typing this post.

The snail has been tucked tight into the shell, but looking at it now, part of it is coming out. I don't know if it's just kind of falling out of there, or slowly coming out on it's own. I think it's dead, but I will report back with the news later on.

If it doesn't survive, I'm going to go ahead and start switching the aquarium over to brackish. That should take care of all the other snails in there...

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 09:05 PM

Originally Posted by jeffs99dime

If their shell can fit through the hole they will get out of the tank. All snails are escape artists.

I will keep that in mind.

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 09:08 PM

When I put it back in the aquarium, it pulled itself back in. I think it's going to make it...

**jeffs99dime** · 12-29-2012, 09:16 PM

Appears to be okay. That's a good sign he went up the wall of the tank. Glad to see.

**AllenIsbell** · 12-29-2012, 09:29 PM

He didn't pull himself up. The shell was just laying against the wall like that. I'm doing a timelapse of his recovery right now. He is slowly coming back to life, it seems. The shrimp seemed to be worried about him haha.