Mystery Snail Died

[ddavis1979]

Came downstairs this morning to find the shell of my mystery snail completely empty. It took a while but I found some remains stuck to the back of the filter. There was about a 3rd of a chewed up body left.

I immediately checked the water and ammo-0/nitrite-0/nitrate-10. I dont think any of the fish could have pulled him from his shell unless he was already dead. Do mystery snails ever vacate shells of their own accord?

[Limming]

Have you checked if theres any copper in the water? I'd start there.

[bethyMT]

How long did you have the snail? They burn out after about a year, at least that's what I've read. They need a dormant period with cooler water, which they don't get in tropical aquariums. So he may have been dead, and then the shell was cleaned out by an ambitious fish. I have never heard of a snail leaving its own shell.

Many types of medication can also hasten snail demise. At any rate, sorry about your snail. And sorry that the end result was quite...gruesome (I'd imagine that body wasn't exactly pleasant to find).

[madagascariensis]

unlike hermit crabs, snails cannot vacate their shells without sustaining major damage.
How old is the snail? mystery snails have quite short lifespans in aquaria due to the lack of hibernation/aestivation
periods they would go through to "rejuvenate" in the wild. copper might be another possibility but on the other hand your snail has been living in your water for a while(or so I assume).
maybe inquire for any changes/construction projects aon your water mains?

EDIT: argh! ninja'd by BethyMT

[fishn00b]

+1 to above, mystery snails cannot leave there shells they are attached and would die immediately. I had a huge mystery snail die after about a year or so of constant egg laying and she was unfortunately ripped apart by a hungry betta the way you have described. If your parameters are good which they are and you have seen it eat then it was probably just time. They do need to be fed however, they cannot simply live off the algae in the tank like other snails. They go crazy for algae wafers, other people suggest fresh vegetables but mine never responded.

[ddavis1979]

I got the Snail back in September, and it was relatively sizable when I got it. However, my theory is that it didnt get enough to eat. I put plenty of sinking algae wafers and veggies in the tank, but I never saw the snail ever get of it. I saw the nerites on the cucumber plenty of times but the battle of the wafer between the gourami, the algae eater, and the clown pleco makes it difficultfor a snail to get any.