Dead snail :(

[Scrup]

For those of you who don't know, I love my snails. Sadly this morning one of my big ol apple snails kicked the bucket. When I was removing him a huge leech like worm crawled out of his shell and fell on the ground before I could get a picture of it. Looked just like a leech. Not sure how to go about treating snails for parasites....Anywho, just wanted to post some pics of the big guy's life.

Sadly, him and his lady never laid any viable offspring, and they are now illegal to transfer between state lines, so it doesn't look like I will be getting anymore anytime soon.

[Scrup]

Also, when a snail this size dies, it gets REALLY smelly really fast. Overnight the tank got supercloudy and all the other snails were hanging out at the top (snails way of saying change my water NOW!).

Gonna let the ants clean out the shell then add it back to one of my tanks.

[AmyLynn]

Holy cow that was one BIG snail! So sorry you lost him. He had to be fun to watch.

[Maisy]

Aww, poor Mr. Snail.
Hope his buddy doesn't get too lonely.

I used to have a trapdoor snail that randomly died too, and it was quite sad. Snails are so neat to watch move along the tank. Especially when they go to a corner and rear up. ^^

[Scrup]

I think it was just old age...honestly I am amazed it lived as long as it did. They were both about to hit 4 years I think.

[Cliff]

Sorry about your snail Scrup

Thanks for sharing the pics, you got some really good shots

[HeatherB]

they are now illegal to transfer between state lines, so it doesn't look like I will be getting anymore anytime soon.

I won't tell if you won't tell!

But that was a big snail! Their shell looks great!

[Scrup]

Great news! I finally think I have ID'd my big ones, of which I only had one left. Pomacea canaliculata. Illegal as I thought, so I was a little bummed that once the next one died that would probably be all I would ever see of these amazing guys (they do seem to have a personality, maybe I'm just crazy).

Woke up this morning to this-



Moved it to its own tank suspended above the water, since they have a habit of eating their own eggs when they get hungry (the reason I have not had one baby out of all their clutches) I can see the little snails in the eggs...its pretty cool. Wish me luck!

[Trillianne]

That's great news! I hope you get some good infants!

[Scrup]

Got another clutch from the female, then three days later she kicked it as well. Poor girl. I am pretty positive it was age that got them. She seemed to be sluggish lately (yes...I know its a snail, but still) and not really eating nearly as much or as ravenously as usual. Then I noticed she was moving around less and less. Found her the last day sitting on the bottom of the tank with her air tube out trying in vain to reach the top. Pulled her out and put her in a shallow dish of tank water, and she slowly managed to take a breath, but died a few hours later.

Curiously enough, its been a whole month and still no hatching. Not sure if they were fertilized or not. they aren't bad from what I can tell, no fungus, still as pink as ever. They are just not hatching. I've been keeping them in a humid warm environment, suspended right above the tank they are going to be raised in, but no luck. I've read that they take about a month to incubate, so I will give them another few weeks, then I guess they can be a treat for my loaches.

On the bright side, the parent shells are now fully cleaned out and are waiting to be placed in the shelly tank!