inactive snail question

**dski13** · 10-10-2012, 05:32 PM

Hi. This is my first post and I have a question about our new snail. Since we put him in the tank last night he moved once and then has not come out of his shell since. We have a 3 gallon betta tank with heater (80 F) and it is planted with a small amazon sword plant. We just bought the new snail (Mystery snail) yesterday in hopes he can eat some algae as we work to balance our lighting/plant set up. Plus he will be nice to watch too. We had 4watts LED light for the aquarium and I think we had too much light so we have some algae growing on the rocks. In addition to the snail we bought some water sprite to float on the top and hopefully block some of the light and fix that problem. We also now have the light on a timer to reduce the amount of time it is on. It is now set to be on for only 6 hours. The aquarium does get some indirect sunlight during the day. My concern is that the snail is not happy because he is not moving around. We took him out and his trap door is shut tight and he is not smelling yet. So I think he is still alive but why isn't he moving about? Am I just being impatient as he acclimates to his new home or is he unhappy?

Here are water parameters

Temp 80 F
pH- 7.0
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite- 0.0
Nitrate 5

**Gogi** · 10-10-2012, 07:25 PM

The snail is being bothered by the ammonia in your tank. Yo need to do 50% water changes everyday or every other day to keep it done to 0. If not your snail will most likely die.

Good luck

**mizzoutank** · 10-10-2012, 08:28 PM

+1 to that

is your tank cycled?
what is your maintenance schedule w/ the tank like?

**dski13** · 10-11-2012, 03:27 PM

Thanks for the input. We do 50% water changes every 3 days. I guess I need to increase the frequency to reduce the Ammonia. We do not have a filter on the tank so I was under the impression that it cannot be cycled since the cycling occurs in the filter. Can enough bacteria grow on the rocks to cycle? The betta is happy and he makes bubble nests and everything.

**KevinVA** · 10-11-2012, 03:49 PM

Try adding a sponge filter. You can build nitrobacteria that way. They can be small enough to be non-obtrusive and won't bother your betta. You won't be able to build up enough bacteria on the rocks to make a difference.