I Think My Snail is Dead
I'm trying to keep it together, but my Black Mystery Snail, barely in this house for a month, may be dead and I'm devastated just thinking about the prospect.
I know nothing about snails nor do I have much knowledge about their lifespan. I know that they're dirt cheap at the pet store and I can only assume that means a month is a good long time for a Black Mystery Snail. I mean really, the Macaws can live 90 years and they're thousands of dollars.
The shell has been sitting motionless at the bottom of the tank for hours now. I lifted him out of the water and there was in fact a snail still in there. But not seeing any movement since then doesn't give me much hope that my beloved snail is still among us.
Funny thing, I can find all sorts of info about snails online and yet there's no info to tell you how to recognize a dead snail. Does anybody really know anything about these guys? All I know is that I have been fascinated by his mighty snailness ever since he showed up and NOW I have to start thinking about whether or not I should replace him. Not good. Not good at all.
I'll be sure to keep you posted. April is trying to claim she's seen a difference in his placement (at the bottom of the tank) but I think she's just trying to protect my feelings. I'd do the same thing if her cat Phil died. "No honey, Phil has been sleeping with his legs straight up in the air for weeks now. You just haven't noticed because you've been working so hard lately."
5 Comments:
See Randy, I think we're going to get along just fine. LOL!
Doyle, he's been one very active snail ever since he arrived. He'd tool around that tank eating algae and showing off his snaily goodness every chance he got. Not...nothing! I suppose he could be sleeping, ETERNALLY!!!
I'm trying not to think about it until tomorrow morning. If he hasn't moved by then I am just going to leave his lifeless, uh, shell in there to scare the shit out of my goldfish!
9:52 PM
We've had our snail for a year and a half and he's huge. He needs more than just algae, we feed ours a slice of cucumber every two days. Also sometimes he goes into his shell for a day or two, sometimes he'll just float around the tank for a while. We thought he had died a couple times but he comes back hungrier than ever. If you lift him out of the water and he smells really bad then he's probably dead
10:32 AM
Now there's some info I can use! Very cool. I'll do the "smell test". Didn't know about the cucumber thing. We've been using the flake food and algae as recommended by the folks at the pet store. But if there's some movement after awhile, now that I know they occasionally stay inside for no apparent reason, I've got a glimmer of hope.
Otherwise...another new snail for me (after an appropriate mourning period, of course)
10:45 AM
I hope your snail comes out of his self induced coma. I find the little guys interesting but I don't understand how people xcan eat them. If I had a religion it would have a dietary rule to not eat a creature that walks on its face. Same with clams, man. They walk with their tongues. Tongues that go walking will never touch mine. That would have to be the second commandment in the Church of Bud.
1:17 PM
Thanks for your support, Bud. I'm with you on the walking with your face thing...but snails are mighty tasty! Clams are good too.
I subscribe to my wife's theory about andimals and food. If they come to me in meat form then I eat them. If they come to me in pet form I pet them...wait, I mean I don't eat them.
This has taken a rather dark turn.
No profile on you, Bod. How did you find this site?
Thanks for commenting!
1:46 PM
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