[Resolved] Snail Problem :-(

One of my giant snails (I do not actuallly know the proper name) seems to have a BIG problem. He is very large, about 1 inch + and he seems to have fallen out of his shell? He looks very bad and he is just hanging on to the the shell with a small strand. What is the problem? I cannot get a picture at the moment. I thought he could possibly be starving because I recently added a lot of snails form reefcleaners to beef up my CUC. I just added pellets for the snails and hermits to eat and I will do this every week to ensure they get enough food. Are algae pellets/wafers sufficient?
Thanks
JJL

 

i believe its dying and maybe starved i would test my water tho asap and take the snail out

 

Would it really affect the water quality?
It is a 34 gallon cube.
That is bad news to hear, but thanks anyway
JJL

 

Sorry for your loss =[

 

Thanks for the kind words, but he is not dead. He is still alive and on the back wall of the tank. He is hanging on to his shell with a thread. He does not look good, but should I take him out?
Could he pose a threat to my water quality. I do not want to kill him, but if is too late should I take him out anyway?

 

Nope, don't take him out. There have been cases where snails have lost their shells and lived for years, but only in tanks where nothing can bother them. It's a pathological condition, occasionally caused by some disease but usually because the snail twisted itself or someone twisted it to move it. If the attachment point in the spire gets ripped loose, there is no way the snail can stay in its shell. It can't reattach, but about the worst that will happen is that your cleanup crew will eat it. If you are really devoted to the snail, you could put him in a small tank by himself and hope for the best. On the reef or in a reef tank, the condition is usually terminal since it has lost almost all of its natural protection.

Cheers,



Don

 

but... if your tank is small enough that you think it might pose a problem for one snail to die (and potentially decompose), you probably will want to move him out of your display tank, especially if you don't have a cleanup crew that will eat him if he dies.

 

Thanks for the help, Don, but I ended up just taking him out. He was a BIG snail and my tank is a 34 gallon reef so I think it would have been a big risk leaving him in there. Also it seemed as if some of the tissue from his body was decaying off
I was not happy to take him out, but I did what had to be done, and I think that was best for the snail also.
Thanks again
JJL

 

Sorry to hear, you did the right thing.

 

Thanks, 2in10. That is really reassuring