margarita snails

What behavoirs do you notice before one might be ready to die? We have one barely sticking to the tank glass today.

 

That would be it. What temp do you have them at? They are cold water snails.

 

The temp is 72 and all parameters are great. Other two margaritas are okay.

 

Not all the snails will react the same, even within the same species. So, you can't rule something out based on what the others are doing. IMO, the fate of the snails in our tanks is largely based on what happened between "there" and "here". I can treat them like newborn babies and they still turn over and die. Other times I've tossed them in from across the room and they've lived forever.... 10 years forever, so far. It has to be based on where that particular one came from and how they were treated along the way. Bought at the same time at the LFS doesn't mean same stock.

Your snails are acting shocky. Some get over it, some don't. If you have hermits, try to protect them.

 

Thanks for your help. The one margarita snail appears to have become disengaged from the shell at the point of attachment hence, it hasn't moved. Should I put him out of his misery?

 

How were you going to do that exactly? Give it a bit of time and see if he'll recover.

 

It almost sounds like the snail in question was firmly attached to something (tank panel, rock, etc) and was removed too forcefully, which basically "pulled it out of its shell" (not quite OUT, but you get the idea). This could be why two of them seem fine and the snail in question isn't doing so well...

As Renee mentioned, it will either recover or die...just keep an eye on it. If you're unsure as to whether it's dead, give it a sniff...you'll know immediately.

 

In answer to your response, Greg, no one has tried to forcibly remove the snail from any object. He's still alive despite not having eaten for two days. I picked up a small floating 3 way breeder/isolation tank and placed him in it with some algae wafer bits. I don't have the heart to put him to sleep as someone from the pet store recommended to place it in the freezer. Yikes..

 

If nobody removed the snail from an object, how did the LFS remove it from their tank to bag it? How was it collected from the ocean? The only way I know to collect snails is to remove them from whatever they're crawling on, which requires "pulling them off" somehow.

You did mention that it looks like the snail is no longer attached well in its shell. I'm suggesting that this may have happened somewhere along the way while the snail was being caught or transferred, not necessarily your doing.

I was simply offering a possible reason for what you've seen...

 

I got some margaritas in my 20 gallon frag tank. They look dead one day and then the next they are speeding around the tank. Sometimes they will detach their shells if some levels are off. When I over dosed my frag tank on magnesium I lost like 3 snails.