what could do this??

I have been noticing something very strange the last few days....

Yesterday i noticed a snail (turbo) that was missing it shell. it was still attached to the glass and suprisingly still alive.

Today i see 2 more snails same story.....are these snails dropping their shells or is something predatory in my tank ripping them off.

I have a picture of the snail missing its shell and still climbing the glass in my tank.

in the picture you can see a spiral looking thing attached to the snail by a long purple colored stringy thing. The spiral is not the shell but what was inside the shell.

the snails shell is directly beneath it on the substrate

any ideas? anyone seen this before?

 

weird!

 

I know!

That snail is still trucking along like nothing happened...

 

mantis shrimp maybe, is anything else being attack like that ?

 

If it was a predator wouldn't it have ate the snail?

 

nothing that i have noticed so far....I am missing a cleaner shrimp tho upon further inspection....

 

I would assume so...the shell is whole, laying on the substrate beneath it. I dont even understand how its still alive with its guts hanging out, and how it managed to come out of the shell and not be killed.

 

It's a stress event.

Something in your water parameters are waaaaay off. I'd guess really high nitrates.

 

lol you beat me to it evolved

snail and shrimps are your frontline when something is off in your tank. they are the first to go

 

+1 to Evolved and Rawdogz. One might be it got trapped or something tried to grab it, several is a water issue of some kind.