Mystery snails are quite unpredictable and curious pets to keep. One minute they’re roaming around, laying eggs, and eating snello, and the next minute you find them completely still in odd positions. It’s pretty normal to be freaked out by your mystery snail numerous times during your journey together. With every stage of their lives, new pranks are waiting to ambush you. However, how do you know your pet is pranking you and not truly dead?
The easiest way to tell if your mystery snail is dead is by monitoring or sniffing it. Snails will move and respond to touch when you poke them, which would notify you that your pet is alive. There’s also a funky smell that comes along with a dead snail, and when you can’t perceive it, it means your snail is simply resting or aestivating.
At the end of this discussion, you’ll be able to avoid getting pranked by your snail pet and prevent sudden unfortunate incidents that can happen along the way.
The 9 Major Situations That Kill Mystery Snails
You could be doing everything right by the books and still fall into unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances that can cost your snail’s life. It happens to the best of us! Here are incidents that would absolutely kill your pet:
1. Wrong Water Parameters
Your mystery snail’s environment heavily contributes to its wellness and lifespan. If you’re getting the parameters wrong, your pet won’t last a month under your care. You must ensure that the pH, oxygen levels, ammonia, and nitrite levels are correct for your snail to thrive. Other elements like iron and nickel must also be tested, especially if your mystery snails cohabit with other animals of different species. There are test kits to help determine the exact parameters of the water where your snail lives, and measures to adjust the environment to a healthy and safe one for your pet, which I will discuss later in the article.
2. The Wrong Diet
Some people often mistake mystery snails for herbivores, while others may assume the snails can survive on algae grown in the tank alone. These are all grievous mistakes that can cost your pet’s life. While your snail may eat algae, they are not major algae eaters like nerite snails, and will sooner or later starve from the lack of proper feeding. Mystery snails need a balanced diet of plants and animal products to survive, and neglecting either option will lead to your pet falling sick and dying.
3. Dangerous Cleaning Products
Strong cleaning products that are used to ‘disinfect’ the tank during grooming can kill your mystery snails. Cleaning products with sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate and sodium thiosulfate are toxic to snails, and although they may kill off bacteria, they can disrupt your pet’s immune system, leading to rather sudden deaths after a while of living in the polluted water. You must rinse the tank thoroughly, cycle it properly, and give it a few days to regulate its parameters if you must use cleaning products to wipe the surfaces or decor of your snail’s home.
4. Aquatic Salts
Aquatic salts are simple salts that are used to deter parasitic invasions in aquatic habitats. However, while the environment may be conducive for fish, mystery snails are put in danger of living in the same space. Sodium is toxic to snails and will kill them along with the parasite if care is not taken. The only way to use aquarium salts safely without harming your mystery snails is by moving them to a temporary tank until you replace the proper living conditions of the original tank. Snails cannot live in saline environments.
5. Parasitic Infections
Water mites, flukes, and leeches are common parasites that latch themselves to mystery snails, causing them immense stress and malnutrition. If this goes unnoticed, it could weaken your pet and eventually lead to its death. The major problem with parasites is that they’re difficult to control and would require you to manually remove them from your snail with tweezers. It’s a delicate and painful process to watch, but with patience, you’ll get the nasty pests off of your snail.
6. Copper-Based Treatments
Have you been introducing aquarium medication into your tank? Well, copper-based treatments are used as parasite control in tanks that mostly have fish inhabiting them, and you may think that your mystery snail wouldn’t mind the treatment either. Unfortunately, copper is toxic to mystery snails, and treating your tank with the mineral will lead to drastic results. This also goes for copper-laced items, perhaps on decorative objects submerged in the tank. Mystery snails may suffer from the copper and die in the long run.
7. Blunt Force Trauma
Mystery snails have a habit of crawling out of their tanks when they need air or need to lay eggs. During this quest, your snail may wander off too far and fall off the edge of the tank, hurting their delicate shells and leading to their doom. In some cases, the snail may survive, but this is one of the overlooked dangers of keeping pet mystery snails.
8. Carnivorous Tankmates
Meat-eating fish like bettas are not safe to have around your mystery snail. They will nip at and steal chunks off your pet until it either dies of stress or gets eaten completely. Bettas may appear docile, but they still have their animalistic instincts and will not hold back from attacking your mystery snail.
9. Dirty Living Environment
Mystery snails eat and poop a lot, which requires frequent tank cleaning. Without cleaning the tank, your pet’s health is bound to decline due to the accumulation of feces and spiking ammonia levels. Depending on how many snails or co-habitants you have in the tank, a good amount of cycling could be done every other day or bi-weekly to keep the ammonia levels down.
Specific Ways To Keep Your Mystery Snail From Dying — Tips And Solutions!
To keep your mystery snail safe and ensure it lives its fullest life, there are certain measures you must adhere to, as follows:
Ensure Correct Water Parameters
For your snail to thrive, it requires its home to be safe to live in. The water parameters are the most important part of your snail’s survival, and everything else comes after it. The table below gives you a direct picture of what your snail needs:
| Parameters | Ideal Range |
|---|---|
| Temperature | 70 – 80 (°F) |
| pH | 7.6 – 8.0 |
| Ammonia (NH3/NH4+) | 0 |
| Nitrite (NO2-) | 0 |
| Nitrate (NO3-) | 0 |
| Copper (Cu) | 0 |
| Water hardness | 150 – 300 ppm |
| Salinity | 0 |
API liquid test kits are easy and reliable methods to measure and keep track of water parameters. When the numbers are incorrect or not conducive for your snail buddy, here’s what to do:
- Water pH. Crushed corals do wonders in keeping the pH level up. You can crush up a few, tie them in a netted pouch, and place them in the tank. Ensure that you test the pH levels until the desired number is met.
- Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. As long as snails poop, there will be ammonia in the tank. The good bacteria in the tank help to break down ammonia to nitrite and then nitrates, which the snails can consume. To lower these levels to zero, you must invest in a durable filter that helps cycle the water and also perform daily 20% water changes until ammonia levels drop. Avoid replacing the entire water as this could destroy the good bacteria, leading to more ammonia buildup.
- Water Hardness. If the water hardness is too low, it simply means there aren’t enough minerals in it for your snail, most importantly calcium. You need to throw in cuttlefish bone to elevate the mineral levels so that your snail doesn’t become deficient.
Apply Tank Anti-Escape Reinforcement
Since mystery snails are prone to slipping away to their doom, ensure that the top of the tank is covered with mesh material that can restrict your snail from falling over but allow airflow. Snails like to float to the surface for air and egg-laying and can sometimes get distracted and wander over the tank to their doom.
Keep Peaceful Co-Inhabitants
Never place aggressive fish such as bettas, loaches, cichlids, and puffers in the same tank as your mystery snail. Tetras and guppies are better and safer options. However, the topic of bettas with mystery snails in the same tank is still being debated. Since some bettas have proven to be peaceful around aquatic snails, it’s difficult to remove them from the ‘safe’ list entirely. Still, it doesn’t negate the fact that they can be dangerous to your snail.
Provide The Right Diet
Proper nutrition is essential for the well-being of your mystery snail. It’s crucial to ensure they receive a balanced diet. Here’s your guide:
- Offer a variety of foods. Provide a mix of plant-based and animal-based foods. This can include blanched vegetables like spinach, zucchini, and lettuce, as well as sinking pellets or algae wafers.
- Avoid overfeeding. Feed your snail small amounts of food at a time, and remove any uneaten food within a few hours to prevent water quality issues.
Ensure Parasite Control
Parasites can sneak into your snail’s aquarium by hitchhiking on the snail itself or the decor you place in the tank. Ensure that you inspect the items you’re putting into the aquarium properly and soak suspicious items in salty water before thoroughly rinsing them and putting them in the tank.
The problem with parasites is that it’s much more difficult to control them because the products meant for the parasites can easily affect your mystery snail. If you have a leech or mite infestation, the only safe option is to quarantine your snails and clean out the entire tank with salt. Sadly, your plants may have to go since they can harbor parasite eggs, but at this point, anything would be worth saving your snails.
5 Strange Habits Mystery Snails Display That Could Mean Anything
Mystery snails are weird but interesting creatures, and based on the context of the situation, some weird habits harbor interpretations that may save your snail’s life. Here goes:
1. Shell Peeping
Mystery snails may display this activity where they look determined to crawl around but would peep and retract into their shells. If you catch your snail doing this, there’s possibly something in the water that it finds irritating. It could be that the salinity has spiked or the environment has become less alkaline than it needs to be. You need to whip out your test kit right away to find out and take measures to solve the problem.
2. Floating Around
It’s normal for mystery snails to float around their tank and let the current carry them, but it could also mean that your pet is ill and too weak to latch onto surfaces. Take a moment to inspect your snail, ensuring that there is no discoloration or dents in its shell. If you discover something wrong, first regulate the water current to ensure it’s set at medium flow and test the water parameters to confirm they’re all correct. This is to rule out the possibility of your snail falling sick from its environment.
3. Foot Folding
While this may look threatening, it’s a pretty normal behavior for mystery snails. I’ve caught my mystery snails folding their feet a thousand times! There is no specific reason why this happens; however, you can catch them folding when they try to protect their morsel of food or when they’re simply cleaning themselves.
4. Laying On Their Side
For some strange unknown reason, mystery snails can simply decide to rest and enter a stage of temporary lethargy. This rather scary behavior will have them lying on their side, looking rather unable to move properly with you on the other side of the glass wondering or panicking. As long as the snail is not hurt or suffering from its environment, it will get back on its feet with time.
5. Floating Upside Down
Mystery snails can control their buoyancy and can float around as they please. There’s no defined danger attached to this, but they usually display this behavior when they’re introduced to a new environment. If this is the case, allow your snail to get used to the tank, and it will adjust in no time.
How Long Can Mystery Snails Live For?
Mystery snails live for 1-3 years under proper care. If you have just gotten an adult mystery snail, it may be difficult to tell how old it is. However, there are signs that senior mystery snails display that indicate that they’re old, as listed below:
- Less activity such as moving around, pooping, or eating.
- Less foot strength to carry their mantle or attach to surfaces; you’d find your senior snail slipping a lot.
- Paleness around the shell or foot.
- General ‘withering’ of the shell, as you would notice thinning or denting.
- Wrinkly feet.
- Deformed antennas.
- Difficulty fighting currents or flipping themselves to the right side when they get turned over.
Why Is My Snail Not Moving Even If It’s Not Dead?
Similar to hibernation, snails go through phases called aestivation, which is a state of inactivity during periods of lack. If your snail senses a negative change in its environment, such as a lack of resources, a change in temperature, or extreme stress, it will preserve its energy by simply going to sleep until the conditions are back to normal. One way to differentiate between aestivation and death is by sniffing your snail. If the smell makes you gag, the snail has perished. Usually, they wouldn’t respond to touch when they’re aestivating (unless they’re in pain), or when they have sadly passed away.
