My mystery snail keeps floating!

[NilsBaees]

The title says it all. I know that floating is a natural (and mysterious) habit of brigs, but this time I don't think she meant to float. She's completely out of her shell looking for something to grab on to. However, the current is pretty strong and she can hardly get more than a feeler on something. So I intervene and hold her close to a tank wall, so she gets her foot flat and starts crawling again, but then she lets go to gently drift down to the bottom, and poof! she bounces right back up. So I think there must be some kind of air bubble trapped inside. Probably from when she came out of the water to lay a clutch. I held her upside down, and a few bubbles came out, but when i let go of her and she doesn't have full grip on a leaf yet, her shell spins right up to the surface. I even held her upside down for a few minutes straight, so she could get her foot and head stretched ALL the way out looking for something to hold on to (and therefore creating more opportunity for any bubbles to come out), but it didn't work. How do I get her to sink (or at least not have enough air inside to follow the current hopelessly)? :help:

Here are links to short videos, and oo! attached pictures of her newly laid clutch, half the size of any clutch she's laid before (any idea to why this might be?) and then it sitting forlornly below the frozen beef in the freezer.

Video 1: hopelessly floating
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8109340@N06/3649345338

Video 2: got a hold of the filter box, but couldn't hold on. So she comes crashing into me (or the camera view).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8109340@N06/3648561461/

 

[BettaFishMommy]

i have briggs that will do that once in a while. in fact, just had a blue finish it's 3 day float today and lay a clutch for me this evening. i swear, they do it just to stress their humans.....lol.

you might try putting a breeder box (net or plastic) in a top corner of the tank that doesn't have a lot of flow, and put the snail in there. she will have more of a chance of grabbing on if the water flow isn't knocking her about the tank. once she grabs on to part of the breeder box, she should be able to just crawl out over the top, and along the outside of the breeder box and onto whatever tank surface is nearby. remove breeder box.

another way (and a way i've used a few times) is to use a small net and corral the floater in a corner of the tank. bend the net handle over the edge of the tank so that net and snail don't go floating away. eventually, the snail will do the same as with the breeder box idea and find a surface to hang on to and then go about it's merry usual way.

 

[NilsBaees]

haha. maybe its some kind of motherly ritual :grinyes:

I used a net. It worked! She's down and about now, thanks