So today I put my Mystery Snail through a painful death.

VippiN

Pro*Lifestyle
Dec 23, 2005
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Well it was actually yesterday, but the site was down then, and if I said yesterday the title wouldn't be so dramatic.

So i'm doing an entire tank change. First things first, remove all inhabitants. Snail is inhabitant number one. Stuck to the side of the tank I decide to give it some encouragement to move. Grab the shell and move it a bit. Still stuck. Ok, i'll try it a bit harder.

Oh ****. The top of the shell pops off the body. Though doesn't seem injured at all.

So quickly I run to here. Great, down. Applesnail.com is next up. I read something about that if a muscle is torn that holds the snail onto the shell it's basically going to die a painful death.

So by the time i've read this, i've gone back to the aquarium and the snail is on the gravel, with about 3/4 of itself hanging out it's shell.

So it's been in the freezer ever since.

What i'm so upset/pissed/annoyed about is I hardly even touched the thing, and this muscle tore. I'd be shocked if this muscle could stand any type of pulling from a predator.

So for future reference how do we remove these snails from sides of aquariums? It did not want to budge.
 
The best way that I have found to remove the snail is by placing bits of algae wafers next to it. As the snail moves to eat the algae, his grip weakens, and then I can go about my business. Also, having lots of rocks with age helps, because the snail will spend the majority of his time there, and you can simply move the rock the snail is on to another location in the tank wile you do your maintenance stuff.
 
You meanie.... :rant2: No, not really. I know you meant no harm to the snail.

I've pulled snails from the shell the romove them from the glass, but I don't pull them rgiht from the glass. I start sliding them back and forth until they get loose. Maybe your was a little weak, or you just had bad luck. I'd really love to hear another way tu pull a snail.
 
Roan Art said:
Just tap the shell a couple of times lightly with your finger.
Roan

I don't know why but this method seems like humiliating to the snail. :huh:
Don't ask me why, please, don't
 
JustLooking said:
Nothing more humiliating than loosing yr shell,sorry

Naked in thew tank.... not good
 
not possible

patoloco said:
I don't know why but this method seems like humiliating to the snail. :huh:
Don't ask me why, please, don't

I don't think it's possible to humiliate a snail.
 
I don't know if you are still having trouble with it or not, but I figured I would post. I could always move mine if I put my finger near the snail, he would always back up into his shell and I could put him anywhere in the tank I wanted.
 
I've always been scared to just pull snails off the walls of the tank, I've always been scared of that happening but I didn't know it could.
 
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